In America, neighborhoods run the gamut of being completely crime free to being insidiously crime infested, and those that live in problematic neighborhoods are placed into the unenviable position of determining what is best for them to do in order to maintain the integrity of their person, their property, and their family. This thus means, that in some neighborhoods, certain houses take on the aura of appearing to be a sort of prison, with bars on their windows, alarms, security cameras, as well as iron bars on their doors. This may, in fact, make those people that live within those residences, safer; but at a cost of being in danger of not being able to successfully escape from a fire or earthquake hazard in the sense of being trapped inside their home, as well as being isolated within their homes and therefore not actively engaged in their neighborhood, thereby leaving the streets to be effectively controlled by those that are creating the problems of the neighborhood crime or dangers, in the first place.
Whereas, one possible solution would be to have police patrols working more frequently in these neighborhoods, that often is not going to be the go-to solution, for in many of these neighborhoods, the police are not usually perceived as protecting and serving the residents, but rather are often more seen as exacerbating the poor conditions within those neighborhoods. So that, in effect, the streets are left in control of those that operate upon those streets, even though they are few in number; but because the vast majority of the population as a whole appear content or resigned to living within their homes, and treat thereby the outside as an ever present danger, this becomes the result, for when a vacuum is created, it is going to be filled with something, and in this situation, it is filled with those non-desirable elements.
This essentially means that those that live within those homes of barred windows and barred doors simply exist within that construct, without making any real attempt to ameliorate that situation for the better. It is a shame that children, as well as the adults, are effectively confined within their homes all of their free time, and have foregone outlets to express themselves as well as to see and to enjoy the world, because of it. This signifies that such isolation, really does take on the aura of being imprisoned, even though these good people have done nothing to be deserving of any form of imprisonment.
So then, for residents of areas in which crime is very prevalent, of which they are too fearful to venture out even onto their front porch, they do suffer, and are fundamentally living reduced lives of existence, without a lot of hope or opportunity for change. The solution, however, is never going to be more law and order, but rather the only possible answer is to get to the root of the problem, which is that enclaves of poverty, consisting of ill education, lack of living wage employment opportunity, dysfunctional families, and the lack of capital, must be met with a reinvigorated infrastructure that will provide revitalization for these impoverished neighborhoods; for in neighborhoods in which good people fear to tread, no good progress can ever be made until they are able to envision and to experience a bright and a more promising future.