Are the risks for being robbed (of goods, cameras, watches, ...) with personal injury peripheral, or is there a direct intent to harm, rape, murder?

I'm just back from Quito, where I heard similar not as intense warnings. I stayed close to my hotel, carried nothing of significant value, felt personally safe at the markets, ... A laptop was stolen from a hotel, from the seat next to mine at the conference I was attending, during lunch break when the delegate entrance to the room was locked.

Sylvia