Rape in Amesbury? (Salisbury: house, crime, invest)

[amyalta]

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!

[willdufauve]

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.

[legacy]

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.