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How Safe Is Your College?
The Yale murder has heightened concerns about campus security. The Daily Beast crunches the numbers and ranks the 25 schools with the biggest crime problems.
The shocking murder of Yale doctoral student Annie Le had virtually every parent of a college student asking themselves the same question this week: Will my child be safe on campus?
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Almost universally, that answer is yes. Statistics for campus crime—80 percent of which involve students both as perpetrator and victim—generally pale when compared to the general population, and university safety has been improving as parental pressure and federal laws have increased transparency.
But how do America’s colleges stack up against each other, safety-wise? Specifically, which schools have the worst crime records? For that determination, The Daily Beast decided to look at the numbers. Specifically, for the past two decades, most colleges and universities nationwide have been required under the federal Clery Act—named for a Lehigh freshman raped and murdered in her dorm in 1986 before her parents discovered there’d been a slew of violent incidents at the university—to report annually to the U.S. Department of Education about crimes on and near campus, including murder, assault, sexual offenses and robberies.
The Daily Beast took the two most recent years of raw data from almost 9,000 schools and then further analyzed more than 4,000 (excluding two-year colleges, standalone graduate schools, etc.) over more than 50 different criteria, weighing different crimes against each other (murder carrying far more importance than, say, burglary), and factoring in incidents both on campus and nearby (since modern colleges, as everyone acknowledges, don’t stop strictly at the gates of the ivory towers). Local FBI data was also used to make the statistics as up-to-date as possible. (See full methodology below.) Schools were also judged on a students-per-capita basis so that large universities like Michigan State weren’t penalized when compared with small colleges like Amherst.
• Plus: The 25 Safest CollegesThe results included both surprises (hallowed institutions like Harvard and MIT made appearances, as did the aforementioned Yale) and the expected (many urban schools fared poorly). Topping the list was a Boston arts-focused school, Emerson, that has almost no on-campus crime, but a lot of troubles at its doorstep. Chicago’s Saint Xavier, The University of Maryland at Baltimore, Tufts, and MIT round out the top (or this case, bottom) five. (Virginia Tech, the site of a murder spree that claimed 32 lives and wounded numerous others, did not appear on the list because it is based on calculations of campus safety based on a per student rate averaged over two years; despite the murders, Virginia Tech, with 30,000 students, had very little other crime, and therefore narrowly missed inclusion in the top 25).
To be fair, even the numbers reported to the Department of Education are frequently criticized as imperfect and, indeed, schools are regularly fined for non-compliance. Surely, some schools gaming the system escaped deserved inclusion on this list, replaced by others that were steadfastly honest. Congress this fall is expected to strengthen Clery’s safety regulations. And colleges themselves also note that inclusion on our list often reflects more their location than their safety precautions. Additionally, in determining our methodology, we made numerous fair-minded but necessarily subjective decisions. We intend to constantly refine our methodology, and welcome feedback.
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ladyrain
Perhaps there is less to worry about with a city college, even though cities are inherently somewhat dangerous places.
We're conditioned to be 'on guard' in that atmosphere. On beautiful, serene college campuses, with their quads and landscaping and gorgeous architecture, we let our guard down and assume that since it's so warm and inviting, that it must be "safe". Not so, at all. I personally experienced this with my son, who went to college on a beautiful Penn. campus. While nothing happened while he was there, when he transferred to Boston I felt better, because he was familiar with that city and how to inhabit it.
Twisted
Penn is a great campus however the surrounding neighborhood is pretty awful however in my 1 year stay there as a graduate student in the mid 70's i was most worried about getting roughed up by the philly police or a drunk greek. Lo and behold walking with my cousin to our organic food Co - op at 5:00 am saturday morning for our stint sorting and boxing the weeks purchases we slowed down to gawk at the Africa enclave and got grabbed and punched out by the philly police thinking that we were supporters they soon let us go after checking our story and ID's. BTW i left Penn for my first real juob in the US dept of Justice and they assigned me not where i wanted to go but into the Philly office my colleagues wondered why i was so zealous about prosecuting philly police officials.
nortonclybourn
After you "left" Penn? I can only hope that they kicked you out because you are unable to write a coherent sentence.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Sempronia
Penn now is not Penn in the 1970s. I did act cautiously while I was there earlier this decade, but I felt pretty safe overall. Certainly, you heard of things -- I did have a professor get mugged by someone who hit her over the head with a brick, and there was the incident of the student whose groceries were stolen -- but as with any city, you handled it with care and, if you did go out and about late at night, walked with a friend or hoped for the best. Besides, for better or worse, Penn is slowly eating up its side of the Schuylkill in an endless march of gentrification. It may be reducing crime, or it may end up bringing more of it into campus territory, but I think it will be something to watch...
kscr14
In our area university a campus policeman killed a student in cold blood. Her took her while in uniform to a remote location and killed her. Since that day I've never thought campus was "safe". Just another sick, twisted freak. I do think students feel safe, walk alone alot, drink too much usually late at night and all of these make them targets.
Twisted
Sorry, the methodology used to prepare this article is totally flawed, non reporting by crime victims (the drug deal gone bad the underage alcohol issue etc any one who reports is a "rat") to under reporting non reporting by the institutions skews any attempt at crime stat comparison. I would feel safest at any of the state land grant colleges and universities.
Johnnyappleseed
So what is the issue here?
Listing institutions of higher learning that are not safe from crime, how about High Schools? Hospitals? Parks? the list is endless.
In a country of over three hundred million where will one be comletely safe from any type of crime?
nortonclybourn
Alarmist pandering to fear is always good for circulation.
sophia5
How was Virginia Tech NOT #1 ?
32 Murdered. 25 Wounded.
heatherdmb
(Virginia Tech, the site of a murder spree that claimed 32 lives and wounded numerous others, did not appear on the list because it is based on calculations of campus safety based on a per student rate averaged over two years; despite the murders, Virginia Tech, with 30,000 students, had very little other crime, and therefore narrowly missed inclusion in the top 25).
It's based on percentages....more students and one major incident versus likely alot more of lesser known crimes in smaller college communities....
sophia5
heatherdmb -
I get your point, and I realized the percentage angle, demographics, etc.
My point was creeps, crazies, evil people, they don't consider percentages.
They just do it.
"It" can happen anytime, anywhere.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
democracyforall
The most number of violent colleges and the #1 most violent in Massachusetts. And a most liberal state. That's what a lack of religion and a lack of discipline will do.
drkev118
wrong limbaugh lemming loser. criminals are of all variety, starting at the top we have dumbya cheney nixon ect ect ect now go back to your mega mall church and learn hate some more from a mythical figure that never existed much like your brain
Veronicaxy
"a most liberal state. That's what a lack of religion and a lack of discipline will do."
Troll.
themoreiknow
You're "right", everyone knows people with religion never hurt anyone, lol, perhaps you could attempt a little disciplined thinking. Or don't bother, you could grow up to be a palinontologist maybe!
phantomdc4
You are so mistaken, when is the last time an Atheist committed a violent crime? You say a lack of religion causes an increase in violent crime because you are taught that it does by your religious leaders. It does not, religion, if anything, increases violent crime when it influences it at all. Religion influences hatred towards people who don't have the same religious views, against homosexuals, and anything else that religious leaders decide is a financial foe to the offering plate.
hennypenny
Indeed, because religion has never been associated with violence in any way. Unless you're talking about the Crusades. Or the Thirty Years War. Or most wars, actually...
roadhunter
Unless the crime is rape, murder, shooting, etc., these statistics are meaningless, as universities cover crimes up to protect their image.
I attended the University of Tulsa, as well as Oklahoma State University. At TU, I reported the burglary of a dorm room to campus police, including a description of the burglar as he fled. They refused to call city police, and convinced me not to do so.
At OSU, we had an incident in which football players were caught stealing on campus. Again, the incident was not reported off-campus.
My father works security at another Oklahoma university, and arrested 4 students with over 3lbs of marijuana. He was told not to alert the media or off-campus security, so I made an anonymous tip to the local paper. The entire community was stunned.
cardicollins
At OSU the campus police have full police authority, empowered by the State of Oklahoma and are CLEET trained. The municipal police have no more authority than the officers on campus and the two work together to make the campus and Stillwater safe. The offense at OSU was reported to the OSU police and the matter was investigated by the detectives. I remember reading in the Stillwater NewsPress that the athletes were prosecuted. The incident was not "swept under the rug". I believe TU's officers have full police authority as well, but I can't comment on the events that occured at TU; you know whether your report was followed up on or not.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
ThinkAgain
It's a tough balance. You want students to feel safe and comfortable but no much so that they actually enable crime.
Given student lifestyles, lots of walking, drinking, irresponsible behaviors etc. I might hesitate to send my kid to a school in a rougher downtown city environment.
ladyrain
To democracyforall: the Mass. statistics involved burglaries. I daresay the stats for murder would show a completely different demographic. As to the "lack of religion and discipline" is concerned, look up the stats on the most out-of-wedlock birth states. You will be most unpleasantly surprised. Back to the college story---given the small size of Mass. and the huge number of colleges in the state, I would expect the stats to be as high as they are: more colleges=more opportunity.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
knockoutx
The vast majority of crimes at Emerson are people stupidly leaving their stuff unattended at Starbucks nextdoor or in the gym lockers. If you tally our crime rate by quantity rather than quality (please excuse my simplification), then of course our 80 "robberies" are going to look worse than Harvard's rapes.
communicator
This kind of apples-and-oranges "list-making" is a form of hit-and-run journalism. The DB gets a story, and possibly a yearly "tradition", and colleges and universities are left picking up the pieces of their damaged reputations.
GPatton
Schools should have mandatory self defense classes. Most colleges are full of left wingers who are soft on crime, and students are vulnerable to criminals who know this. Sitting ducks... George Patton
roadhunter
Thanks for explaining why so many right wingers are stupid. I'm not sure where you are, but I can assure you that about 99% of the criminals in my city not only don't know that left wingers are soft on crime, the only left wings and right wings they know come on a plate next to the cole slaw and mashed potatoes from KFC.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
bebefl
The research on this piece is ridiculous. Harvard's Cambridge has lots of druggies and homeless and could use a good broom sweep here and there ok but not " dangerous"- but MIT??? MIT has nothing but newer office buildings loaded with top security because the buildings are filled with researchers who have minded their own business for years. And to the other side of MIT towards Boston the school campus borders on the Back Bay. The Back Bay is loaded with expensive boutiques, hotels, parent tourists and townhouses. And most of the MIT campus also sits directly on the Charles. Unless scuba divers are raiding the school MIT is the safest place to be especially since they have bright lights and heavy security everywhere.The campus is even safer than Harvard. So whoever wrote this piece should do their homework. What are you talking about? Makes me think your research is completely skewed elsewhere but don't know about the other schools since I went only to Harvard. Penn ok is in a very very bad area and extremely dangerous. Yale's New Haven is a dump and dangerous. What about all the muggings and sexual assaults, and attacks at Princeton. The town appears to be idyllic but unfortunately this is not the case because where there is excessive drinking there are issues. My friend left after many incidents went unreported. I know Princeton looks so serene but the gangs come from Camden, Newark and Trenton. But hey don't tell the parents lol. There are no boundaries whatsoever on that campus and the thugs swarm Princeton U like bees to honey. Not to mention the school never reports a thing unless they are forced to. The alcohol poisonings on " the street" (drinking clubs open to students on campus) are unbelievable. Why no mention of Princeton if you are going to site Harvard? Harvard is much more serene. Overall this article is terrible and misleads everyone! Must be a bunch of Princeton students writing this garbage. And Columbia is safe not at the top of the list either?
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
TeeJay
I assume that when you say you "went . . . to Harvard," you mean you took the campus tour. Your writing shows no trace of an Ivy League education. You also know as little about crime rates near Penn, Princeton, and Yale as you do about those near Harvard. So thugs are swarming poor old Princeton? Really? What nonsense!
EmersonAlum
This is just another example of how the adage, "Don't believe everything you read," is becoming a greater truth as the internet makes poor reporting even more possible.
As a recent alum of Emerson, I am one of the statistics that you used for your "data." I lost my wallet last year and reported it to the Emerson Police - it went in as "theft." These are the types of crimes that occur at Emerson. Every so often in the "police beat" of the paper, you'd read about some silly student who would leave his stuff unattended in the library or Dunkin Donuts and come back to find it gone. Yet, for some reason, you have chosen to present your "dangerous data" in a way that has murders trumped by burglaries. You even blatantly admit within your blurb about Emerson that it, "has almost no on-campus crime" and quote Andrew Tiedemann, saying, "'Any crimes that happen on Boston Common and in the subway station show up in our report but do not involve our community. " But are quick to disregard the, "do not involve our community," saying that students go beyond the college campus. And while this is true, did you actually compare incidents in those areas with those that happen to students? Did you ask anyone in the Emerson student body about their experiences with crime in the area? Wouldn't that have been a more substantial angle, considering, this could potentially dissuade kids from applying to the school?
And, explain to me again, how burglaries and assaults vs. murders, etc. justifies labeling it as the most dangerous school out of your whole 9,000? Doesn't that just seem odd, right of the bat?
ESPECIALLY if you were truly following the reasoning you stated in the body of the article: "weighing different crimes against each other (murder carrying far more importance than, say, burglary)" - Emerson would ABSOLUTELY not be first.
The better way of presenting your data would have been by TYPE of incident PER CAPITA, instead of just a GENERAL count PER CAPITA. Excuse me for a second here while I write, DUH. While your more astute readers will pick up on the fact that there is a significant problem with your list - others may be mislead. This is where you have failed to do your job.
This is a shoddy use of data, poorly presented. The DB should be very, very embarrassed.
EmersonAlum
This is just another example of how the adage, "Don't believe everything you read," is becoming a greater truth as the internet makes poor reporting even more possible.
As a recent alum of Emerson, I am one of the statistics that you used for your "data." I lost my wallet last year and reported it to the Emerson Police - it went in as "theft." These are the types of crimes that occur at Emerson. Every so often in the "police beat" of the paper, you'd read about some silly student who would leave his stuff unattended in the library or Dunkin Donuts and come back to find it gone. Yet, for some reason, you have chosen to present your "dangerous data" in a way that has murders trumped by burglaries. You even blatantly admit within your blurb about Emerson that it, "has almost no on-campus crime" and quote Andrew Tiedemann, saying, "'Any crimes that happen on Boston Common and in the subway station show up in our report but do not involve our community. " But are quick to disregard the, "do not involve our community," saying that students go beyond the college campus. And while this is true, did you actually compare incidents in those areas with those that happen to students? Did you ask anyone in the Emerson student body about their experiences with crime in the area? Wouldn't that have been a more substantial angle, considering, this could potentially dissuade kids from applying to the school?
And, explain to me again, how burglaries and assaults vs. murders, etc. justifies labeling it as the most dangerous school out of your whole 9,000? Doesn't that just seem odd, right of the bat?
ESPECIALLY if you were truly following the reasoning you stated in the body of the article: "weighing different crimes against each other (murder carrying far more importance than, say, burglary)" - Emerson would ABSOLUTELY not be first.
The better way of presenting your data would have been by TYPE of incident PER CAPITA, instead of just a GENERAL count PER CAPITA. Excuse me for a second here while I write, DUH. While your more astute readers will pick up on the fact that there is a significant problem with your list - others may be mislead. This is where you have failed to do your job.
This is a shoddy use of data, poorly presented. The DB should be very, very embarrassed.
Thank you.
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