question about crime on an island

The USVI is part of America and therefore has the same violence and gun culture as the mainland. We also enjoy the same "entitlement" mentality so many feel its their right to take whatever they want. STX is a big island and there are plenty of places to hide, especially in plain sight as our inept police force only selectively enforces the law often based on who they know or don't know. Just my opinion.

another part of the problem is that every one knows you so if you snitch you could end up in big trouble with the bad guys.
it is also easy to hide as sunshinefun said. there is lots of bush and our police force does not always seem to want to get the bad guys because maybe its their brother cousin best friend.......

you can also hop on a boat and you are on another island is a relatively short time. stt, stj if you are coming from stx. the bvi's... you can also just hop a plane out of here quicker than you can be named a suspect.

Maybe your confusion is a matter of scale.
St Croix is 22 miles long and about 84 square miles big (similar to Baltimore at 92) with about 50,000 people which makes it very easy to "drive 5 miles and mix with the crowds". There are many familiar faces here, but I could live here a lifetime and never see all 50,000 people!

I don't think the crime is much worse than any other medium sized town as far as each island goes. You also have to consider where their law enforcement pool comes from as far as hiring. It's like putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house. I'm sure most of the cops, are related to probably half of the island. Now I'm not meaning this in a negative way weeeeeellllllll I guess I am in a way. But that doesn't mean that all cops allow this to sway their judgement I suppose.

I have never lived on an island, so I am missing something here with regards to the abundance of discussions about the crime in this forum. My common sense suggests to me that it would be very difficult to commit criminal acts on a small island, because:

a) probably half of the people on the island know you by your first and last name, and thus your potential victims know you. Right?
b) where and how do you escape after the crime? It's not like you can drive 5 miles and mix with the crowds, as if you were in Chicago or Baltimore.

I mean, let's take it to the extreme, and pretend that it's a *very* small island, like 1 square mile, and with a population of 100. I would think that the island would be totally crime free, because there would be 99 vigilantes going after 1 unfortunate criminal.

So, obviously, I don't understand something major here, in the crime situation on VI. What is it that I am missing?

Seriously? The fact that everyone knows someone is the biggest part of the problem. Even IF a perp is arrested after a violent crime, they're set free either by the inept useless police department or the courts. Then they "disappear" into their hood where they are not found.
There are home invasions, murder, gang related shootings, armed robbery sometimes during the day. They have AK-47 assault rifles and other exotic weapons. It goes on and on.
Don't fool yourself into thinking "how is it possible"? If you "drive 5 miles" on the mainland, the police will look for you. Not here.

I think the biggest problem is people are afraid to turn in others who they know have committed a crime, because quite often it means retribution against them, or even worse - their families, sometimes even their elderly relatives. Witnesses are often afraid to even appear in court.