Crime in the UK is lets just say not getting any better these days, but the scale of crime is not really comparable to that of the USA. I wouldn't say hip-hop culture is the main cause (not really sure how you could measure the 'us hip-hop' contribution to the level of danger within London), I'd say that socio-economic causes are one of the main reasons. And if anything it was Hollywood that glamorised the thug lifestyle: Scarface, Godfather and Goodfellas don't exactly promote legitimate work over living the get rich die trying kind of lifestyle. To try and tackle the question in the title: Is London more dangerous than New York? It depends on what makes a city more dangerous? What kind of variables could we include to analyse the question? Do the homicide statistics give us an indicator of danger? Based on those: London had 117 murders in the 12 months ending march 2010. New York city had 471 murders in the 2009 calendar year. The Bronx had 113 murders in 2009. The bronx is like 1/6th the population of London. Compare the homicide rate in London with any random middle American city, say Cincinnati which has like 1/20th of the population of London yet Cincinnati had 60 homicides last year (slightly more than half that of London). So I'd say New York was more dangerous than London is based on the homicide statistics.