Quote:
Originally Posted by Southern Star
Dr. Sea, Montserrat has a total poulation of 5,000 people and one murder in 15 years (not on a tourist) puts them above the world rate. Go there and you will see - we met some elderly women who have retired there (between the ages of 75 and 90) and all of them said that they never locked their doors at night.
Statistics can be misleading - particularly when the population is so small. Better to rely upon various resources on the net that report crime against yachters in the Caribbean, as well as word of mouth from fellow cruisers with reecent experience in the areas you are thinking of visiting.
Brad
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Brad, you are right, of course. Statistics can be misleading, and especially when the base of the statistic is very small. I've been to Montserrat twice, before and after the volcano erupted, and would not be at all afraid to go there again. I was mostly poking at BoatMan who poked me for not saying "former" British islands.
But the facts are undeniable: As a whole, the
Caribbean and the countries with Caribbean shoreline have a very substantially higher murder rate than nearly anywhere else in the world. Anyone sailing in the Caribbean needs to be aware of this and adjust their routines accordingly. Of course, murder is not the only crime to be concerned about. Theft and robbery are more common, and it is only in fairly recent times that assault and other violence have begun to accompany the crimes against property.
The Caribbean
Safety and
Security Net publishes a monthly report online to keep sailors apprised of recent crimes and threats, including a map of the "hot spots" of crime. Here is the map for 2015:
https://www.google.com/fusiontables/...pli=1#map:id=3 Notice the very red hot spot over St. Lucia and some lesser ones up the island chain. The CSSN's motto is "Know Before You Go", which I think is brilliant
advice.
I don't want to become known as Dr. Doom for the information I have supplied in this thread. I love the Caribbean and will be sailing there again in 2 weeks. But I'm a lot more careful than I used to be. Know before you go.