Escambia County: Rape capital of Florida, too

India has attracted international over the rape of a young woman by a gang of men on a New Delhi bus (New Delhi Attack: The Victim’s Story). We’ve got a forcible rape problem here in Northwest Florida, particularly in Escambia County.

Escambia County, Fla. has a high number of rapes, according to the 2011 crime statistics reported by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The rate of forcible rapes was more than twice the state average.

The county’s 169 forcible rates ranked ninth in Florida for the number of rapes, but when you consider that the other eight counties have twice to eight times the population of Escambia, the number is alarming.

If you break it down to forcible rapes per 100,000 people, Escambia County tops the list.

And 2012 hasn’t gotten much better. From Jan. to June, 2012, Escambia County had 98 forcible rapes—12 were inside the Pensacola city limits.