You forgot to include poverty
Do you really think that poverty is the cause of this particular crime or indeed those recent crimes that have affected the expatriate population living in such places as here or the North Coast?
Are the persons who commit these crimes and who often ride motorbikes and own guns and who seek out their wealthier victims poor?
In the areas where real poverty exists in this country there is almost certainly less such crime than that we hear about affecting wealthier persons living in towns and cities. Wealth disparity is more the problem. Have you lived in the campo and lived alongside really poor people? If you had you would quickly realize they are proud and hard working people who rarely resort to violence other than the domestic/neighbor sort of argument. These type of people at best own a machete. In these communities the criminals fit the profile of younger males with motorbike who are linked to drugs and often own a gun.......your poor?
The OP mentioned it was a bad year for gringos and any loss of life is most unfortunate indeed. But it has been a far worse year for the Dominican public in general. If dv8 were to post all the reported violent crime printed in newspaper there would be little else on this forum. did she post the recent discovery of a young guy shot deal in Sosua supposedly to settle a drug debt? There have been other such crimes in Boca Chica too.
We must also remember that the unfortunate gringos affected by these crimes have chosen to live in the various communities. These crimes have barely touched the 6 million tourists who go to the resort hotels in the country and so family tourism does have it's benefits.
As a parting opinion, those that have suggested that the loss of a few jobs due to changes in closing hours in Sosua which is another resort like Boca Chica are clutching at straws. The greenbacks when passed to the hookers get recycled and a good chunk goes to the drug dealers and therein prospers the criminal element who go on to stalk out likely victims and commit such ugly crimes......maybe not in this case albeit the victim did get about a bit.
Bars, late night drinking, prostitution, gangs, drugs, and criminal activity are all linked in DR just like elsewhere in the world and to try and to try and justify an acceptance of such, in places such as Boca Chica, by bringing poverty into the argument is ill founded.