Crime was absolutely horrendous. You could have a good life, but defending it was rough . Vietnam brought home a bunch of deranged people.
You had absolute lunatics like Richard Ramirez, Jeffrey Dahmer or Manson just randomly breaking into homes and executing everyone. Like you literally could not stop them or catch them unless you caught them in the act. Folks like Ramirez were taught to be serial killers from their deranged relatives returning from Vietnam. Rape was like an Olympic sport to the Ramirez or Dahmer types and most murderers got away with it.
Dont even get me started on the gang violence. Even before crack, you had black heroine gangs, Italian Mafia cocaine gangs, and whole extortion rings by Russians, Irish, arian bikers, triads, etc.