Still, there's danger everywhere, even the nicest neighborhoods. W is in a LOT more danger now than she ever was then. In a perfect neighborhood right next to her parents. And I think she realizes that and it's bugging the hell out of her.
Well, I'm of two minds about this. Jon, you are probably correct that she is in more danger than she believes, and she is also probably safer than you at first would think.
I have some fairly recent personal experience with the ways that the drug subculture exists in parallel to the white bread culture and what can happen at the places where they touch.
So, having just gotten out of jail, there isn't a lot of upside for James to cause trouble, especially to people like your W who aren't afraid to go to the authorities at the first sign of trouble. So, to that degree, it's probably safer than it might appear at first. However, James is from a subculture where time in jail is just part of life and it is not inconceivable that your wife and roommate could get caught up in the issues between James and the landlord.
Add to this that it sounds like your W doesn't have much experience dealing with this subculture, she most likely believes that the unspoken rules and expectations of middle class America apply universally, and they don't. This could conceivably lead to a bad situation, but, I would expect that more with whitebread in a fringe area rather than a fringe member in a whitebread area.
There is one more thing I want to mention and it has two roots. Your W will have trouble accepting advice from you in this situation for two reasons. First, there is the proximity problem which is that even if you were a world recognized expert, because you are her H, she would believe Reader's Digest first. Second, is that for her to accept advice from you implies that she is not competent or in control in this situation. Since the most probable outcome of things is that the situation resolves itself with nothing bad happening, it will tend to reinforce her belief that you were over-reacting and that she was correct. You are very much in a no win situation. The way that you are proven right is for something bad to happen and if nothing bad happens, then your W will believe that she handled things well, not understanding that it was only by God's grace and the roll of probability that things worked out well.
