Scary data about Binghamton University

https://www.bestplaces.net/crime/city/new_york/binghamton_university

And the reality is exactly as you see here.

Where do they derive this information?

It’s unclear how “best places” came up with this ranking system - presumably they got crime stats from some source or sources. Some of this stuff is probably open to interpretation. Arson and burglary might affect property, but both are classified as violent crimes under the NYS Penal Law.

Take a look at the police data maps. That is probably the best place to look. but the number of student muggings and other information in the news constantly does support the numbers. The recent deaths shouldn’t really count since the perpetrators and victims were all Binghamton University students but there is no disagreement among anyone in the know about crime in Binghamotn. Students from safe areas like NYC don’t seem to be taking the crime rate seriously and, as a result, students are being targeted by gangs. If you are a parent of a Binghamton University student, talk to your student about the crime rate and how they plan to avoid being targeted. It isn’t just property crime. It is violent crime.
https://www.bupipedream.com/news/98203/student-populated-areas-see-higher-rates-of-break-ins-burglaries/
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/handling-binghamton-fall

TheBigChef, the violent crime is stabbings and muggings primarily. I posted this elsewhere but will repeat it here (those at the bottom may need to be cut and pasted):
https://www.bupipedream.com/news/41581/in-wake-of-downtoan-attacks-university-explores-options-to-increase-student-safety/
https://www.bupipedream.com/news/84526/bu-student-assaulted-downtown/
Assault charge filed in BU student’s stabbing at Rathskeller bar: https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2017/09/06/assault-charge-filed-bu-students-stabbing-rathskeller-bar/637521001/
Binghamton Student Attack Victims Raise Awareness On Downtown Safety: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/lisoski-lebowitz-and-salmon-raise-awareness-on-downtown-safety
Three students assaulted off-campus on Saturday night: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/64551/student-attack/
Students robbed in Smith Hall; gun possibly involved - Pipe Dream
https://www.bupipedream.com/
/students-robbed-in-smith-hall-gun-possibly-involve

Woman Assaulted, Robbed Near BU Downtown Center
www.wnbf.com/woman-assaulted-robbed-near-bu-downtown-center/

Update: One Arrested for Robbery on Binghamton University’s Camp 

www.wicz.com/story/37031716/b-alert-activated-after-reported-robbery-on-bus-campus

The point is to be well informed and careful!

Interesting to learn that October is gang initiation month.

Sounds like most of the assaults involve drunk BU students and townie street thugs (who are probably drunk or high themselves) in the downtown area late at night. Not uncommon for there to be an uneasy relationship between townies and college students, particularly when they come from very different socioeconomic backgrounds. Still, obviously something for Bing students to be aware of.

What motivates people to minimize the risks? It places students at risk. This isn’t a criticism of the school.It is realistic description of risks in BInghamton. You can’t prevent being a victim unless you are aware.

TheBigChef, most assaults don’t involve BU students & townie street thugs w/too many beers. You mis understand the gravity of the situation in Binghamton. The thugs are not “townies” who graduated from the local high school, took jobs in labor & hang at the bar after work. No. It’s not a matter of different SES backgrounds.

These are hard core gang members who if they feel their territory is violated could easily take a knife slit someone’s neck from adam’s apple to spine on a dime 4 a lark. These are not “gangs” as in townies who get into spats about Buffalo Bills vs whoever. These are Bloods & Crips. Binghamton denied gang violence for a decade. Now it’s too visible to deny.

Yes, there’s violence everywhere. But in Binghamton gang violence is in the same neighborhoods, streets, blocks & sidewalks as the students; not half a mile away/in some other “bad” neighborhood. There are shootings, stabbings, and murders. Yes all cities have meth labs, heroin. But your kid won’t be living next door to a meth lab in most cities-whereas they may be on the west side of Binghamton, where the houses/neighborhood “look nice”.

Until Binghamton students & their families “get it”, students will be at risk, harmed & killed. It’s about guns, knives, meth, the Bloods, the Crips-right where students hang out. Not like downstate “crimes”. This is violent gang/drug related crime on the same sidewalks the students use.

“Police say the shootings, though not related incidents, share one connective thread: suspected gang involvement. For police, gang activity in the Southern Tier is nothing new, but the recent shootings have cast into sharper focus the extent of their presence in communities and caused growing concern in the community”
Source: https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2017/05/12/gangs-tier-shooting-cases-have-cast-spotlight/101250716/

"Although they had risen to prominence after the “MacBallers” subset of the Bloods street gang was dismantled in 2014, authorities said what set the Eddie Block defendants apart from other drug trafficking operations was that many of them were friends who grew up around the West Side neighborhood. Other major drug busts have followed in Broome County during the past two years; they have been prosecuted at the state and federal levels. "
Source: https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2017/12/28/eddie-block-gang-two-years-later-9-behind-bars-federal-drug-trafficking-case/972733001/

Population: 45,399
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Violent Crimes Per 100k: 797 (7th most dangerous)
Property Crimes Per 100k: 4,367 (7th most dangerous)
Overall, the city of 45,399 ranked as the 4th most dangerous in New York.
Source: https://www.roadsnacks.net/most-dangerous-places-in-new-york/

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – Ten people were arrested this week as part of an investigation into an Arizona-to-Binghamton methamphetamine pipeline.Officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Postal Inspection Service, State Police and DEA said the bust, “Operation Hailstorm” was an attempt to stymie the flow of drugs from Mexico and the southwestern United States into the Southern Tier of New York.
Source: https://www.newyorkupstate.com/southern-tier/2017/09/11_arrested_in_arizona-to-binghamton_methamphetamine_ring_police_say.html

Look at stats here: https://www.areavibes.com/binghamton-ny/crime/

“Binghamton sees most violent year in 2 decades”
Anthony Borrelli | July 29, 2017
“Gunshots on Binghamton’s West Side pierced the late morning air on Aug. 31, 2016, drawing shocked neighbors and a swarm of police officers outside a Mozart Street home. Inside, a dispute over rental money between two ex-roommates and one of their friends escalated into a gruesome murder
”

“Crip.”
More gang graffiti was spray-painted elsewhere in the park, which serves as something of a demarcation line for the two gangs who control that area of Binghamton: the Grape Street Crips and the Vice Lords
“Without using handcuffs, some 50 gang members were told today, ‘Get out, and stay out of this area,’” Weirich said. “(We hope this means) you’ll see children out playing. You won’t hear sirens.”
Source: http://archive.commercialappeal.com/news/crime/new-safety-zone-targets-2-gangs-in-binghamton-2a4442c6-768d-5559-e053-0100007f9d1c-366617671.html/

On a frigid Friday afternoon in early March, Binghamton police officers combed through the Oak Street apartment where Binghamton University student Haley Anderson had been strangled hours before.
By the end of April, Anderson’s murder was one of five homicide cases to shake Broome County since the beginning of the year, more in four months than in all of 2017, when there were four homicide cases in the county. This past Sunday, a deadly drive-by shooting in Binghamton marked the sixth homicide of the year.
Murders on the rise: In four months, Broome County’s homicide total surpassed all of 2017
Source: https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/public-safety/2018/09/20/broome-county-murders-how-many-year-victims/691417002/

“These crimes are becoming increasingly centralized in student-populated areas, including the West Side and Downtown Binghamton. Binghamton crime maps for 2016 show burglaries heavily concentrated in posts 209, which encompasses the area bounded by Main Street, Seminary Avenue, Murray Street and Schiller Street, and 202, which includes the area south of Seminary Avenue between Laurel Avenue and Front Street. In student houses, which are often divided into multiple rooms for several occupants, BPD considers each room in the house occupied by individual students to represent a separate break-in. Therefore, BPD generates different case files for each student in the building.Binghamton’s West Side is also a hot spot for robbery, a change from 2010 crime maps where robbery was more evenly split between Post 202 and Post 207, which spans Downtown Binghamton.”
Source: https://www.bupipedream.com/news/98203/student-populated-areas-see-higher-rates-of-break-ins-burglaries/

Binghamton Student Attack Victims Raise Awareness On Downtown Safety
“If this had happened my freshman year, I would’ve transferred.” Sunday, January 30, at 3:00 a.m., three Binghamton University students were attacked on Hawley Street in Downtown Binghamton. Rebecca Lisoski, Alyssa Lebowitz, and Richard Salmon were walking to Lisoski and Lebowitz’s home when they were assaulted by two women and one man who jumped out of a vehicle passing by.

*NOTE: “Since the day of the attack, the victims have taken it upon themselves to use this as a way to not only spread awareness on the importance of downtown safety but to share their story with as many people as possible since the university has been reluctant to.” Source https://www.theodysseyonline.com/lisoski-lebowitz-and-salmon-raise-awareness-on-downtown-safety

Be Informed:

The administration of Binghamton University has historically covered up, denied and even dissuaded (and later lied about) people from filing grievances and complaints for fear they’d reflect poorly on the school. It’s a school that appears to value PR higher than almost anything else, including scholarship and student safety. At least some of the recent deaths are not unrelated to poor decision making on the part of Binghamton University administration.

Do not count on the university to publish accurate stats or to reveal the truth about events on campus! Do your homework. This isn’t to say that the school isn’t a great university. You may find it so. That’s a judgement call best left to you. But the violence in the city is fact.

Hopefully students will be mindful of risks to avoid being victimized: https://www.areavibes.com/binghamton-ny/livability/

@lostaccount , this is useful information. It is worth bearing in mind though that there are many colleges in the US which are located near high-crime areas. In general, most students spend their time on campus, or close by. Binghamton does not appear on this 2018 list of most crime-ridden colleges in NY state, but Cornell, Colgate, and Hamilton do: https://expo.newyorkupstate.com/erry-2018/04/124a1e07874996/30_upstate_ny_colleges_with_th.html

I discussed this post with three different Binghamton parents, so this post has had its intended purpose: to inform. However, none of the parents said that their kids felt unsafe at Bing. All three parents had very positive things to say. Many kids in our area attend Binghamton, and they are happy. It has a high retention rate, which is very telling. Like any college town or city, students need to keep their wits about them. I do think the use of the word scary in the title of this thread is a little excessive.

How many Binghamton students have been victims of violent crime each year in last several years?

Based on the figures provided through the source in the original post, it would seem that Binghamton University students benefit from an ultra-low crime rate:

Candidly, I’m at a loss as to how the thread title could have been reasonably derived from this information.

Harvard students have been mugged in the Harvard Square area and even in Harvard Yard. You cannot live in a gated community all your life. Students need to be informed and aware at any college.

@merc81 , your reply is exactly what I am trying to counter. Students and parents often think the crime data includes information about all students who were victimized while attending Binghamton U. It does not include data from crime downtown which is where students party and spend time after class and during the evenings if they aren’t inclined to eat and hang at chains like Fridays. . The data that is listed for the university does not include crime that occurs in Binghamton. Yes the Vestal campus is safe. Student victims when crime occurs downtown even if close to the downtown university buildings are NOT included in the stats posted by the school. Sure if you don’t count the assaults that happen downtown there is almost no crime. But students are victimized downtown-not on the Vestal campus. If you want to believe that students at Binghamton University are not victimized cause you or your child is attending, go ahead and either play make believe or avoid going to downtown Binghamton. But if you or your child wants to be free to hang out where others do on weekends, you should read the stats for downtown Binghamton and take them seriously.

Anyone who spends time in downtown Binghamton who does not take the crime seriously is likely to put themselves at risk to be victimized. No, BU PR does not like you to hear this. But if my kid were attending, I’d want to know this. The issue, @TomSrofBoston, isn’t about living in a gated community. I don’t think you “get it”. Binghamton has become one of the most dangerous cities in NY. It does nobody any favors to ignore it. Downtown Binghamton looks like the scene from American graffiti It isn’t. Students are victimized by gangs. Don’t be naive. The schools what they can to put the kibosh on those who publicize this. Hiding, denying and deflecting do students no favors. Facts matter.

And, as others have mentioned, Binghamton University isn’t the only school near a high crime area. A difference is that BInghamton does not look like it would have high crime. It is easy to forget that there is a big grang presence in BInghamton. The university administration seems to do what it can to promote the opposite idea. While that might increase their yield it is inconsistent with promoting safety. I hear people say “It looks safe” all the time. What does that even mean? Look at the stats about downtown Binghamton (not the entire Broome County region) before countering what I’m saying. Go ahead. Cause getting you to look at the stats and take them seriously is what this post is all about.

@cptofthehouse , take a look at the links I’ve already posted. I don’t get the reluctance to admit (and therefore take precautions) the crime in downtown Binghamton. It’s frustrating because denials add to the risk for students. Downtown Binghamton is NOT downtown Manhattan. If you live in NYC you can avoid high crime rate areas. Binghamton’s downtown is tiny. Students and gang members are on the exact same blocks. The entire downtown consists of only a few blocks.

@TheBigChef uses a term that reflects the problem when he/she mentions “townie thugs” as if the threat were harmless locals. The crime is associated with gangs called MacBallers (among others), a subset of the Bloods gang. These are not local yokels having a few too many beers and teasing students. Yes I’ve warned students over the years. My warnings are always countered and students continue to ignore the dangers. And students are assaulted. If you’d rather believe that the on-campus crime stats or the region wide Broome County crime stats are relevant, go ahead. But if you or your kid plans to attend and to hang out where other students do, then you are doing the student a disservice by being defensive. I’m not suggesting students not attend. But I am suggesting they take the downtown crime in Binghamton seriously. Search “MacBallers” and Binghamton and see what you get. Be informed not scared.

“According to 2016 crime maps, aggravated assaults are highly concentrated in posts 209 and 207, and the heaviest concentration of rapes in the city were in Post 209, which runs parallel to Main Street. Additionally, two murders have occurred on Binghamton’s West Side so far this year”

@lostaccount: Initially I’m trying to follow your line of reasoning. You opened with a link indicating an ultra-low crime rate for the BU campus, then stated within the same post, “And the reality is exactly as you see here.” I’ll infer now that your message appears in subsequent posts, and that the BU campus data is scary in your assessment because it doesn’t adequately pertain to BU students.

The Binghamton campus is not actually in the City of Binghamton but in a suburban community, Vestal, NY.

Revisiting the original link, it appears that the “Binghamton Metro” area, which would include the city of Binghamton, has lower indices for the categories rated (property crime and violent crime) than for the U.S. in general.

Binghamton doesn’t “look” like it has high crime? Binghamton looks like what it is: a somewhat rundown former industrial or mill town. I do not believe it has become one of the most dangerous cities in America. It doesn’t appear on this list from January: https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/blog/top100dangerous
Or on this list: https://www.alarms.org/top-100-most-dangerous-cities-in-america/
Nor does it appear on any other list that I could find. There are plenty of well-known colleges that are in cities mentioned in those lists.

No one disagrees that students should exercise common sense and avoid putting themselves at risk, or that Binghamton has its share of crime. There will be students who become victims of crime, unfortunately, in almost every college town. Frankly, your post seems a little as though you have a personal dislike of Binghamton.

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This is actually the second thread that you started about the “crime infested” city of Binghamton:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/suny-binghamton/2116428-crime-safety-in-binghamton.html#latest

I agree with @lindagaf that you appear to have a grudge against the city or the university or both.

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