Here in Britain there's a 4 year sentence for being caught carrying a knife, i don't know the details. A man got killed with a gun basically on my girlfriend's doorstep, and I've been very close to several muggings. I once had my torch-lighter taken because I lent it to some guy to light his ciggarettes, which was admittedly my own stupid fault.
A fun story of me being approached by a mugger a few years ago:
Him: Lend me a pound (our currency), mate!
Me: I don't have any money (I did have money, but by pure chance it was in my pocket and not in my wallet so I assumed I was safe)
Him: If I find money on you, you know I'm going to hurt you?
Me: ...Yeah...
Him: Shake your blazer! (I was in my school uniform - a nervous looking private school kid, probably didn't help)
Me: *shaking*
Him: Oh... What phone you got?
Me: It's kind of old... *hands him my phone at the time, a Nokia 631 Oi, about 15cm long and possessing games like Snake 2 and Space Impact*
Him: *Pausing to look at it, smiling* That's a good phone, mate! *giving it back*
Having an obselete phone saved me from having it taken.
The punchline is... my MP3 player and flashdrive (also cheap, but worth having) were in my pocket and my laptop was in my bag. The charger for my laptop was in my pocket, so it's just chance he didn't see it.