<p>Both of my daughters are away at college and recently they have both received notification of college housing break-ins. Is this an epidemic or just plain bad luck?</p>
<p>Part of it is probably just due to the automatic texting capabilities colleges have now to issue warnings like this - most didn’t have that not many years ago.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think colleges today are a lot more likely to run shuttle buses at night or between far points of a campus, have more emergency blue lights on campus, greater presence of campus police, etc. compared to back in the day. If nothing else - from a liability standpoint.</p>
<p>Criminals have found students to be soft targets with valuables.</p>
<p>I think it is more for prevention (and CYA for the colleges). Reminders like these are important for those students living off campus and who for some reason think an urban apartment is just as safe as living in suburbia.</p>
<p>Lots of students who grew up in low crime areas may not be “paranoid” enough to lock doors and windows, etc. after moving to a school in a higher crime area.</p>
<p>Crime overall has been on a downward trend since the mid 1990s, though it certainly differs in different areas.</p>
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<p>My guess is these break-ins involved someone leaving their door either unlocked or open while they went to another room down the hall or to take a shower. It’s pretty easy on lots of school campuses to just wander around buildings and try to look for an open door with an empty office. I’ve heard stories of people having their car stolen (staff, not even students!) because they left their office door open and their car keys were left unattended on their desk. All the thief had to do was go to each of the garages hitting the keyless unlock button until they found the car!</p>
<p>I think it’s interesting that if you travel to a big city (especially foreign), Rome for example, they distinguish between violent and non-violent crime. I don’t know stats for either for campus crime but it would be nice to know.</p>
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<p>This.
Most people didn’t bother to read the Clery Reports, but now that mass texting and other forms of mass communication have become commonplace, people are more aware of the crimes that were already occurring on campus.</p>
<p>I agree that mass texting by colleges has heightened awareness of crimes, and that the most prevalent crime on college campuses is probably theft. Students leaving their doors unlocked, laptops unattended, backpacks in the hall or common room, etc. Oftentimes it can be other students who are doing the breaking and entering to steal. I even know of one case where a student at a large university was part of a theft ring where students would steal electronics from their own suitemates and sell them (fortunately he was caught and expelled). </p>
<p>Prevalence of electronics is another thing that may be leading to slightly increased rates of theft. Students today are much more likely to have MP3 players, e-book readers, computers, stereos, and of course, cell phones, than previous generations. Those things are super portable, and easily stolen. I know in my city there has been an uptick in crime on public transport because more people are carrying digital devices and using them on trains, and thus more of them are being stolen on trains. </p>
<p>Many campus public saftey offices keep statistics on college safety. They may even have a hand out that they can provide you with if you ask or that they post online. Feel free to check them out if you think it will make you feel safer.</p>
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<p>All of them do - they are required to do so by the Clery Act, and to make that report available upon request.</p>
<p>I would imagine crime is down over the past 10 years or so it’s just that the colleges and universities are actually notifying students when they take place. The Clery act mandates that statistics be kept and “timely” notifications be sent. </p>
<p>I also agree that most “break-ins” really aren’t by force rather entering unlocked rooms/apartments. The number 1 crime tip I would give would be to NEVER leave your belongings unsecured/alone. This means always locking your doors and if leaving your electronics in your locked room, also locking them down or securing in a locked door. You never know if your roommate will be locking the door when they leave.</p>
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A good point - nowadays the average student has thousands of dollars of highly desirable and and easily disposed of electronics just laying around in their dorm and sometimes on their person as they’re walking around. It’s a target rich environment.</p>
<p>When I showed up at UofChicago for graduate school eons ago they gave all the women rape whistles to carry around.</p>
<p>Here’s a website with data:
[The</a> Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool](<a href=“Campus Safety and Security”>Campus Safety and Security)</p>
<p>I did the Skype thing with both my daughters last night to check in with them. I asked them if the break in notifications were general safety notification sent out to all students. </p>
<p>One was a general email sent to all students in responce to last years events. This particular Big Ten School in Michigan had a rash of dorm robberies while the kids were a sleep. The notification was a general reminder to lock their doors and keep all their fancy electronic devices out of general sight.</p>
<p>My other daughters notification was a lot more disturbing. Apartments on the parameter of the campus where she lives with some friends!!! are having their doors kicked in by thieves looking to grab what ever they can and split long before the police can be notified. </p>
<p>She said her roommate pushes the couch in front of the door before they go to sleep. I am paying for this “learning” environment?</p>
<p>I feel I should protect them better while they are away from home. Any suggestions?</p>
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<p>What is described is typical thievery. (Though thieves usually try to steal when no one is there, because breaking into a place and encountering a resident is risky for the thief.)</p>
<p>When looking for an off-campus apartment, did they consider the security of the building and unit? People who grew up in low crime areas may be less likely to pay attention to whether the building and unit has strong doors and locks and other security measures than people who grew up where crime was a concern.</p>
<p>The number 1 crime tip I would give would be to NEVER leave your belongings unsecured/alone. </p>
<p>Not to pick on this, but my #1 would actually be for kids to read the reports that colleges circulate, whether they are texts or inserts in the campus newspaper. Be forewarned. In grad school, I was amazed at the number of “jumps” that occured in an unlit shortcut girls took back to the undergrad dorms. They continued to take the shortcut. Now, I live near a college and guys walking back to the dorms between 1-3am, alone, get mugged multiple times/semester. Campus and local police can’t get the attention of these kids.</p>
<p>I also don’t think crime was taken as seriously, in general. I recall an incident in my sorority house whereby a girl who was studying late at night in the basement went to the bathroom down there and encountered a man who had broken in who was waiting there and began to attack her. She screamed and he fled. But it was sort of thought of as “one of those things,” not something that these days would have prompted everyone on campus to be notified, public safety patrols to increase, maybe extra locks or alarm systems added to housing, etc. (Same thing, parenthetically, with things like campus deaths or suicides. They happened in “our day,” too, but the whole campus didn’t necessarily get informed of it and they were treated as unfortunate incidents, not as learning experiences for the community.) I think it’s just a different mindset today.</p>
<p>We have always encouraged our kids to keep any valuables OUT OF SIGHT, especially when they’re not around, as well as secure their doors & windows. It seems to have worked pretty well. S had his phone & wallet stolen when he left it on the bench at the U’s gym to go to the bathroom but no other thefts and have thus far avoided being crime victims or statistics. They attend a school near Watts & has had more than its share of crime.</p>