<p>I would just throw in the comment that it is not irrational to feel the risk is lower in areas you are familiar with. It probably is lower because you know what the risks are and how to minimize them. </p>
<p>A couple of posters commented that they are more at ease in highly urban areas than in the woods or on lonely country roads. As someone who grew up in a rural area that made me chuckle, because when I was taking walks in such places as a teen I always felt safe because I could always tell, even at night, if anyone or any thing was approaching, which was markedly different from my experience in the city, where the cacophony produced by the traffic made me nervous because it was impossible to be sure what the situation was.</p>
<p>Exactly. Which is why it’s not always good to go with your gut on what makes a “dangerous” college campus. Wherever you go to college, a couple of weeks after you get there your sense of security will be completely different, and more realistic, than it was when you visited for a few hours. </p>
<p>Emeraldkitty, I don’t know that I’d want to depend on the presence of eyewitnesses to keep me safe. A large number of crimes occur right in front of eyewitnesses. </p>
<p>I think that movie directors find it easier to build tension in a scene involving a woods or on a lonely road, and they succeed in creating an unfounded level of fear in the popular imagination regarding the risks of such environments. That reminds me that a horror movie was filmed a few years ago in a woods close to my current house, and as I watched some of the filming, I was thinking of how the only real danger in the area would be from tripping and falling. I don’t believe that any crime of any nature has been reported in the area in the last 10 years, and any violent crime for a lot longer than that. </p>
<p>Maybe I should add that I have not been arguing that an area of woods in or next to a large urban area would be safe. I was just speaking of rural areas. </p>
<p>My kid is looking at schools in NYC, NOLA, Philly and Boston. From what I read the issues are both criminals preying on each other in drug/gang related attacks and also robberies and worse related to students. I have been checking crime reports to see if there is a pattern and comparing activity to that around my own urban university. One of the common denominators seems to be the hours between 3am and 5am. Don’t walk around, take a cab or be home in bed. Last week 3 students were robbed at gunpoint at 4:15 am quite a distance from campus. That seems pretty avoidable to me. The bottom line is that he wants to be in a vibrant city and I can’t wrap him in a bubble. He just needs to be savvy. There are places that you don’t go and times of day that you don’t mill around at will. </p>
<p>This will probably sound weird but I take some comfort in reading about the muggings, shooting and stabbings in my own city where I move around freely and feel pretty safe most of the time. There is something too that known risk thing.</p>
<p>They don’t worry me either. I’m not worried about his safety in NOLA or Philly either although it is something to be aware of and vigilant about. One could be very unsafe in a hurry without following prudent measures.</p>
<p>I agree you still need to be vigilant in NOLA.
It is still somewhat of a party town.
A highschool classmate of Ds was attending Tulane there and disappeared.
( his body was eventually recovered from the river)</p>