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Athens Practical Information

Crime in Greece

Crime in Greece is the lowest in Europe and Athens is one of the safest large cities in the world. This is not to say that crime does not exist. It certainly does. There are petty thiefs like pick pockets and purse snatchers. There are hustlers who will entice you into their bars and charge you two-hundred euro for the drink you bought the young lady next to you. There are taxi drivers who will take advantage of your unfamiliarity with the currency and over-charge you. There are people who speed and motor-cycles that take shortcuts through pedestrian-only streets. The most serious crime in Greece is government corruption which goes from the top all the way down to the lowest tax official and civil-servant. There are people who will build illegal villas on public lands and forests and government officials happy to take bribes to allow them to. (In fact if you know the right person to pay or exchange favors you can do just about anything).

But there are few crimes that will do more than inconvenience a visitor to Greece. The murder-rate is very low. In fact most murders are crimes of passion which involve family, lovers, and an occaional neighbor or business partner who has 'done somebody wrong'. There are very few rapes (though one should not test this by being an easy target and walking the back streets at three am, whether you are in Athens or Santorini). Hotel rooms should be locked and important documents and large sums of money should be kept in a safe for piece-of-mind as much as the possibility of a break-in.

Greece is a  safe place to be, for one reason poverty is not at such proportions that more than a handful of people need to resort to desperate measures, as in many other countries. Hopefully it will remain this way. But keep your hand on your wallet and cell phone on the metro and buses and don't wear your backpack or handbag, hold it in front of you with both arms wrapped around it in crowded places. And beware of strangers on the street offering help when you don't appear to need it. And don't take up the nice man's invitation to come to his bar for a drink because he has a cousin or brother in Chicago. And if you take a taxi and have not agreed on a price beforehand (for long distance trips and tours only), make him go by the meter which should be on 1 unless it is between midnight and 6am when they switch to 2.