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This is probably going to sound like an utterly daft question to many people, and I apologize for that, but I wondered if there might be anyone living in, or familiar with, the otherwise apparently delightful town of Amesbury, who could tell me why the crime rate, especially for rape, is so high there?
I have looked at 3 different sets of figures, covering 2002-2006, and they show that the 'rape index' for Amesburyis around 173 - with the 'National average' expressed as 100, this seems extraordinarily high, especially given that the figures for other nearby towns are around 22-51!
Can anyone shed any light on this, apart from the rather unhelpful 'Oh you should never believe statistics?' We like the town very much and are considering buying a house there but we really don't want to raise our 10 year old daughter there if the place genuinely is a hotbed of violence against women!
I don't know what the statistics are but I wouldn't think Amesbury has any special status as a place that's known to be dangerous for women.
Beach communities have more transient and temporary/summer residents. And, there's a big strip club and bar scene nearby in Salisbury?
Sometimes there's a few incidents by one person that can skew data in a small community, within a short time period. Sometimes things can look a different way because a locality's police change their reporting system.
You could call the Police Dept. non-emergency number and ask to speak to someone on the phone, or make an appointment to go in and speak with the watch commander in person. They probably have an officer specializing in investigating crimes of violence against women. Good luck.
I've lived in Amesbury for practically my whole life (since I was 16 months old - I'm 25 now), and I have never met anyone or known anyone who knew anyone that had been raped in Amesbury. I know you posted a month ago, so I'm not sure if this post will influence you at all, but I would say that Amesbury is a safe community to live in and bring up your daughter. Just as in any community, there's always the possibility that something could happen, but the thought rarely crosses my mind.
I can't stop laughing. I've lived in this sleepy little white bread " why lock the door" town for 15 years, and believe me, you're either looking at a typo or you accidentally glanced at the wrong line. Hee hee...
Amesbury...
LOL.
It's one of the safest places on earth to raise a little girl. Go for it.
Luckily, in the decades I lived here I never knew 1 rape victim and read about just a couple in the paper. Amesbury has a "special way" of recording its crime statistics. According to the mayor there are 300 incident calls every Friday evening. That would be 1 incident every 2 minutes. You figure it out.
My hunch is that at least 298 of those calls would be concerning a noisy, parents-away party or a neighbor's barking dog. Most of them would be repeats if a cop wasn't on the scene within two minutes. And then they'd start anew when the patrol car turns the corner and the stereo gets cranked right back up. Another round of calls would ensue when it was learned who'd been phoning and the caller or callers' house(s) got TP'd and egged. Welcome to suburban and small-town America, any state any weekend any year.
I have lived in Amesbury my whole life, and it is not dangerous for women. It is just like any other suburb, not that I have ever lived in another suburb. The majority of the population is older, there are a lot of towny baby boomers (if my neighbor reads this, its not you). This town has a complex history of social interaction, I would guess about one quarter of the people born here, stay here. More ambitious individuals wish to flee this town as soon as possible.
TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION:
I believe that statistic is inflated due to the nature of the Amesbury Police (I hope they read this). Overall, they are responsible and genuinely care about you, if they like you. If the Amesbury Police do not like you, they will run you right out of town. I know someone who this happened to.
There is a lot of social interaction within this town, there is popular people, and well... notorious people. It's a small town, everyone knows everyone and they talk. The only thing I would fear when moving to Amesbury is the few young, inexperienced, and rather capricious police men. As with any group, they have a few rotten eggs... I am assured they mean well though!
The high school is excellent and has recently been expanded substantially (2006 is when they finished). I did not attend elementary school in Amesbury, my parents sent me to a private school for Grades 1-8, in the next town over; there is also a Sparhawk School here, that is rather large.
More on the police, they like to coerce people into exaggerating the truth for their own purposes (this could inflate some of the statistics). The last murder by a civilian was in the early 90s I believe, right outside some low income housing complexes near downtown. There is a drug bust house on SPRING STREET, on the corner of Green and Spring - it is white, and looks run down. It has 3 or 4 doors, local under covers do their best to keep serious drug use, or distribution to a minimum. However, in the late 90s (??) the police gunned down a man on Collins Avenue. They were called for a domestic dispute I guess? I don't know why 2 or 3 cops filled him with lead. That account was rather vague, because it was from memory, this is the article:
[url]http://gracerubenstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2003/10/suicide_by_cop-200310.pdf[/url]
One of the officers involved in this actually bought me a coffee once and is a really nice guy, they do their job - and they are part of the reason I am majoring in Criminal Justice; I credit him with that 2 dollars worth of guidance. That coffee was the most morally enlightened beverage of my life, honestly. This cop changed my life, I will keep the name anonymous, but there is only 3 in the article and 1 of them tried to charge me with possession of marijuana when I was 16 for the smell in an empty film canister. I payed a lawyer to represent me in court several times, and we got the film canister tested - it came back NEGATIVE. The charges were dropped. He was cocky and thought he could just load us with charges, only 2 people in the car (which had 5 in it) were charged.
Search Google for Amesbury Police, there is video on youtube I believe also.
Whether this man really did commit suicide by cop, WHICH IS EXTREMELY RARE - is beyond me. Accidents happen?
Moving to Amesbury may delight you if you are a social butterfly, there are a lot of nice features downtown. We had a dozen pizza shops before the economy... swan dove, now we have... 6? Still a lot of carry out in this area. If you do decide to move to this suburb be prepared to warm up to your neighbors, but don't get too close because like I said - everyone talks; see how involved they are with other 'prestigious' townyites. That word is made up. The downtown is nice, be prepared for the property taxes; they will be the thorn in your side.
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i wonder the same thing
LOL - must be a typo!
