Guard Gunned Down in Shopping Center - 27th murder this year so far:<BR><BR>http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News%3ALocal&p=46290<BR><BR>

There is crime everywhere. There is no 100% guarentee of safety. Thus I suggest you stay home, where by the way you could be Murdered or Robbed Today.<BR>For heavens sake, there are no guarentees in this life. As I heard Wayne Newton say on Fox News, when it is my "time to go, I am pretty sure I will be there".

Reading with interest since we are going to st. johns and st. thomas next month. Did read some of the articles and found that other than the villa bulguries very little or none of the crime has anything to do with tourists or even occurs in the toruist areas but are among the young adult male resident population and several are child abuse situations. Did not change my mind but will be more aware of situations.

I don't know about the other islands but St. Croix has no more crime than anywhere in the states...especially on the north shore where most of the tourist destinations are. I own two villas on the island, http://www.villadawn.com/stcroix.htm, and have never had a problem nor have any of my guests. St. Croix is a wonderful laid back island!<BR><BR>Kent

Since Kent owns 2 villas on the island, it's obvious why he downplays the crime situation. By the way, nice spam, Kent.

Headline from St. Thomas Source:<BR><BR>V.I. HOMICIDES FIVE TIMES NATIONAL RATE FOR 2001<BR><BR>See the article here:<BR><BR>http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?...ALocal&p=46435

As with the St. Martin bashers thread, I would appreciate if someone would post those articles that relate to crimes that either driectly involved or impacted upon tourists.

Here's an interesting quote from the article:<BR><BR>"With a population of about 50,000, St. Thomas had a homicide rate of nearly 36 per 100,000 inhabitants, nearly seven times the national average. Jamaica, widely viewed as a violence-ridden nation, had a 2001 homicide rate of about 43 per 100,000 people."<BR><BR>Yes, they said the murder rate is 7 times the US average, and approaches Jamaica's rate. <BR><BR>Just some facts to help tourist make informed decisions, free from the propaganda of those here with financial interest in the USVI.

The majority of crime doesn't affect or have anything to do with visitors to the island. Statistics can be taken in many different ways. Also, our crime here makes front-page news, versus U.S. city crimes which either never make it into the paper or are buried somewhere on page 46. Put it all into perspective. I've lived here for two decades. It really gets irritating to keep reading some of the nonsense posted in this section of this forum!

I guess facts are really irritating to certain people. Much of the info here is not anonymous experiences or opinions, it is facts and statistics reported by the St. Thomas Source. No one says you should expect 100% safety or even stay away from the USVI, but it is refreshing to see the facts so we can make informed decisions. Thanks to the internet facts like these are now available. Too bad if some people squirm and go into damage control mode.