<p>My two sons were victim of violent crime while they were attending UCB.
Unlless you are willing to deal with what I deal with each day (which is unbearable), do not send him/her to Berkeley a crime ridden city with totally incompetent city police and campus [olice who offered me " send your son to a counseling center" which was the only follow-up they did about the matter. </p>
<p>It is not which college is better, It is which college you will finish without becoming a victim of sexual or violent crime.....</p>
<p>I never thought I would worry about the safety of the campus, but after two incidents of near death, you bet I think it is the most important issue.</p>
<p>Unless you are ready to deal with a 20 year old with post traumatic distress syndrome due to a robbery at a gun point, DO NOT SENT YIUR CHILD TO BERKELEY !!! i beg you.</p>
<p>I am sorry your sons had this awful experience. I believe crime rates are increasing in many areas and am surprised more is not mentioned on this web site. My son’s school newspaper reports on it and robberies have jumped dramatically.</p>
<p>Same here. Son is in Boston…their seem to be more reports of robberies, etc. lately. I know there are even in our rural little town.<br>
I am sorry for your experience OP (original poster). I would urge parents and students to check the reporting on campus safety when considering schools. There are statistics available out there on the web. Then ask questions on your tour about how they handle situations. Unfortunately when you choose a school in an urban area you probably are increasing your risk. That needs to be weighed, along with lots of other factors when making a decision. My family recently sat down with a young relative and told her that we didn’t feel she was ready for an urban area. We were pretty blunt about it.</p>
<p>I’m very sorry to hear about your sons. My best wishes to all of you.</p>
<p>I would like to say that student on student violence is more common, particular where girls are victims than most colleges are willing to admit. As a matter of fact, it seems like they turn a blind eye to it, especially where their alcohol policy is concerned. (And most of the violence is alcohol related.) So, sending your child to college in the middle of nowhere is no guarantee of safety. One could argue that there could be more alcohol related problems in a school like that because of lack of places to go (although I have no statistics to back this up – it’s hearsay from students and sites like this one.)</p>
<p>I think criminals have found students to be rich and soft targets. Most today carry cell phones, Ipods, laptops, and credit cards. I have seen reports of strong-armed robberies in college towns across the US.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear of what happened to your sons.</p>
<p>I have to admit, the safety of the area around UCB was on my mind when my Ds were making their decisions. Both chose to attend other UCs rather than UCB so I didn’t have to research it or consider it more strongly. I don’t know enough about the immediate area and stats to say that UCB’s less safe than the average campus but just judging from its area it seemed worth checking into. Ditto for USC.</p>
<p>I’m wondering, did these events happen on the actual campus, at night, in a notably unsafe area, were they by themselves at the time, etc.?</p>
<p>There is a website - crimereports.com - which compiles data from participating (key word) police departments and puts them on a google map. It’s kind of addictive.</p>
<p>While I’m deeply sorry to hear about your sons, I must say that violent crime rates in Berkeley are EXTREMELY low- this is especially true in the immediate campus areas especially (Telegraph, Shattuck, Hearst, etc). In fact, violent attacks occur so rarely that when they do they get intense media coverage and response. There are areas in West Berkeley far from campus where the neighborhoods get seedy, as is the case if you take Telegraph to far down and begin to cross into Oakland (after Piedmont and Rockridge), but students have absolutley NO REASON to go to these places. Also, I’m sorry to hear about your experience with UCPD, but in my personal experience, as well as the experiences of many many others, UCPD does just about everything they can to reduce the risks to students. You may consult the webpage to find that there are programs like BearWalk, where students can be escorted by a security guard from anywhere on/around campus safely home at night. There are also a plethora of nightime shuttles ([University</a> of California, Berkeley - Police Department](<a href=“http://police.berkeley.edu/safetyinfo/]University”>http://police.berkeley.edu/safetyinfo/)). While tragedies do occur, all students should be taught basic saftey (don’t walk alone at night, use the services available to you, stay near campus, don’t accept drinks from strangers at parties).</p>
<p>OP- So sorry to hear about your sons. They may have been victimized during a rash of armed robberies that happened a while back in Berkeley and got a lot of press coverage. (Search the Oakland Tribune for archived articles if interested in reading more.) I have not heard that the armed robberies continued beyond that period of time. For those considering Berkeley, most students manage to walk around town unharmed during their four years. However, Berkeley is an urban environment where students interact with local citizens on a daily basis and not all of the citizens (or the students) are law abiding. I know a lot of kids who have attended Berkeley, many female, who have walked around at all hours and never had any problems. My best advice to those of you who are worried about Berkeley is to visit the city and see what your comfort level is. Crime does exist there, although I have seen worse at other colleges. There is no predicting where any one individual will be safe or not during their college years.
Being the victim of a violent crime can have a highly negative and long-lasting impact on the victim and I am sorry for the pain these boys and their family is experiencing. (I have close family member who did not receive counseling following an attack and was traumatized for years.) I am also sorry to hear that the Mother of these boys feels abandoned by the police and the university. I would take the advice of the police and make sure counseling is available to the boys. I hope the OP has contacted the legislators who represent that area and find out if there is further help available from the city or state for victims of violent crime.</p>
<p>In 197x, I did not apply to UCB as I was concerned about safety (primarily assault on women, which was much in the news). Instead, I went to UC Santa Cruz. First, I found out that the <em>rate</em> of assault on women at UCSC was just as high as UCB, they just weren’t publicizing these occurrences. Then, my freshman year was the year that a number of mass murderers (eg Ed Kemper) were active in Santa Cruz. You just can’t predict. Even tucking away your children in some sleepy mid-west community is no protection. </p>
<p>I second all the posts about being aware in an urban setting; but really this applies to all places.</p>