<p>“Our Safety Report for Amherst College is based on the US Department of Education 2009 public data sets for various categories of violent and non-violent crimes committed both on-campus and off-campus over the last three years.
According to our analysis of the government numbers, Amherst College is a very dangerous place to stay. American School Search gives this school grade “F” on safety and ranks Amherst College #13 among the Most Dangerous colleges in the USA.”</p>
<p>This is a seriously perverse and yet oddly compelling website.</p>
<p>Just from gleaning it quickly, the first thing that leaps out is that it seems only to be concerned with reported crimes ON CAMPUS, not in the surrounding neighborhoods and therefore has the singular effect of comparing what looks to me to be the relative frequency of date-rape cases. I’m not here to minimize the seriousness of the offense of date-rape; it certainly deserves to be exposed and punished. But, even the website says that the chances of it occuring on any given campus are <2%.</p>
<p>As has been discussed many times before on other forums, this also seems to reflect the usual suspects of binge-drinking and “jock” culture.</p>
<p>Well, it’s in good company. Also receiving Fs according to that ranking:
Swarthmore, Haverford, Dartmouth, Cornell, Grinnell, Claremont McKenna, Mt. Holyoke, Pomona, Carleton, Princeton, Whitman… and a host of others.</p>
<p>Harvard and MIT got a D. Maybe one of them might be a better bet. ;)</p>
<p>I’ve never worried about campus safety with my daughter at Amherst. I have always taught her basic safety guidelines to follow no matter where she is. Whenever she has come home for a break, I am always happy when she is back on campus as I feel she is back in her “bubble.” I am not naive enough to think that any college campus is completely safe, but I feel Amherst does a great job in that regard.</p>
<p>I’ve got to say I question the validity of this research. Clearly student population is a big factor in determining campus safety, and the other schools who scored “unsafe” are small schools. Amherst is very safe and has a great campus police force. I’ve never heard any real complaints about safety. So I agree–the F must stand for fantastic</p>
<p>It’s clear that colleges with better reporting and enforcement practices are going to do worse in this rating system. Also residential colleges will do worse than commuter colleges since offences committed by commuter college students will almost always be off-campus.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke College and Amherst an “F” ?? Yet large Universities in major
metro areas, such as Atlanta and Boston, received a better grade? How odd?</p>
<p>Maybe students report crimes more often at smaller schools, where the culture encourages disclosure of things like date rape-or drunk til unconscious rape-and they are more comfortable talking to security personnel?</p>
<p>All I know is that D was there for 4 years and everything was fine. When I visited, we walked around at night, and never a problem. Do things happen? Of course. Are bikes stolen, etc.? Do kids get into trouble for being drunk at times? Yes. Does this happen one very campus? Yes. And when there was a rape incident a few years back, the school worked with the victim and urged her to file charges, and gave her tremendous support. </p>
<p>However, I can tell you that when we visited U of Chicago, we were told to be cautious, etc., and that you shouldn’t walk at night alone, etc., but just use normal caution. Things were fine. Just isolated incidents here or there. Well, cousins are all cops in Chicago and they said there was a LOT there but the school just didn’t report it all. They urged D to keep their numbers on speed dial should she have gone there. So, I don’t necessarily agree with many fo these sites. it depends on how the info is being given.</p>
<p>I always read the campus crime log, and it’s mainly filled with noise complains, drunken people and accidentally triggered smoke alarms. No major things, other than petty theft no and then. It’s very very safe to walk around I would think, even at 3am.</p>
<p>While on campus, I picked up a school newspaper and it had an extensive “police blotter” segment. I was sort of shocked at the size – compiled over 2 weeks. The crimes reported were largely noise violations. And, to be fair, there were a number of instances where the resolution was “issued a warning” instead of a citation.</p>
<p>Based on this one edition of the paper, it seems people who live on the first floor get busted the most for whatever it is they’re busted for, probably because there’s not much advance warning that campus security is on its way.</p>
<p>My favorite was the report of the guy carrying a 30-pack of Bud Lite (seriously?) who had the beer and a fake ID confiscated. This was a real crime. Campus security reported the false ID to California motor vehicle authorities…which I thought was sorta harsh. The kid had to deal with the loss of his ID (and deal with it sober, no less). No need to make a federal case of it with the state of California.</p>
<p>Before I saw this thread, I was under the impression that Amherst has an unusually long police blotter for a school of its size and rural location…and that many of the things that get blown up to criminal activity are things that might merit a stern-talking-to from a parent or an administrator at another college. I’d be more concerned about the lack of leeway that campus security seems to afford students than about the lack of personal safety…if I was a student. But that’s for D’yer, Jr. to look into – though I don’t think he saw the newspaper and he doesn’t do CC. Fortunately, I’m not affected by this as I’m at an age where I can walk around in broad daylight with 30-packs of beer. Just don’t let it be Bud Lite, please.</p>
<p>Let’s just put it this way, peeing outside (at night, outside of a crowded party, by a tree) is a Safety Violation for which you get fined $100. So keep their “safety record” in perspective.</p>
<p>Having visited Amherst with my daughter (potential 2015) I can only say that this report appears… fishy. Frankly, I think it is a crock. I can think of few schools with more safety than Amherst. Perhaps Adak Alaska University, only because there is no where for the offender to run. This “report” is suspect, IMHO, at best.</p>
<p>Totally unfounded. You’d have to start your own trouble to encounter any. It is in fact unrealistically safe; most people leave their rooms unlocked, their belongings unwatched, etc.</p>