You have said that human threats are more of a problem where there are fewer humans than where there are are more humans. Surely you have to concede that that is implausible, or at least counterintuitive, on its face.
Cities mean a higher density of criminals and targets, in equal proportion, so all else equal the probability of being targeted should remain about the same; but it also means authorities and witnesses are closer. In a city, you can scream for help and expect people to come; in a rural setting, you can’t.
Cities mean a higher density of criminals and targets, in equal proportion, so all else equal the probability of being targeted should remain about the same;
The more people you come across, the more likely you are to run into someone bad; and this doesn’t even take into account what can happen when people—thus in particular bad people—get together in groups.
It’s possible that the nice-ifying effects of large populations on human behavior could cancel out the bad effects. But it’s not obvious that they do—and it’s certainly not obvious that the former exceed the latter. The default presumption would be that people who live in ancestral-type environments face a variety of threats, both human and natural; and that as people move into larger population centers, the threats they face become less natural and more human.
Cities mean a higher density of criminals and targets, in equal proportion, so all else equal the probability of being targeted should remain about the same; but it also means authorities and witnesses are closer. In a city, you can scream for help and expect people to come; in a rural setting, you can’t.
The more people you come across, the more likely you are to run into someone bad; and this doesn’t even take into account what can happen when people—thus in particular bad people—get together in groups.
It’s possible that the nice-ifying effects of large populations on human behavior could cancel out the bad effects. But it’s not obvious that they do—and it’s certainly not obvious that the former exceed the latter. The default presumption would be that people who live in ancestral-type environments face a variety of threats, both human and natural; and that as people move into larger population centers, the threats they face become less natural and more human.