Urban v. suburban kids

How do the violent crime statistics compare? I'm from a smaller town so when I moved to IL the city was too big for me. Suburbia was a better fit.

This snippet was from an article on housing, so I don't know about violent crime.

The global village has some distinct disadvantages.

I've been working in a rehab kinda world for over 25 years now. Small town and suburban kids were always known to be the drinkers. Those special drinking and diving, and drinking and driving injuries are disproportionately found in the burbs and small towns.

Probably because the kids are so bored. I grew up in the suburbs, so I know...

Amen, D'art. (Me, too.)

Ah, but why were you bored?

Little stimulus in the environment: tract housing, strip malls, the big city so close and yet so far. One is thrown on one's own resources for entertainment. Which for many kids means nothing but trouble.

I grew up in rural California. Was a methamphet hotbed even then. You could get pretty much any drug you wanted so long as whoever was holding trusted you just a little bit. Figured that was typical of country living in the U.S.

Out here in Wisconsin, though, it turns out that it's not so prevalent (at least, it's not much in the consciousness of the WI-born-and-raised that I know). Kids here drink like wee fishes, though.

Not sure why anyone would think that suburban kids use drugs (or have sex) any less than urban kids do. Hell, the kids in the 'burbs generally have money and cars -- they should be leading the way dark, druggy night...

In Allen Park, Michigan, where I went to high school (near suburb of Detroit), the kids would drive to Toledo, Ohio to drink 3-2 beer. I always refused to go because I was afraid that there would be an accident and that my mother would find out. I must have been either too old for my age or a pessimist.

The problem is that drinking doesn't relieve boredom. This is from a woman who has an almost nightly glass of wine.

Perhaps. I find, though, that a drink or two makes boredom more palatable...

Certainly, a glass or two makes inactivity more enjoyable...

But, kids get drunk for the sake of getting drunk. That's not fun.

I thought it was. It ain't now, but it was then. (Drinking was more of a novelty than getting high, though.)