STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Staten Island has a reputation as a bit of a sleepy backwater, particularly when compared to our more urban fellow boroughs. It's bucolic out here, almost rural in some areas. We're known for deer and parkland.

It's not for nothing that they call us "Small Town U.S.A." or "Staten Island U.S.A."

But looks can sometimes be deceiving, because Staten Island is surely not immune to the tribulations that hit towns of our size. Don't forget: There are around half a million people here on the Rock. That's the population of a small city.

And we sometimes get hit hard by city mayhem, as we've seen here over the last couple of days.

To say it's been bloody would be an understatement.

Last Thursday, Anthony Perretti was stabbed to death in a business area on Industrial Loop in Rossville. Richard Gambale was arrested a few days later.

Police said a dispute about money owed sparked the stabbing, according to published reports. Police said the suspect in the stabbing also has ties to organized crime, the Daily News said.

Well, Staten Island has also been called organized crime's bedroom in the past, so who would be surprised if that's how this case turned out? I mean, the show is called "Mob Wives," after all.

On Saturday, police said that Christina Quinones stabbed her boyfriend, Ruben Jimenez, to death in an apartment in the Todt Hill Houses complex.

There have been accusations that Quinones, a mother of three, had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her beau. Police also said that a phone call from another woman received by Jimenez may have set off the stabbing.

Then there has been the mayhem on our roads.

Florence Bucholtz, 62, died after her car hit a hydrant in Oakwood early Friday morning.

Rolando Ramos, 40, of New Jersey, died after flipping his van on the West Shore Expressway and being ejected from the vehicle.

And motorcyclist Randy Raia died after losing control of his bike on a dangerous turn on Hylan Boulevard at Barclay Avenue. He was just 20.

Meanwhile, a man was found engulfed in flames in West Brighton on Saturday (he lived), and another man was found hanging dead from a tree in the woods in Great Kills on Monday.

That's a pretty heavy toll of violence for a five-day span. And we've already had two non-fatal shootings in the first three weeks of the month.

And it's worth noting that January's mayhem follows on the heels of a year in which shootings were up on Staten Island. A year when murder was up on the North Shore even though murder was down overall on the Island.

It was a year when the borough was rattled by the arrest of a Mariners Harbor man who had pledged loyalty to ISIS and had allegedly conspired with others to attack New York City landmarks. The cell held meetings on the Island.

Staten Islanders may like to see themselves as living in a small town. Many fled here from other boroughs or cities where crime and urban problems were more endemic.

But we can't forget that even amid its small-town vibe, Staten Island is still susceptible to big-city problems.