Crime in Alaska (Anchorage, Wasilla: violent crime, to live in, safe)

[rotorhead]

Everyone in Alaska seems to think that "Los Anchorage" is some sort of northern version of Soddom and Gomorrah, but in reality its a medium size town with small-town crime specs. The place I'm living now has a per-capita murder rate thats twice that of Anchorage, and the locals here are commenting on how much better its been lately. The gang problems there are miniscule compared to similar sized towns in the lower 48, and unsolved murders the exception rather than the rule. It really is a problem of perception, as the news outlets in ANC tend to glom onto any little thing and make a mountain out of a molehill when it somes to crime reporting. When every day is a slow news day, you tend to hear a lot about not much happening in the real world.

Check the basic city-data pages on comperable cities and check the crime stats youself if you have doubts. As mentioned before, the rape stats are initially alarming until you hear what they're not saying. Namely, if you're not inclined towards drinking yourself unconscious in public, you're not likely to become one of the stats.

[mom23sweetgirlies]

I know what you mean, I always heard horrible things about Anchorage. My husband and I decided to take a vacation there a few years back and we had a great time, no problems whatsoever. The people were very friendly, I think even more so then here in Ketchikan. I don't live there so I may be wrong, but from what I've seen I tend to agree with Rainy

[Alaskagrl]

Originally Posted by JavaPhil

Amen to that Rainy. Lifestyle is what drives alot of these crimes. Drugs, alcohol, and bad companions lead to bad choices.

+1 mal and Rainy...exactly...someone, maybe on this board, once said "If you stay out of shady bars and don't go home drunk with a complete stranger, your chances of being raped go down considerably!"

That said, there seem to be an inordinately large number of child molestors in AK in general; probably because it is easy to be invisible here; there aren't even that many people with computers/internet access in their homes, overall. So, even if they are "registered", their neighbor might never know.

Anchorage seems to stand out; I think elsewhere in Alaska, the overall crime rate is actually pretty low. (will research)

[DannyL]

There is one thing very true about Alaska. If you go into a bar looking for trouble, I guarantee you'll find it.

[Rainy]

Yeah...it seems like down south you can live a good life and still be the victim of random crime but here I think it really does have a lot to do with who you associate with...but as lower 48 practises become more prevalent here, I think we need to be careful that we don't automatically judge someone who's been a crime victim. As far as child molestation, percentagewise, it's more prevalent in for instance Klawock than in Anchorage. There is virtually no crime in the community I am now in--reading the police report is a riot. Barking dogs is about as bad as it gets. Hi Rance, will pm you soon, got your note.

[rotorhead]

When you check the stats for convicted sex offender in Alaska, by far the biggest number show up in Eagle River. When we were living there it was quite a shock to see that such a well-to-do bedroom community would have so many. But then I started seeing a trend, they all live at the same address.

Turns out its the state prison located there.

If it weren't for the highway signs you'd never suspect anything was even there, its all hidden by trees. Not so with the big gabage dump though, its easily visible from the main road and every time the wind really blows all the trees within miles get strewn with plastic grocery sacks and assorted trash. Wish they'd keep a better lid on the garbage when there's a storm coming, it looks bad and taked forever for that stuff to disappear.

[alaska1]

To Alaskagrl,
I can only agree strongly.
Every big City has it's bad parts of town and it's bad people. The bigger the city the more crimes? I lived in small towns with high crime and sex offenders.So small is not always better.

[FishTAxi]

Lets see. There was the Hanson murders in the early 80's. A respectable baker who was also a private pilot who flew his victims out to remote places, let them loose naked the proceeded to hunt them down by bow and arrow.

Then there was the computer programmer Hastings who lived in McCarthy. After a night of board games with his neighbors he met them all the next day when the mail plane came in with a shotgun and a bunch of shells. He killed more than half the population.

Who knows what happened to Joe Vogler? Conspiracy theorists think it was a gov't coverup due to gold mining on BLM land.

Recently it was Papa Pilgrim. His trial is coming up. oh and that stripper with a heart of gold who had her boyfriend shoot her husband in Hope.

How about that police chief who was shot and killed and his wife injured at their home by his girlfriend who killed herself at the scene. The chiefs wife survived and called 911 only the dispatchers did not know where she lived as her address (Peters Creek) wasn't in the database.

You bet theres crime in Alaska. Just like anywhere else.

[JavaPhil]

The stripper had three boyfriends and a husband and was taking each one of them to the cleaners. What a gal! A real catch, if you know what I mean. It must have been a hell of a ride since 2 of the boyfriends knew about each other and about the husband.

Most of the crimes were from years ago. The police chief was a real Keystone Kops kind of tragedy. They couldn't find the place - go figure. No one could find a road map of Anchorage? I mean Peters Creek is only a few minutes outside of downtown. Maybe 15 miles.

[rotorhead]

Whats the deal with the Papa Pilgrim character? I must have missed that one. The last I heard he was in trouble for some stunt involving a bulldozer and reopening a long-abandoned mining road, what gives?