Are we getting too complacent about crime?

Nobody asked me, but... are we as a country getting complacent about crime in New Zealand?
Every day there seems to be another report of a vicious, unprovoked murder or similar, senseless heinous act somewhere in the country. Yet while some people do express outrage, the vast majority of us appear to shrug our collective shoulders and carry on - apparently accepting this as a normal part of everyday life in New Zealand.
Just this week we have seen the murder of young Christchurch mother and the court case up north where a 15 year-old boy is on trial for murdering a 15-year old girl. Over the last few years, the likes of Graham Burton, William Bell, Antoine Dixon and Clayton Weatherston have gained infamy and notoriety as callous, ruthless killers. Yet, they are just four names from a long and depressing list of murderers who fill our prisons up and down the country.
We may tut-tut and feign mock disgust with our neighbours and friends at how these scumbags could do such horrible things.
While for all intense purposes most of New Zealand has become so accustomed to horrific crime that we are no longer shockable. Yet while this appears to be the case in our bigger cities, not is all lost.
It is nice to know that in some parts of New Zealand petty crime is seen as so unacceptable that it makes the local paper. I was scanning the internet the other day and came across the online version of my old hometown newspaper the Timaru Herald. I was somewhat amused by, but also heartened to see, the paper had printed a police notebook with incidents reported to police in Timaru during the weekend of 12 - 14 February 2010. Some of these included:
Friday 12
- A 16-year-old Timaru girl has been referred to Youth Aid after allegedly stealing a set of false eyelashes from Farmers in Stafford St.
- A 33-year-old Timaru man was arrested for breaching the liquor ban on Stafford St.
- A 30-year-old Timaru man was arrested for assault outside a drinking establishment in town after accosting a bouncer.
Saturday
- A 38-year-old Timaru man was arrested for intoxication outside a property on Angland Ave. He may also face possible possession of cannabis charges.
- Police are making inquiries after two men were spotted trying to steal a licence plate from a car.
- There was a burglary in Sefton St, with a guitar worth $3500 stolen.
Sunday
- A 20-year-old Timaru man was arrested for offensive behaviour.
- A vehicle parked in Harper St was damaged overnight.
- A 13-year-old Timaru boy was referred to Youth Aid after a shoplifting incident last night.
While the so-called metropolitan sophisticates in Auckland and Wellington may scoff at the small town feel and content of Timaru's police notebook. I for one take some pride in the fact that the people of my old home town care enough to report and read such misdemeaners.
Perhaps if those scoffers in the big cities took more time to worry about the petty crime in the neighbourhoods and suburbs of their towns the current list of notorius and multiple killers in this country might be just that much shorter!
If they say it takes a village to raise a child - then perhaps it takes a city or town to stop a murderer!