Dominican republic not so safe?

[mami]

I didn't think the Dominican Republic ranked up there? i don't know about the rest of you but i'm surprised. (i do realize this was published in 2002)


England has worst crime rate in world
By David Bamber, Home Affairs Correspondent
(Filed: 01/12/2002)

England and Wales have the highest crime rate among the world's leading economies, according to a new report by the United Nations.

The survey, which is likely to prove embarrassing to David Blunkett, the Home Secretary. shows that people are more likely to be mugged, burgled, robbed or assaulted here than in America, Germany, Russia, South Africa or any other of the world's 20 largest nations. Only the Dominican Republic, New Zealand and Finland have higher crime rates than England and Wales.

According to the comparison of international crime statistics produced by the UN's Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, England and Wales had 9,766 crimes for every 100,000 people in the year 2000. America had 8,517, South Africa 7,997, Germany 7,621 and Russia 2,022.

During the period 1998-2000, Britain went from fifth to fourth worst in the world league table. An analysis of total recorded crime figures before 1998 also suggests that England and Wales have moved sharply up the league table since Labour came to power in 1997. Crimes fell from 5.5 million in 1993 to 4.5 million in 1997. By 1999, total crimes had risen again to 5.3 million.

Last night Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said: "This does rather blow a hole in David Blunkett's claim that New Labour has crime under control. It is a damning picture."

The UN reports also shows that England and Wales are the second-worst places in the world for assaults, with 851 people assaulted per 100,000, and seventh for burglaries and car theft, with 1,579 burglaries per 100,000 population.

Criminologists believe that a note of caution needs to be introduced into analysis of the data, because of the different ways in which UN member countries record crimes.

A Home Office spokesman said that officials had not yet seen the report and so could not comment.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...01/ixhome.html

[NALs]

This is an odd article.

First the article states that its among the world's leading economies. Such words means, first world.

Every country there is a first world country, except for the DR.

Either, the article author is just picking countries or he is mixing his criteria without telling the reader to confuse them (ie. He first states that its between leading economies and then, includes non leading economies in his report) or he is very familiar with DR1 and the DR (being British, DR is among top destination in Caribbean for them) and he is just using the DR based on what he has read or the statistics are that high.

But, then again, Jamaica and Puerto Rico are worst with crime. Haiti is beyond compare, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil are not as safe, with many of those countries sufering from recurring terrorist attacks almost monthly in some of those nations!

This is hard to believe and its not clear where the author got his info from, as such, it must be taken under the notion that it could be a very slight possibility, but is most likely misinformation.

[swake]

Originally Posted by mami

Only the Dominican Republic, New Zealand and Finland have higher crime rates than England and Wales.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...01/ixhome.html

Crime rampant in New Zealand? In Finland??? I thought The Telegraph was a broadsheet.
I agree with Nal0 on this one.

[Charlie Bebop]

I'd also be will to guess that almost the entire continent of Africa and some of the east block countries have a higher crime rate than the DR. This report seems way off base. I mean I haven't been down to the DR that much, but I felt quite safe when I was.

[susanne]

If I were you I wouldn't worry too much. Crime statistics are a strange thing. For instance, you need to know what kind of crime is registered. Is it violence? Domestic violence? Petty theft? Or what? In some countries certain kind of crimes are not registered or something which is regarded a crime in one country may not be in another - sexual acts are looked upon very differently indeed depending on where you are. So you cannot go by numbers alone.

Then there is the question of who is most likely to be the victim. Are acts of violence on complete strangers a common thing? Or is most of the violence registered a question of drunk guys hitting each other in the pub?

And then there is a problem of how frequently people actually report violence. In a society where 'no tolerance' seems to be the key word even small acts of crime are likely to be reported whereas people wouldn't bother in other countries - either because they think less of it or because they know that the police is not likely to do anything about it anyway. So strangely enough a country reporting a high level of criminal acts may have a relatively low amount of crime.

This is not saying that crime statistics are useless. But raw numbers really are not much use, especially when you try to compare countries. It would be more relevant to scroll down the travel reports here. And I can't remember many postings complaining about violence or any other serious crime. If it was a major problem this place would be spammed with complaints - God knows people are eager enough to write about unpleasant expereiences...

So use common sense. Don't drink your brains out if you are alone in an unknown place, don't walk home alone late at night flashing money and jewellery, and if you are a girl don't behave in a way that may be misunderstood later.

Best regards,
Susanne

[Pib]

You sound like Susanne, you know, the old Susanne? Are you?

[susanne]

Originally Posted by Pib

You sound like Susanne, you know, the old Susanne? Are you?

Yup, that's me. Fancied seeing what was going on and in spite of promising myself not to do any posting, I couldn't resist this one;-D

I hope you are well? I miss the Dominican Republic somewhat terrible, especially this time a year. I would love to sit under a palm tree somewhere in Samana right now.

Send me a mail and let me know how you are doing these days, mermaid...

Love,
Susanne
(susanne@sayers.dk)

[hansbert]

I just read in today's Diario Libre that according to the declarations of a police general tourists leaving the SDQ airport will be escorted by members of the armed forces on thier way to Santo Domingo. Does anybody know more about that ? Is it really happening (I can hardly believe it) or just a declaration directed to tourists in order to convince them to keep coming to this country ?

[mami]

i've been there 4 or 5 times and never felt my safety was at risk. i thought the article was way off. but thought i had to share it anyway. as i;m reading your responses roday. i noted that the author never put in his resources for this information.

whenever traveling i read a lot about the country i'm going to and check out websites to see if the u.s. has any warnings about it or not.


although my exboyfriend is living there has been for 3 1/2 years and he told me that crime has increased since he moved there.

[hansbert]

Originally Posted by mami

i've been there 4 or 5 times and never felt my safety was at risk. i thought the article was way off. but thought i had to share it anyway. as i;m reading your responses roday. i noted that the author never put in his resources for this information.

whenever traveling i read a lot about the country i'm going to and check out websites to see if the u.s. has any warnings about it or not.


although my exboyfriend is living there has been for 3 1/2 years and he told me that crime has increased since he moved there.

http://www.diariolibre.com./app/article.aspx?id=22520