<p>I just read an article in Readers Digest in which Duke is ranked in the top 5 for having the highest crime rate. How unsafe is it? Has Duke taken any steps to curtail this?<br>
What do I need to tell my child who will be starting there in August?
Thanks</p>
<p>In my opinion, a student's safety at Duke really depends on whether or not that student can exercise common sense. Yes, Duke is not the safest school, but I doubt that it is one of the top 5 most dangerous. What is Readers Digests methodology? To me, it just seems like it's a stretch to highlight Duke, which is in a relatively small city, and ignore the hundreds of schools in the ghettos of larger cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, New Orleans). For example, I'd much rather send my S/D to Duke than to Tulane, just for the fact that I'd be much more comfortable in Durham than in NOLA.</p>
<p>3-2go - take a look at the Police News on Duke's own website. The box at the top will allow you to choose the year:</p>
<p>Police</a> News</p>
<p>As a current Duke parent I think the University could do a much better job regarding campus safety. I thought after the murder of an off campus Duke grad student in January 2008 that the University would make safety a high priority. In my viewpoint it has not.</p>
<p>See previous discussion in this forum here:</p>
<p>And please feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I found in my one conversation with the Duke police officer who I was referred to regarding personal safety that they are woefully ignorant; i.e. they had never heard of a "mugger's wallet," Screecher alarms and did not know the local rules for mace or pepper spray.</p>
<p>Mugger's wallet...now that's a good idea for travelling, though i'd hate to think it's a necessity at Duke.</p>
<p>For the record, Tulane is in a very safe area of New Orleans. Only those without common sense would be in the unsafe areas of NOLA at 2am. Also, the majority of NOLA crime is drug related.</p>
<p>AdmisConsulting: the article states: "Using crime data that colleges file with the federal Office of Postsecondary Education (ope.ed.gov/security), we ranked 285 schools, factoring in size and weighing violent crime more heavily than property crime. For the full list and methodology, see rd.com"</p>
<p>Readers Digest lists in the "Lower" category: NYU, Hopkins, Boston U, U or Chicago, Univ of Nevada, Las Vegas
in the "Moderate" category: Georgia Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Arizona State, USC, and Harvard
In the "Higher" category: Univ of Colorado, Unive of Cal, Davis, Univ or Florida, Univ of Mass- Amherst, and Duke.
Like you, these results surprised me which is why I was asking the advice of parents and fellow students. At least now I can educate my suburban living son before he heads to Durham in August.</p>
<p>Wow... hard to imagine UC Davis on the list. We live nearby. My D is heading off to Durham as well. If it's anything like Davis (I know, it's not...) I'll be very happy!</p>
<p>Let's put it this way.
You do NOT want to be walking around downtown Durham by yourself in the middle of the night.
Duke has SAFE rides which are free of charge if you are somewhere far away from campus.</p>
<p>Actually, you probably don't want to be walking around any downtown area of a city in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>I have to admit though, I'm surprised GaTech is ranked lower than Duke. Having lived literally a stone's throw away in downtown Atlanta, I'd be more scared to be walking around there at night than at Duke.</p>
<p>That list just seems ridiculous to me, sorry. They take into account the size of the school or size of the city? Anyways, anybody who says Univ of Colorado and Univ of Mass- Amherst are more dangerous than UChicago and NYU, clearly has never been to those campuses. Since this is only for reported crime, my theory is that students who go to schools in large cities typically report the more severe crimes to the city police (e.g. NYPD) instead of campus police. So, the crime reported is much lower because the school itself (e.g. NYU) didn't report it since the student didn't report the crime to the campus police. Nobody at Duke would report an on campus crime to Durham PD (so Duke PD gets 100% of the reporting). On the other hand, NYU really has no campus (just a bunch of buildings) so all crime is "off-campus" if outside, so would be dealt with the NYPD. Anyways, Duke isn't the safest place in the world, but certainly isn't like a bad neighborhood in NYC or Chicago. On West you feel (and typically are) perfectly safe. I wouldn't wander off campus in downtown Durham, by myself, however. Duke hires (or used to hire) private security (in addition to the Duke PD) that is worthless, however...not really Duke admin's fault..more like Securitas, etc. terribleness who hire terrible people (although Securitas has since been fired). The 4'9" 110 pound woman just isn't a very imposing security guard....</p>
<p>I liked those segways and weird modified segways they used though, cause it's kinda funny watching them go around on those.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech is in its own plot of land in Atlanta and it is a little safer than day Georgia State.</p>
<p>Many students at GATech do live off campus though, and the area around GATech isn't exactly known for safety.</p>
<p>i think people blow safety way outta porportion. I understand that most people going to these schools live in pretty wealthy or safe areas most of their lives, but its actually pretty easy to be safe. I have lived in a pretty rough and poor neighborhood my whole life and all you gotta do, as AdmissConsulting said, is use your common sense</p>