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.

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.

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.

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?

How was Virginia Tech NOT #1 ?
32 Murdered. 25 Wounded.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

I am a permanent lifelong resident of University City near the Penn Campus. I sort of agree with the safety issue, however we have more safety protection because of two intersecting police forces, the University of Penn Police and the 18th District Philadelphia Police. Penn is an urban campus, and I find that many students put themselves at risk by doing common sense things, such as putting out empty boxes showing that they have computers and other high priced items (the boxes can be cut-up and put in trash bags), leaving their doors unlocked for even a minute while they go inside to get something, leaving windows unlocked etc... Not using the buddy system when they out go in the evening, not using campus transportation or taking a cab if they go out at night even for a few blocks (I take a cab if I'm coming back late at night, and always ask the driver to wait until I get inside), not being aware of your surroundings, walking while using your music or taking or your cellphone (you cannot hear who is coming up behind you), and not getting to know your permanent neighbors who might have tips that could help you out. Also, Penn itself is too blame. Their subsidaries own most of the student housing directly outside of the dorms, and considering what one is paying for rents, they are not doing enough for safety. Often I find that porch lights are not on at night, and security on windows and other areas of the buildings are lacking. Also, the sexual assult that occurred at 45th and Spruce last year, should not have happened. While it did occur at students were leaving for winter break, the buildings owners could have provided security, such as having video campus on the entrances to the buildings, a roving security guard patroling the area of the buildings, and having a security guard at the entrances to the buildings/even offering to walking someone directy to their building, and better lighting! This is an urban environment, and I find that students who are not from out-of-town or attending Temple, Saint Josephs University, LaSalle, etc... seem to have more street smarts than those attending Penn.

Twisted, I disagree with you that the neighborhood surrounding Penn is prety awful. Sure there are sections that aren't any good, I never go past 48th and Spruce. I also try to leave my doings to heavily trafficed areas, and locations that have public transit access nearby. I also try not to make myself a target. You want pretty awful?, try leaving in Southwest Philadelphia,West Philadelphia (like where I live as a little kid near 60th Street), and even some of the locations surrounding Philadelphia (like Upper Dary, Springfiled, etc...).

Harvard is a great school get over yourselfs your interns probably didnt get in. This story is junk!

By now the news is out that Annie Le's killing was not a random crime; it seems to have had to do with a dispute with an animal man described as "a control freak". Nevertheless, this is a creepy case to read about if you have ever spent long solo hours working in a remote lab or library stack area, where you may not see another person for hours on end and nobody would hear you if you screamed. After hearing about poor Annie my husband and I reviewed how and where we used to spend our time as graduate students---especially, a biologist may have to dose and bleed animal subjects at odd hours during the night---and are amazed we weren't slaughtered.

I'm from the state of Michigan, and I can SEE how the numbers are skewed. I did UG at Wayne State University, just north of a neighborhood the realtors euphemize as "Midtown." In the seventies and eighties it was the "Cass Corridor." Home of winos heroino crack and one hour hotels with hookers all over the place (hey in premed who has time to date?? lol) Sometimes the panhandlers bothered us on campus. The thing is, it was a COMMUTER school like many near inner city locations. We got on the freeway to the suburbs before sundown, and this made the campus seem safe. And football gorillas on the big campuses ALWAYS ravage chicks and it gets covered up

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Regardless of on-campus crime, no matter what university you attend, you can rest assured that crime on-campus is less than it is off-campus. This is a non-story.

Perhaps you noticed that many of the schools were small campuses, where the students live either actually or practically on campus. At most big campuses, by comparison, off-campus housing can be a serious trip, not just a walk in the local neighborhood. The result is that off-campus crime rates are more likely to be seen as "campus-related" at these smaller schools, which can, in many cases, have a more dense localized population. The numbers are further skewed by percentages that confuse actual demographics with the potential demographic based on total university enrollment.

I am the mother of a college senior at a small college in North Carolina. We live outside of Washington, DC so she was raised to be alert to her surroundings and keep an eye on everything and everyone. The campus is stunning, the grounds impeccable, but that has never put her into a false sense of security. She knows better. It is common sense and using your head to stay safe, but you can only be so safe. She spends nights and nights on end in one of the schools labs and it makes me nervous, but I can only pray that she stays safe. I don't count on campus security in the middle of the night, because they are too busy chatting with each other in the office rather than out patrolling the campus. When she has asked for someone to escort her back to her dorm, they take forever to get there. Sometimes I think she has more to fear from students on campus than she does from "outsiders." Crime is crime and it is going to happen where it will whether we like it or not.

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