Attached is the link to the 2018 campus-safety ratings of university/college campuses having student populations of at least 10,000 students. The ratings, by the National Council for Home Safety and Security, ranked 243 campuses. Ranked #1 is the Rexburg, Idaho, campus of Brigham Young University, with #243-ranked University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, placed at the bottom.
https://www.alarms.org/safest-college-campuses-in-america-2018/
That high BYU ranking coupled with the recent off campus rapes and the women’s accounts of being afraid to report them for fear of being expelled (there was alcohol) makes me think crime at BYU may be under-reported.
Interesting to see that 3 of the schools my son applied to are in the Top 10.
They seem to weight property crime higher than I would consider in regards to my child’s safety.
OHMomof2,
Rapes/sexual assault/sexual misconduct are severely underreported. I’d have to find the article, but a huge percentage of schools reported zero incidents of such crimes, which is simply not possible given the data we know about how often such crimes are committed. Two years ago, Reed, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Williams, Pomona, Bowdoin, and Knox (the only time my alma mater gets included with these elite schools–sigh!) appeared in a Washington Post article about schools reporting the highest number of rapes. Of course, this received a lot of attention, but the data is misleading.
Don’t get me wrong. One incident of rape is one too many. However, even a spokeswoman for the American Association of American University Women pointed out that these schools should be praised: not for having incidents of rape, of course (God no!), but for not sweeping it under the rug. These crimes are happening on nearly all campuses (the exceptions are evangelical colleges and women’s colleges), so the fact that these elite schools have high incidences of rape (high because other schools are falsely reporting zero incidences) is in fact a sign that the schools treat this issue seriously because they don’t ignore women’s claims; despite the PR backlash they do what they should; they file the incident so that it can be included in federal numbers, and they investigate it. The problem, as the spokeswoman I mentioned above states, is with the schools that are reporting zero incidences of sexual crime. In other words, things are backwards. The schools that report incidences than get a bashing PR-wise for doing what they should, while schools that do not report get praised in safety reports.
Don’t get me wrong. Work still needs to be done. At Knox, there have been protests and frustration that victims have to see their attackers daily. The administration is in a tough spot, where, sadly, given our judicial system, nothing short of witness testimony will suffice. Even DNA evidence is not proof (the attacker will simply say that, sure, sex occurred, but it was consensual). There have been calls from student protesters to expel accused offenders, but that would lead to lawsuits, where a young man’s family screams bloody murder over the expulsion and the label of rapist.
I know. Too much information. The point is that, yes, take the safety numbers, at least regarding sexual crime, with a huge grain of salt. Actually, probably better to throw out those numbers entirely.
Don’t fool yourself, evangelical colleges and women’s colleges have rape and sexual assault cases too. I suspect that evangelical colleges would be the most likely suspects in sweeping things under the rug.
I take your point Hapworth and agree.
BYU’s rules seem to actively prevent women from reporting rapes though, more than a non-religious university, because they can be disciplined for honor code violations that come to light because they reported a sexual assault.
…the fear of being investigated, suspended or losing a scholarship could keep students from reporting sexual assaults to the university, potentially letting perpetrators escape campus discipline.
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Anecdotally… OB/GYN’s and Planned Parenthood clinics located near evangelical colleges and women’s colleges would vigorously dispute the assertion that there isn’t a rape and sexual assault problem on their campuses. But women at colleges which put a high premium on the women being “virtuous” end up getting treated in the community and not reporting.
Hence- not in the statistics.
It is easy to claim zero sexual assaults and zero “problem pregnancies” if your students take their “problems” off campus.
LOL on the MSU safety ranking of 47. How many crimes were not reported or were blocked by school official?
Perhaps the lowest rates of on campus crime may be found at commuter schools in low crime rate neighborhoods, since everyone associated with the school (students, faculty, staff) will show up for class or work, then leave when done, so that most crime exposure would be somewhere other than on campus.
^ Or a school in rural area that has no outsider than people affiliated with the school. It is hard for a school in a city to be on top of the list.
Couldn’t a residential school in a rural area have campus culture that involves heavy alcohol use, resulting in student-on-student crimes or accusations after drunk students show poor judgment (e.g. fights, sexual misconduct, destruction of property), or more predatory criminals use others’ drunkenness as a cover to commit crimes (e.g. predatory rapists)?
Of course, a rural school could also have a problem like Penn State did.
This information doesn’t seem right, there are a lot of factors not weighted in. FAU is the highest in Florida (at #60) and when visiting I didn’t feel safe at all. My sister loves the school but has been in unsafe situations. Her friends have almost all had their bikes stolen, and someone broke into my sister’s car and stole her medication.
BYU has cracked down on sexual assault recently. At a campus-wide announcement, statistics about sexual harassment on campus were disseminated. Note that BYU Provo was only #50 on the list, which makes sense given its urban location and history with sexual assault/sexual harassment.
This might be as incorrect as suspected since these campuses sizes are all over the place.
That is BYU-Idaho. It’s a very small school in a very small town. Those I’ve know who have attended are very dedicated LDS members and wanted the smaller campus over the big and wild Utah main campus.