<p>Another poster stated there were 23/23/20 rapes at UVA from 2003 through 2005. Is this true? I know the alcohol flows freely here but this seems a bit much. Has the surrounding area gone downhill in terms of safety?</p>
<p>Yes, it's perfectly safe.</p>
<p>It's as safe as any other place. I was the poster who uncovered those stats. I meant them to be used as perspective for other stats that were published. Taken in the context of over 21,000 students and with the issue of date rape in a college-aged population, the risks should be minor for anyone who takes rudimentary precautions.</p>
<p>Charlottesville is beautiful and quite safe. Two stepsons have graduated from UVA and Daughter has attended SEP three summers and anxiously waiting on acceptance. Have not been able to confirm those statistics but it is one of the few campuses in which we trust our daughter. One still has to practice common sense. As far as alcohol, most campuses seem to have some sort of problem.</p>
<p>Let's put it another way. The US, purportedly, has the highest, or at least one of the highest, crime rates among industrialized nations. Do you feel unsafe living here?</p>
<p>I always felt comfortable on the grounds but l am surprised at 20+sexual assaults per year. A college environment should be safer than the general population. </p>
<p>Tarhunt- For perspective, how does this compare to other similar schools like UNC or Penn State?</p>
<p>Here's a link, doctorrob:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/main.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/main.asp</a></p>
<p>Actually, when you think about the population, the drinking, and the chance of date rape, these numbers don't seem scary to me. I think they're most likely to mean that, if you're a young woman, don't get sloppy fall down drunk and don't hang around guys who are in that condition.</p>
<p>Just a guess, of course, since acquaintance rape isn't broken out, but I suspect that the majority, or even all, of these on-campus rapes are acquaintance-based.</p>
<p>Great link. But the comparitive data is a bit surprising. I checked Penn State and UVA per a posters suggestion. PSU has about three times as many students but sexual assault reports are VERY low compared to UVA. Surprising since PSU has a much bigger reputation as a party school (assuming these are date rapes as one poster suggested). Any explanations?</p>
<p>More students at UVa are reporting rape than their counterparts at other universities. That doesn't mean the crime is more or less common here, it means that more students are taking action.</p>
<p>I think we need students to chime in here (and I don't know if they'll see this in the parent forum), but something that strikes me is that information about sexual assault (definitions, websites, numbers to call that aren't just for the on-campus sexual assault network hotline) is posted on every stall door in the ladies rooms throughout the student union. I believe I've seen the same posters in the library restrooms, too. Maybe our students are just more aware of what to do after a sexual assault.</p>
<p>Again, students should probably tell us how they feel about these numbers. I'm just offering my guess as to why the numbers are higher than other schools.</p>
<p>I know it's hard to believe that a student wouldn't report rape, but I think that is the norm at some places. At another institution, I was part of the Sexual Assault Network. Students called a hotline (24/7...we were on pagers) and given the option to make a formal report or just talk informally. More often than not, even when there was a clear cut case of rape, the student would not make a formal report. In my years there, none of my callers ever made a formal complaint. It was shockingly sad.</p>
<p>I agree that it could well be a matter of reporting.</p>
<p>As a parent of a little girl , none of this is making me feel better. Dean J may have a point but I'm sure Penn State tries to educate their students as well as UVA re sexual assaults responses. </p>
<p>Is 20+ rapes/yr avg for a large state school? I certainly hope it is not acceptable as indicated by the tone of some of the earlier posters.</p>
<p>swish:</p>
<p>I'm the father of four girls. I know C'ville very well. It is as safe as any other suburban area around the University. I would not hesitate to send my remaining daughter there. You are NOT going to find a school in which some young women (and young men for that matter) are not assaulted. That is the unfortunate fact of the world we live in.</p>
<p>Acquaintance rape is badly underreported. I can well imagine that it is more likely for women at some schools to report it than it is at others.</p>
<p>As I've said, I SERIOUSLY doubt these residence hall sexual assaults are caused by outsiders wandering onto the grounds and raping co-eds. They are most likley acquaintance rapes. Acquaintance rape is not always preventable, but most times it is.</p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.securityoncampus.org%5B/url%5D">www.securityoncampus.org</a>. And if one wants to pursue this issue further, check with the local police dept as well.</p>
<p>Acquaintance rape or not, 20+ rapes/year for a school seems like a lot and none of these responses are really addressing the point. In fact, acquaintance rape almost seems worse b/c the attacker is a fellow student that the victim could see again on campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link. I checked UCSD and UCLA, both very large schools, and the numbers are way lower than that indicated for UVA. Maybe it's a matter of reporting as Dean J states. If not, then there must be some problems on that campus.</p>
<p>Well, I guess I need to give this my full attention.</p>
<p>I'm assuming you picked this little datum up from a post I made on the topic of whether the University of Chicago is safe or not. I posted the UVA numbers to show how a school such as UVA, which is widely considered to be both safe and located in a good area, has more reported residence hall rapes than the U of Chicago. That's all. I did it for contrast, not because I feel that UVA is unsafe. </p>
<p>I don't.</p>
<p>Twenty rapes represents about one out of every 500 women at UVA. Frankly, I suspect the real number of sexual assaults is much higher than that at UVA and practically any other college where students drink a fair amount. This is the reality for young women who live in America at the end of the millenium. It's ugly, but that's what it is.</p>
<p>As many have pointed out, the numbers are suspect because of the issue of reporting. For instance, women at the Air Force Academy only recently came forward to report rapes. Had you seen their numbers before the publicity, I'm sure they would have looked awfully good.</p>
<p>As I've said, I have four daughters. I try not to spend too much time worrying if they will lose the violent sex crime lottery. I also don't worry about auto accidents, airplane crashes, or the like. To me, the issue is to take reasonable precautions against such things and then try very hard not to be constantly fearful.</p>
<p>I hope you are not looking for the perfectly safe school, because you are unlikely to find it. I can assure you that UVA is as safe as any place can be.</p>
<p>As for acquaintance rape being worse than rape from an unknown attacker, I'm sure the psychological impact varies from person to person and from event to event. I would rather not have any of my daughters raped at all, but if someone held a gun to my head and told me I had to choose one or the other, I'd choose acquaintance rape over having my daughter both raped and beaten, which is the most likely outcome of assault by a stranger.</p>
<p>I also agree with Tarhunt that it may be a matter of reporting. </p>
<p>There are many, many ways of parsing these statistics. For instance, what counts as a reportable crime? Only crimes inside university owned buildings? Only crimes within certain geographic boundaries established by the university? Only crimes against students - excluding crimes against non-students on university property? Only crimes in which charges have been brought?</p>
<p>I think there are many variables and no standardization, as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>It seems to me that it is imperative to always make a campus visit and talk to as many students as possible, who live both on and off campus.</p>
<p>I commend UVA for doing what appears to be their level best to give students an accurate picture of student life.</p>
<p>Actually, I would argue that you probably can find schools with very low incidence of rape/sexual assault -- they are the Christian schools affiliated with a church/religion (like Bob Jones University). I know next to nothing about these schools, although I did recently read an article in the New York Times Sunday magazine about one of these colleges, which just this year decided to allow students to dance. I might be totally wrong about this, but my gut tells me that sexual assault would be low at these places.</p>
<p>sly_vt:</p>
<p>I would tend to think you've made a high probability guess. I would guess the same.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There are many, many ways of parsing these statistics. For instance, what counts as a reportable crime? Only crimes inside university owned buildings? Only crimes within certain geographic boundaries established by the university? Only crimes against students - excluding crimes against non-students on university property? Only crimes in which charges have been brought?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Also, what counts as rape? The numbers listed are only for forcible sexual assaults, not forcible rape. </p>
<p>Also, what counts as</p>