What are the safety issues with international travel? There are many wonderful things about the United States, but statistically speaking you are safer in most of the world in terms of personal safety than you are in much of the United States.
The thing to keep in perspective is that the United States is a relatively violent and dangerous country. I don't say that out of some desire to cast judgments. I live here and I choose to live here. There are many wonderful things about the United States, but statistically speaking you are safer in most of the world in terms of personal safety than you are in much of the United States. People shouldn't assume that it is going to be either more difficult or more dangerous for themselves or their kids to travel abroad than it would be to stay home or to travel around within the States.
There is crime against travelers, but in most of the world that crime stems from the fact that the travelers tend to be wealthier than most local people and so most of that crime tends to be economic crime: purse snatching, robbery from hotel rooms, this sort of thing. Very few of the robbers are armed. In the United States, on the other hand, a higher proportion of the crime is personal violence rather than simply property crime. So a high crime rate may or may not translate into in a real level of personal danger.
There are lots of things you can do to protect yourself against property crime. I keep money other than a little bit of cash and certainly any valuable papers in a safe in the hotel room. I carry cash in a money belt or somewhere else that's concealed under my clothes and I would never go into in public. I do that in New York or Chicago just as much as I when I am in Jakarta. This isn't just for traveling abroad, but a lot of people don't think about it when they are traveling in their own country.
If I am in my home city I know which are the dangerous places and I have a feel for people. The further afield you go even within the country much less abroad, the less you can rely on your gut feel and your instincts. To some degree you have less basis for interpreting whether the collection of people around you are dangerous and threatening or not. You have to be a little more careful in a culturally different way.
I keep my money out of sight. I don't go into my money belt or wherever I have it stashed in public. The other thing I do is always carry a wallet with some expired or fake credentials that look official, but don't really mean anything. They aren't valuable to a thief and don't cost me anything if they are lost. Things like expired frequent flyer cards or a library card and enough cash to look plausible. If a thief demands my wallet, I have a wallet to hand over and if they glance at it they see the money and the cards and they are on their way. I have had my pocket picked and I was able to shrug my shoulders and go about my trip. I lost $50 worth of local currency and I had to get a new fake wallet, but my real valuables were still safe and sound. If the thief comes to you and you say you have no money, they are not going to believe that you have nothing at all. So, that is a little trick that often gives the thief what they want so they will be on their way without hurting you.
