<p>I just came across a website that was very eyeopening, and I think a must for parents and students to look at regardless of what college they decide to go to. It shows you just how "safe" any campus is, because by federal law, colleges must report crime figures annually. Crime rates can be compared at</p>
<p>My takeaway is that rapes and burglaries occur on EVERY campus, and not just on inner city school campuses. Kids going to school should realize they will not be living in a bubble; no matter how safe they think their school is, they should use this awareness to take steps to keep safety in mind and avoid becoming a statistic. Maybe something for parents to share with their kids before they go away?</p>
<p>It's also interesting that some campuses that are often perceived as unsafe (Columbia for example) have considerably fewer reports than ones that are perceived as safer. Unfortunately there's no way to know just how accurate the self reporting is. Does it reflect kids who live off campus for example?</p>
<p>You want a sense of why you can't quite use these? Look at Northwestern's "Burglary" data. Obviously, they changed some definitions between 2004 and 2006 (one category goes from 96 to 0, another from 38 to 162), and in 2005 they either had a remarkable year on the prevention front, or they somehow "lost" 100 or so crimes.</p>
<p>New York Times published a list this Sunday as well. Harvard College had a high rate of rapes. Ohio schools had a horrible rate of rapes and burglaries.</p>
<p>By far the highest risk of crime on campus is rape or sexual assault by another student. Roughly 70,000 of the former, 600,000 of the latter, annually. The majority are associated with alcohol use (by the perpetrator, not necessarily by the victim). Most go unreported to security or police.</p>
<p>It's wonderful that this info is available, and I certainly think it should be examined. That said, it should be taken with a whole lotta salt. </p>
<p>Just an example: Pomona</a>, Dangerous? College Rallies Against Designation - The Student Life
This is a Pomona College news article, written in response to the school being included among (and potentially atop) a planned list of America's Most Dangerous College Campuses. The list, compiled by Forbes, relied on the same numbers given by the OP's link. What the raw numbers don't tell you are contextual details. For example, in 2005, the year from which Forbes drew its conclusions, 11 of Pomona's 13 'auto thefts' were actually students joyriding in campus-owned golf-carts. A good idea? Of course not. But a clear indication of threat, or a good reason to avoid bringing a car to campus? Not so much.</p>
<p>So it is true, the numbers can be misleading. I looked up a few other schools with which I'm quite familiar, and the results were interesting, but far from flawless. One school is known to have an exceptionally high rate of sexual assault, and yet the reported numbers were quite low (I've heard students complain and, in at least one case, transfer, b/c their claims have been ignored). A few other schools have significantly higher rates of on-campus alcohol consumption/abuse than my own school, and yet they have fewer liquor law violations (despite having larger student bodies), presumably due to looser policies and less policing of the issue.</p>
<p>Like I said, I definitely think these numbers are helpful, and they might form the basis for good questions to ask on a tour or for further research to do on your own. Still, they're no replacement for more well-rounded information. If a particular statistic really concerns you, ask about it on your tour or in your interview. Ask current students on CC. Find out if the problem is real, and what the school is (or isn't) doing to solve it. Just try to find whatever context you can.</p>
<p>How common is it for students in a dorm to become close friends and think they can trust one another, to the point of not locking their doors? My son's best friend was told by the other students at Rice that no one ever bothered to lock their doors, because they were all 'family.' Both his bike and his computer were ripped off.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How common is it for students in a dorm to become close friends and think they can trust one another, to the point of not locking their doors? My son's best friend was told by the other students at Rice that no one ever bothered to lock their doors, because they were all 'family.' Both his bike and his computer were ripped off.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>We didn't lock our room doors - some people even left them open when they left the hall - and we had a bunch of communal property in the lounges, some of which was fairly valuable (computers, TV, video game systems & games, movie collections, random electronic components). I don't remember anyone on hall having anything stolen in four years, except for food in the kitchen fridge, and that was usually a case of misunderstanding between residents.</p>
<p>We were also on the 5th floor of a dorm with no elevators, and were a hall with a reputation for being "scary". No thief with half a brain would have stolen our stuff when there were four floors below us with the same stuff and less intimidating reputations. :) And you had to have keys both to enter the dorm and to enter an individual hall.</p>
<p>I would think that the more 'dangerous' schools, like the more urban ones, would actually be safer.</p>
<p>Columbia is essentially a gated campus, with security guards checking IDs in each and every dorm. I've never felt unsafe there and most of the crimes involving Columbia students happen way off-campus.</p>
<p>Also, I don't think many students or parents realize that they are most likely to be victimized by their fellow student rather than by a random stranger off the street. The kids who live in your dorms and go to the same parties are more likely to be the ones stealing your stuff and assaulting your fellow students because they have access.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How common is it for students in a dorm to become close friends and think they can trust one another, to the point of not locking their doors? My son's best friend was told by the other students at Rice that no one ever bothered to lock their doors, because they were all 'family.' Both his bike and his computer were ripped off.
[/quote]
That doesn't mean they were stolen by other Rice students! Many thieves are college-age and blend right in.</p>
<p>A local tv station showed video of students at a state school going into their dorm. The kids would open the door to the dorm with their key cards & then others would slip in before the door closed. In a small school, you might know everyone who is behind you; not so at a bigger school. Even if kids trust all their classmates, they need to be aware of the possibility that not everyone in their dorm "belongs" there.</p>
<p>I went to a very small school, and students were very careful not to allow anyone in who didn't belong. One Sunday morning as I was taking a shower in the community bathroom, I noticed a very large figure just outside my shower curtain. I screamed at the top of my lungs & a man ran away. Even when everyone is careful, things can happen.</p>
<p>In most cases, the urban schools are the safer ones, but not because they are gated, but because the rates of binge and heavy drinking are lower. Both binge and heavy drinking are associated with on-campus rapes, sexual assaults, and physical assaults, and the vast, overwhelming number of crimes on campus are committed by students themselves.</p>