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majority that I've noticed, come from shootings at night clubs, domestic violence, and random acts of murder.
Actually, they very seldom random.. the homicides are generally comitted by someone the victim knows. Like you have said, for example domestic violence or violence among rival gangs. If the violent crime becomes of the random variety we need to start worrying! Otherwise, just be careful who you associate with... drug dealers & gang members may cause you harm.
My wife and I have lived in Myrtle Beach for a year now, like ANY city there are areas you DONT want to go.
I admit the main street/Ocean Blvd area of Myrtle Beach where the Pavailion use to be is TRASHY. AVOID IT at all cost.
Broadway at the Beach however is a nice place as well as the new Hard Rock Park (where it will cost $50.00 to get in, thus all the TRASH is kept out If you want to be "Safe" then dont stay in a hotel on Hwy 17 in the middle of the Strip Club area!
When you read that the crime rate is high, well consider that most of those shootings are done in the STRIP CLUBS and other NIGHT CLUBS at 3:00 am when the drug deal went bad.
Lots of rape incidents?? Well it could be the Hookers who "Claim" rape when they are arrested in the act.
A lot of the crime happens when tourist come down here, drink too much, think "Lets try something new" and go out to a dangerous Strip Club or Night Club on Business 17. You see these stupid business men who come down here to play golf and think they'll "Live dangerously" for a few nights and they end up doing stupid things in bad places.
Come on people. Myrtle Beach is NO more unsafe than any big city. I dont care where you go you have to be smart. I mean if your a rich white guy or girl dont take a stroll through the Getto wearing your Rolex and Hush Puppies!
If you want to live in SAFE Myrtle Beach live in North Myrtle Beach where all the rich people live.
It's funny that there are 3 Wal-Marts in Myrtle Beach.
The one right in the middle of Myrtle Beach Seaboard St. is TRASHY and best avoided. The people are SO scary in that one. They dont even have Self Checkout probably because the customers would try to steal so much stuff they dont think it's safe.
If you drive up to Atlantic Beach, the Wal-Mart there is actually pretty nice, has self checkout and the people are CLEAN, Nice looking People.
If you drive even further up to North Myrtle Beach, the Wal-Mart there is Beautiful, Very Clean and the customers look VERY nice. There will be a lot of Mercedes and Volvos in the Parking Lot. This is the one I go to.
So, the Further towards North Myrtle Beach you go, the BETTER.
You've been here a whole year and you don't know that the 2nd Wal Mart you reference is actually in Myrtle Beach? There is no Wal-MArt in Atlantic Beach.
Please don't take this the wrong way, but your post is full of mis-information...
There are lots of areas in both MB and in NMB where there are PLENTY of wealthy residents. Drive through Plantation Lakes, Plantation Point, Dunes Cove, The Bluffs on the Waterway, you'll see what I mean.
OTOH, there are also several areas that ARE more seedy. One will find the same in any town they reside/visit. It's economic diversity at it's finest.. Take the good with the bad, the good and make the best of it..
We would love to look into living in Myrtle Beach, but were totally shocked when we looked at some of the crime rates! Some of them were higher than Houston. Wow. Just a couple of examples:- MB rapes 248, Houston rapes 38; MB aggravated assaults 1362, Houston aggravated assaults 594; MB crime lab index 555, Houston crime lab index 278.
We are stunned by these numbers! Can anyone offer any information about this. Is crime really that bad in Myrtle Beach?! I'm not sure how accurate this information is, but we got it from home fair dot com.
TIA for any information.
These numbers aren't accurate, they are projected up for population comparisons. Actual numbers are more in the middle of the page Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed
Problem with projected numbers (extrapolating) is that it's not always accurate. Also in there is that population numbers aren't really accurate since Myrtle Beach has a large population of non-residents (aka tourists) that aren't counted in the population numbers. It is these tourists who bring a lot of crime or create crime by not locking their hotel doors, cars etc or by being intoxicated.
Last edited by Yac; 02-14-2008 at 06:40 AM..
Reason: addition of details
I've lived in Myrtle Beach for almost 30 years. The only crime I've experienced in that time is my wife's car was broken into twice. Once overnight when we lived in an apartment complex and another time at the Rec center.
Some things you need to understand about MB:
The crime numbers are extrapolations based on year round residency. In MB that's somewhere around 30,000 for the city proper. We have about 14 million visitors each year. That's an average of about 270,000 people on any given week with the normal crime you'd expect for 270,000 people. But when they do the crime numbers, they base the actual crime on a population base of 30,000. It makes the numbers wildly high and grossly unfair to MB.
The Myrtle Beach police department is perhaps the best force in SC. Even though we have a low permanent population here, they handle up to half a million visitors on any given week in July. They don't take any guff and they do their jobs very well.
Like any town, we do have areas you should avoid, but it's far from anything resembling an epidemic. Stay at a respectable place(there's plenty), and ask your front desk clerk, bartender or waiter about any concerns you have. More times than not, you'll get a straight answer.
I've been to Atlanta, New York City, Atlantic City and Orlando, and guarantee we're safer than any of those places. I haven't been to Houston, but I'd bet dollars to donuts we're safer than there too.
We would love to look into living in Myrtle Beach, but were totally shocked when we looked at some of the crime rates! Some of them were higher than Houston. Wow. Just a couple of examples:- MB rapes 248, Houston rapes 38; MB aggravated assaults 1362, Houston aggravated assaults 594; MB crime lab index 555, Houston crime lab index 278.
We are stunned by these numbers! Can anyone offer any information about this. Is crime really that bad in Myrtle Beach?! I'm not sure how accurate this information is, but we got it from home fair dot com.
TIA for any information.
I've lived in the area for almost 17 years, and I'm a night owl. I do my grocery shopping at midnight and often do dinner at 10pm or even later.
Like any city there are areas where drugs are prevalent, where the hoodlums hang out, where homeless people tend to wander. The old pavilion area is one of them...and there are several drug and crime areas that are on the outskirts of MB, North MB, and all the other beaches. Unfortunately, their statistics become OUR statistics. They kill each other, fuss and fight, and most of us in the general population never see it or care one way or the other. Atlantic Beach in the middle of North Myrtle is a perfect example. You just don't go there! All in all, for tourists and residents alike, this is one of the most safe areas you can vacation in. We are 10 times more safe than Miami, Daytona, Las Vegas, or any of the big cities.
There's also alot of rural areas outiside of Conway, Socastee, and Little River with very poor people, rednecks, and crime. Tourists and normal "transplants" also never see these neighborhoods...Why would you? Common sense tells you to stay out of trailer parks, bars and clubs in predominantly black neighborhoods, and the bottom caliber strip clubs.
I love living here and would not want to be anywhere else. I'm a middle aged single woman, and if I can run around half the night safely, then pretty much anyone can. It's just a matter of common sense!
And I highly recommend Myrtle Beach, especially North Myrtle Beach, Little River, Pawleys Island, and most of the golf communities for everyone.
I have been vacationing in MB since I was a kid and not once ever saw one single crime ever committed and when we were kids we went to MB 2 times per year for a week at a time.
As an adult, 15 years in a row and manybe 100 trips to MB and not one single crime yet.
As in all resort towns, there are places you need to stay away from. Easy to spot and easy to stay away.
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Crime in Myrtle Beach
If you want to be "Safe" then dont stay in a hotel on Hwy 17 in the middle of the Strip Club area! 
