I am not sure what an AI is. We want live as close to the ocean and the school as possible. We just want our family to be safe and happy. We have been to the DR 4 times on vacation. We just want some input from people who live there. People here keep telling us that it is very dangerous to live there - lots of crime they say. I can't believe that it is as bad as they are saying.
Be very careful when it comes to evaluating other people's opinion on safety in the DR. This is more geared towards those people that only visit the country and give their opinion and not so much on those that lived/live in the country.
The reason why I say this is because there are plenty of people that visit the DR and then go on to say 'how dangerous it is outside the resorts' and I have a feeling this attitude is not related to them personally having been in danger, but rather a false perception that they, or someone, created in their minds.
Plenty of people say that they have left the resorts in Punta Cana and 'did not feel safe'.
I'm often left perplexed by such response, because Bavaro-Punta Cana doesn't give me that 'danger' vibe of places that are truly dangerous. In fact, if anything, it gives the impression of being a little chaotic (which is typical of the DR) and isolated - for obvious reasons, but not dangerous. I even met one person who said they felt safer in Mexico than in Punta Cana!
I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think this can either be a response to tour guides at the resorts exacerbating the crime issue in order to steer business their way, as in 'if you go on your own you will be in danger but if you buy one of our tours, you will be OK', type of thing. That, by the way, is bogus because not a single tour company includes a guard or security of any sort in their tours. Hm, a truck filled with tourists roaming through the countryside in a country that is 'dangerous' and they don't even think of including a guard? Either, the country is not as dangerous as its sold OR the tour companies are running the risk of getting sued by tourists who were victims of some crime out there. Chances are, the former is the true reason.
Or, it could be a response to something they have learned in their country of origin, particularly if they are white. If a person has the impression that they must be afraid of dark skin people, for example, then yes, it makes perfect sense they will feel unsafe in Punta Cana even though the place is probably as safe as it can be for a tourist spot.
Be weary of people that only visited the DR once or a few times and tell you that they left the resort on their own and did not feel safe. Ask yourself what exactly made them feel "unsafe"?
Was it that they saw something scary? What exactly was such scary thing? Suspicious people? Why did they thought that?
I remember one time someone came to this site and said (she doesn't post anymore) that she didn't feel safe in the DR because there were too many black people around. Of course, just about everyone here accused her of bigotry, but it just proves that there are people making false claims based on biased perceptions and racism is something that needs to be taken into consideration.
-NALs