Dover Crime

[CMCBC40]

I read that crime is pretty high for the size of Dover.That does not sound to good if there trying to sell it as a nice retirement area,\!What kind of crime we talking about???

[madman]

Well there's crime and then there is crime. Any good-sized city is going to have a lot higher crime rate than a small town in the country. The type of crime is important; obviously violent crime is really bad. But then the other issue is that there might be a bad neighborhood where most of the crime is concentrated, so sometimes it's hard to tell what is really going on in the areas retirees would be most likely to live.
The U.S. average crime rate is about 321, Dover's is 443.Dover had 1 murder, 16 rapes, and 198 assaults last year, plus 1625 thefts and 111 burglaries. Nearby Smyrna, whose crime rate is equal to the U.S. average, had 0 murders, 4 rapes, and 33 assaults.

[topretirementseditor]

This and a similar post are an important discussion about crime rates. Was just at the FBI site and they issue a caution that comparing crime rates by city is a very tricky business - requires careful analysis. FBI has a great resource for looking up crime rates by type by city and state. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table_08.html There is another FBI table that compares crime by region - property and violent. The South is the region with by far them most crime of both types, followed by the West. Northeast has lowest crime rates.

[CMCBC40]

Thanks for the FBI site,great stuff,and very helpful!Its amazing how the little towns you think dont have much happing there,really do!Iam speaking of someone who does not live there and spending a little time there looking for a retirement area.It makes you do more thinking of the area.Thanks!