<p>This is pretty interesting stuff on crime statistics from across the Ivy League -- it's surprising which campus is technically the most dangerous:</p>
<p>Puts a new meaning on "safety school"...</p>
<p>I had the same sentiment about Dartmouth and the arsonists, although I didn't express it quite so colorfully - maybe they were trying to keep warm, or prevent the profs from grading the organic test by burning down the chem lab????</p>
<p>I would not give much credit to such reported crime stat comparisons, as there's not much consistency in reporting. </p>
<p>The crime reports are probably more useful in telling you what kinds of problems a campus has than as a comparative tool.</p>
<p>Also consider that a rural campus like Dartmouth, or a suburban one like Princeton probably do most of the policing themselves, and therefore most of the reporting, whereas an urban campus like Penn or Harvard will have a lot of "action" taking place in areas covered by the local Philly or Cambridge police, and hence not reported as campus crime.</p>
<p>The Penn spokesman must have worked for a politician at some point in their career . Jeez. I'll paraphrase. "No. No. Not a student. Let's be perfectly clear. The unfortunate murdered stranger was not a student here at all. He was just an individual that paid tuition and took classes on the Penn campus . He was a 1) student 2) at Penn. Yes, he was but he was not a Penn student. " Statistics and definitions, the con-man's best friend. ;)</p>
<p>I don't think the on-campus crime statistics are enough when it comes to colleges where many of the students live off-campus, such as Penn and Cornell.</p>
<p>Seems like an appropriate time to post the link to the Dept. of Education's Office of Post-Secondary Education "Campus Security Statistics" search page:</p>
<p><a href="http://ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp%5B/url%5D">http://ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp</a></p>
<p>Each college's page will tell you whether local statistics were included with on-campus statistics or not, and there are tables for on-campus and off/near-campus incidents.</p>
<p>(EDIT: By the way, a comment under the table linked in the OP questions the "Non-Forcible Sex Offense" statistics. FYI, the OPE's definition of that crime is "Incest and Statutory Rape".)</p>
<p>newsdad makes good points...</p>
<p>I still don't worry about my son at Dartmouth. And I think his buddy at Columbia is just fine too.</p>
<p>sjmom--it's useful for us Columbia parents so people will believe us when we say "no, really, it's a very safe place!" YOu probably don't get that doubt so much!</p>
<p>Aside from the comments in the article itself there's a difference in the size of the school - all of Harvard U. with its multiple campuses is huge compared to Dartmouth. I personally never knew a single undergrad. with a car at Harvard, but 32 were stolen?</p>
<p>I actually ran into a detective today. She was in the mall parking lot and we helped her change her tire. She actually works rape cases in this one county that has a university. She says that the rape statistics, and other crime statistics, they report are completely inaccurate. They are much lower than the actual statistics that the county has on record. Just keep that in mind...</p>
<p>"I would not give much credit to such reported crime stat comparisons, as there's not much consistency in reporting." </p>
<p>Sadly, yes. After a student committed suicide, it came out that one of the state U.s down here had failed to report allegations of sexual assault, rape, and rape by drug that were made against members of a popular fraternity.</p>