Is this the true reason?

It's hard to be sure, of course. But: (1) even in large cities in the country where I live the rate of serous crime is low, and the regions of those cities where the rate is higher are not the more "resource-rich" regions; (2) most likely I fear violent crime more than I should on the basis of its frequency; certainly everything I've seen suggests that most of us do. If #2 still bothers you, though, please pretend that I wrote "need have essentially no fear".

[EDITED to fix a typo.]