Hello all! I live in Texas, and have been doing research about Belize. There are so many beautiful areas & parts of the island that are just beautiful. My husband has heard so much about the island from his boss, (who owns a home there, but lives here in TX). He said it is very family oriented, crime is not as bad as it is here, and that the people are really friendly. Where we live, there is a murder (or two)committed almost daily, the drugs & gang activity is very high. Alot of child neglect, child kidnappings & child murders. Our children are our life, and we want them to grow up in a safe, friendly enviroment. Am I asking too much? Can anybody please give me some honest info, about living in Belize? Which areas are safer for children? Thank-you and God Bless.

You'll get plenty of good information to your question from people here who know first hand. Being from Texas myself, I understand how it seems that there is more crime now than ever before. I Googled murder figures for the USA (2007) and was sorry to see eight Texas cities listed in the top 80 or so for crime. That year however, Dallas and Houston had the highest number of murder and non-neglegent homicide, each with 16 reported. Dallas and nearby Arlington, Plano, and Ft. Worth together bring the number of murders/homicides to a staggering 29 for the Metroplex in 2007! Baltimore and Detroit top the list at 46 and 45 respectively. We wouldn't want readers to believe there is anywhere in Texas where there are 365-700 murders a year anymore than we want them to believe all the guys wear ten gallon hats and all the ladies have ten gallon hair-do's.

I dont know where in Texas ya'll live but in san marcos, the latest crime numbers for 2008 (i think) are as follows;

murders - 0
rape - 16
robberies - 72

the area i live in (south) is the safest part of town with 0 incidents.

pretty nice little town ! 35,000 population

Seems like a that's a lot of rape for a little place.

http://www.indexmundi.com/blog/index.php/2009/06/08/world-murder-rates/

Counts Rates per 100,000
Country 2005 2006 2005 2006
El Salvador 3,779 3,927 56.67 58.07
Belize 81 92 29.4 32.67
Ecuador 2,121 2,385 16.24 18.07
Dominican Republic 1,666 1,537 17.59 15.99
Paraguay 887 742 15.02 12.33
Mongolia 310 311 12.01 11.94
Kazakhstan 1,804 1,729 11.86 11.29
Panama 364 363 11.26 11.04
Mexico 11,372 11,558 10.91 10.97
Kyrgyzstan 491 446 9.44 8.48
Nicaragua 436 465 7.98 8.41
Lithuania 369 277 10.77 8.13
Thailand 5,141 5,023 8.16 7.92
Costa Rica 338 348 7.81 7.91
Belarus 836 734 8.53 7.53
Georgia 403 323 9.01 7.29
Estonia 113 91 8.41 6.79
Latvia 130 148 5.65 6.47
Ukraine 3,030 2,958 6.46 6.35
Kenya 2,313 2,090 6.5 5.72
United States of America16,740 17,034 5.58 5.62
Argentina 2,115 2,052 5.46 5.24
Bolivia 478 454 5.21 4.85
Republic of Moldova 226 184 5.83 4.8
Montenegro 22 25 3.62 4.16
Turkey 3,082 2,999 4.22 4.06
Mauritius 37 50 2.98 4
Philippines 3,240 3,296 3.83 3.82
Tajikistan 157 228 2.4 3.43
Monaco 1 1 3.08 3.07
Turkmenistan 162 142 3.35 2.9
India 32,719 32,481 2.88 2.82
Bangladesh 3,431 4,123 2.24 2.64
Armenia 55 75 1.82 2.49
Malaysia 497 604 1.94 2.31
Azerbaijan 192 190 2.3 2.26
Portugal 175 227 1.66 2.15
Finland 113 112 2.15 2.13
Scotland 81 109 1.59 2.13
Romania 457 438 2.11 2.03
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 44 41 2.16 2.01
Bosnia and Herzegovina 70 73 1.79 1.86
Canada 663 606 2.05 1.86
Nepal 564 509 2.08 1.84
Jordan 67 100 1.21 1.75
Cyprus 16 14 1.91 1.66
Croatia 68 74 1.49 1.62
Ireland 65 67 1.57 1.59
Serbia 142 144 1.44 1.46
England and Wales 766 755 1.43 1.41
Czech Republic 104 136 1.02 1.33
Northern Ireland 26 23 1.51 1.33
Poland 555 490 1.45 1.28
Sweden 127 115 1.41 1.27
Syrian Arab Republic 206 239 1.09 1.23
Slovakia 72 65 1.34 1.21
New Zealand 61 47 1.49 1.14
Italy 610 625 1.04 1.06
Greece 127 109 1.14 0.98
Netherlands 197 159 1.21 0.97
Bahrain 4 7 0.55 0.95
United Arab Emirates 56 39 1.36 0.92
Germany 780 727 0.94 0.88
Switzerland 75 60 1.01 0.8
Spain 405 336 0.93 0.77
Austria 54 61 0.65 0.73
Norway 33 33 0.71 0.71
Algeria 204 214 0.62 0.64
Slovenia 20 12 1 0.6
Egypt 364 440 0.5 0.59
Lebanon 94 23 2.34 0.57
Denmark 53 29 0.98 0.53
Morocco 160 162 0.52 0.53
Brunei Darussalam 0 2 0 0.52
Singapore 21 17 0.49 0.39
Liechtenstein 0 0 0 0
Malta 4 0 0.99 0
Occupied Palestinian Territory 145 3.85

Geez Louise, Belize!! Only El Salvador has higher murder rates than Belize.

Pretty sad and sorry state of affairs, IMNSHO.

Research is great, But the only way you will know is to come here and stay a couple of months. Just coming on Vaction is not like living here. Good luck.

right. in each of 10 recent trips, i keep learning more and more every time. no place is paradise - if there were, we'd all live there.

that said, anyone know if there is, generally speaking, a possible future need for competent quickbooks bookkeepers down there?

Bear in mind, Ernie lives in San Marcos.

And, your point is...........

Oakland California..same population as Belize...20 times the crime rate.......................

Very true, but, bear in mind, Ernie lives there!

This must be an old post. like Harvey.

San Antonio was recently rated #1 in crime
There are at least 1 or 2 murders each day, and home invasions are growing more rampant.

7 to 14 murders per week - in one village - I wonder how I could have missed that on the news - amazing.

aha - I thinking San Antonio Village in Belize - why is this topic posted in the living in Belize section?????

is there a 'dying in belize' section?

ha ha - see you there barn - save me a spot!

When life gives us lemons we make lemonade - I am off to spend some quality time with the kids for a few hours.

Like everywhere, there is a 100% chance of dying.

Living in SAT, where I do, a city of 1.5 million or so souls, I reside in an area where the random chance of being a murder victim, given that I'm not involved in drugs or gangs, is low. But I also go to areas where such random murders have happened in the city to good people. In Belize, with about 300,000 souls living in the whole country, making your "close neighbors" many, the randomness of being a violent crime victim is directly proportional to the living of a high-risk lifestyle or having a lifestyle that would be attractive as a source of goods or cash to a violent criminal.

I think sosmary is sosfullofit. San Antonio, TX is a city with about 1.6 million people and had 116 murders in 2008. http://www.ksat.com/news/18383373/detail.html

So lets see that is 116/365=.32 per day. Hardy the 1-2 murders that sos states. I have to ask again. What is your point? Are you an American troll or a Belizean troll?

sosmary,
Belize is lovely, but it is not a Crime free Utopia.
I have owned here for years (but am still a "part time" resident)
I have been robbed several times.
Like any Country - there are some areas that are better than others.

If a low crime rates is your sole criteria - there are far more "virtually crime free" areas in the U.S.

The Crime stats. in my Midwest Home Town:
Offense 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Murder, Man-Slaughter 0 0 0 0 0 0
Forcible Rape 0 0 0 0 0 0
Robbery 0 0 0 0 0 0
Aggravated Assault 4 3 0 0 0 2

(the cut & paste is a bit askew but you can see my point)

sosmary,
The crime rate in Belize is one of the most heated topics. You'll find every different opinion imaginable. Some people feel perfectly comfortable, others are extremely cautious. But what it really comes down to is like what DrSteve and bonbon said: Some areas are better than others, and you really have to try Belize out and decide for yourself whether you feel comfortable enough to bring children down.

Some people regret moving to Belize, others regret not doing it sooner.

Good luck!

Scott