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We were thinking of relocating to SC from MI, but man!!!!.we were looking over the Morgan-Quinto rankings for violent cities (we live near DETROIT which we thought was bad enough) here is what we found:
Most violent city in the U.S. in 2005 (latest year for FBI complete stats) and the winner is----
The national average is 469/100K
#1-FLORENCE SC at 1,250/100K
#9-Sumter SC at 939/100K
#17 -Myrtle Beach SC at 860/100K
#20-Charleston SC at 843/100K
#33-Columbia SC at 725/100K
#38-Greeneville SC at 705/100k
Firstly, it should be realized that while SC is by no means crime free, the state actually does a much more thorough job of reporting crime than most other states. If you ever get a chance to read the actual FBI report that Morgan Quitno bases its data on, you'll notice that. There is no national reporting standard; each state determines how much of its data it will report.
The crime that does exist, however, overwhelmingly tends to be located in certain areas. Those areas will pretty much be obvious.
Thanks AK.........It is still very shocking to me though. I am still going through the stats and thinking that retirement (if it ever comes LOL) would be tough in an unsafe area.
I live in Calif. and it was number 14 on that list, but I know mine and the 3 cities around me are consistantly in the top 10 safest cities for there size in the U.S.. So it seems clear violent crime is usually concentrated. Where? Unemployment is high, drug use is rampant, education is under valued, whether is warm. Could you imagine Detroit if it was not so cold, all the bad guys out all the time. Notice the so called safest states are all frozen most of the year. I'll take my chances in a warm climate thank you very much.
I live on rural Johns Island (near Charleston), not a gated community, and have never been affected by crime here. I have lived here for 23 years and only know of one person who has been affected by crime and that was a friend whose car was stolen from his driveway in the middle of the night over on James Island. He was caught and it turned out to be a relative of a man who many in the neighborhood employ as a handyman.
So....I think you will have a lot of criminal activity if you live in an area where there are a lot of drugs and unemployed people with no pride or respect for themselves or others, or if you associate with people involved in drugs and illegal activities - or are involved yourself. Otherwise, you can be a victim just about anywhere you go, but chances are that you won't. Every city and state has rough areas....SC just happens to publicize theirs instead of hiding them from the statistic publications.
South Carolina is not a dangerous state for the most part, but one thing you will find is that domestic violence is a serious problem here. As long as you and your spouse or significant other get along, you should be fine. I didn't mean that as a flippant statement, because I consider our state's problem with domestic violence to be quite serious, but you'll find that most areas of the state are quite safe.
I grew up in Dillon, SC (about 30 miles from Florence), and my parents currently live in Myrtle Beach. SC is like most other places -- the violent crime is mostly confined to certain areas, in certain situations. As waccamatt pointed out, much of it is domestic violence; most of the rest is drug-related or occurs in clubs or juke joints. (As someone has pointed on on this forum, MB stats are particularly skewed because of the transient population there; I wouldn't feel in danger in most places there.) It is not as if there are roving gangs of thugs everywhere looking for someone to attack.
Having said that, I make sure to lock my doors at night, and I plan to get my concealed weapons permit as soon as possible. Many people in SC are very poor, and drug abuse is a major problem. Education and employment rates are bad compared to the national average. That leads to a fair share of robberies, burglaries, and related crimes. Just a few weeks ago, a great uncle of mine (80 plus years old) was stabbed to death at his rural home in a county neighboring Florence. His wallet and truck were stolen. The alleged killer is a former employee of his, a crack head looking for money to feed his habit. One of my basketball partners from Dillon had a nice scar on his belly where he got shot working at a local convenience store. I know in Dillon, if you leave anything of value out in the yard -- even under the carport -- like a bicycle or lawn mower, it will get stolen fast. In the last Pee Dee county where we lived, state police busted a prostitution ring involving a 12-year old girl.
If you live in a good area and confine your activities to those areas, you will be fine for the most part. But I don't think one can completely sugar-coat the crime statistics.
We were thinking of relocating to SC from MI, but man!!!!.we were looking over the Morgan-Quinto rankings for violent cities (we live near DETROIT which we thought was bad enough) here is what we found:
Most violent city in the U.S. in 2005 (latest year for FBI complete stats) and the winner is----
The national average is 469/100K
#1-FLORENCE SC at 1,250/100K
#9-Sumter SC at 939/100K
#17 -Myrtle Beach SC at 860/100K
#20-Charleston SC at 843/100K
#33-Columbia SC at 725/100K
#38-Greeneville SC at 705/100k
The Florence MSA (what you linked to originally) covers all of Florence and Darlington County. If you assume, since they don't clearly explain in their free information for the linked lists, that they have used a similar methodology to the one they use for their "Safest & Most Dangerous City Award".
The methodology for determining America’s Safest City and Metro Area involves a multi-step process. First, 2005 city and metro area crime rates per 100,000 population (the most recent comparable final numbers available, released by the FBI in September 2006) for six basic crime categories — murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft — were plugged into a formula that measured how a particular city or metro area compared to the national average for a given crime category. The outcome of this equation was then multiplied by a weight assigned to each of the six crime categories. Each of the six crimes was given equal weight. By weighting each crime equally, cities are compared based purely on their crime rates and how they stack up to the national average for a particular crime category. These weighted numbers then were added together for a city or metro area’s final score. Finally, these scores were ranked from lowest to highest to determine which cities and metropolitan areas were safest and most dangerous.
Though per capita murder and rape rates are lower in Florence than in many high-crime urban centers (eg Detroit and Flint, MI; Hot Springs, AR; Jackson, MS; Las Vegas, NV; etc), Florence has a disproportionately high level of property crime, larceny/theft, and the highest aggravated assault rate in the United States.
In 2005 there were 16 murders, 102 rapes, 445 robberies and 2009 aggravated assaults in the Florence area. Additionally, there were 11,463 property crimes, including burglaries, thefts and motor vehicle thefts. Property crimes occurred at a rate of 5733.4 per 100,000 residents. The population of the area included in the survey was 199,935.
I wonder how many of those property crimes occurred at places like Darlington Motor Speedway.
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SC Violence
