As a member of
the law enforcement community, I have always been interested
in and concerned about how safe our colleges and universities
really are. But this is a topic that has really gotten my
attention since my kids started leaving the nest and going
off to school. I have one daughter in law school and my son
is almost through with high school. I know how much parents
worry about their kids, especially that first year away from
home, when their seventeen- or eighteen-year-olds are trying
out their brand-new independence, making real decisions for
the first time in a setting that may or may not have a good
safety net. Fortunately, there are resources available that
provide facts and statistics on how safe schools are and information
to help students navigate those new waters.
Security on Campus, Inc.
One such resource is the nonprofit group Security on Campus,
Inc., whose website is www.securityoncampus.org.
Security on Campus was established in memory of the co-founders’
daughter, Jeanne Clery. In 1986, Ms. Clery was just a freshman
at Lehigh University. She was beaten, raped, and murdered
in her dorm room by another student at the school. Ms. Clery
didn’t know her killer. Among the other things she and
her family didn’t know, according to Security on Campus’s
website, was that until 1988, only about four percent of the
colleges in this country reported their crime statistics to
either the FBI or to the public.
Schools have traditionally been very reluctant to release
their crime statistics, and even more reluctant to provide
them as a standard part of their institution’s information.
I believe such information, from crime stats to safety procedures,
should be presented to interested students and parents along
with available courses of study and costs of attendance. Such
information may be especially valuable to prospective students
who are female and their parents. As cited on Security on
Campus’s site, surveys conducted by rape crisis centers
conclude that one in ten women will be raped while in college.
Thanks to Security on Campus and other activist groups and
parents, legislation has been passed on the state and federal
levels since Jeanne Clery was killed that requires schools
to disclose crime statistics and prevents them from covering
it up in the name of student privacy. In fact, under the Jeanne
Clery Act, the Department of Education gathers information
from 6,000 schools in the U.S., and you can search the database
of schools from the Security on Campus website or the Department
of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education website,
www.ope.ed.gov.
You can also search the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting
database, which compiles statistics from about 400 schools,
at the Security on Campus website or from www.fbi.gov.
The Bare Facts
There’s good news. According to the Department of Education,
the number of murders/ non-negligent manslaughters reported
on or off-campus dropped from 914 in 2000 to 610 in 2001.
The number of forcible sex offenses reported dropped from
5,661 to 4,125 in the same years. Total nonforcible sex offenses
dropped from 1,815 to 1,182. Robberies also declined, from
17,516 in 2000 to 11,659 in 2001.
But there’s bad news, too. The Department of Education
figures are broken down by location of the crimes: On-Campus,
Residence Halls, Non-Campus, and Public Property. From 2000
to 2001, forcible sex offenses on-campus rose from 1,953 to
2,206, and forcible sex offenses in residence halls (which
are also included in the on-campus numbers) rose from 1,354
to 1,572. In addition, robberies on-campus increased from
2,060 to 2,142.
Further, the Associated Press reported in 2002 that about
1,400 college students die every year from alcohol-related
incidents. This comes from a study by the Task Force on College
Drinking, a federally funded group, which found an annual
500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault were facilitated
or caused by excessive drinking.
Safety Tips
Of course, there is no acceptable number of such crimes.
The best thing we as parents and students can do is take steps
to prevent them. I try to provide safety tips from time to
time, even just as reminders. I know a lot of them sound like
common sense. But criminals, including serial killers and
rapists, often prey on college-aged victims, and I know how
their minds work.
You give a killer the choice between two girls he’s
been watching—one of them is walking alone to her car
on the bottom floor of a parking deck, the other is walking
in a group to the campus bus. He’ll pick the first girl.
Give a rapist the choice between a dorm room with an open
window and one with a closed window. He’ll pick the
room with the open window. You see my point.
Students, if you follow these basic rules, you’ll be
taking giant steps toward keeping yourselves safe. Parents,
you can do your part by reinforcing these rules and by providing
some of the items (cell phones, electronic timers, pepper
spray) included below.
- Carry a cell phone, and make sure the battery is charged.
- Carry mace or pepper spray, and keep the same handy in
your room.
- Travel in groups whenever possible.
- Stay in well-lighted areas, and park as close to your
destination as possible if you’re driving.
- Try to get cash from indoor ATMs and during the day.
If you have to go at night, take someone with you and do
not talk to anyone you don’t know. Avoid machines
off the beaten track and those where people are loitering.
Paying a small fee for using another bank’s ATM is
well worth ensuring your safety.
- Don’t work in unsafe areas and try to avoid late-night
hours or shifts.
- By the same token, take morning or early afternoon rather
than night classes whenever possible. As mentioned, certain
violent crime rates on-campus rose from 2000 to 2001, while
they fell in off-campus areas.
- Lock your doors anytime you enter or leave your dorm
room, apartment, or house. Have deadbolts installed. Make
sure all entrances are secure if you’re in a dorm
or apartment. Dorms with 24-hour cardkey, handscan, or other
restricted access are infinitely safer than those with doors
that can be propped open.
- Do the same with your windows. If you don’t have
sturdy burglar bars, keep the windows closed.
- Take it one step further, and close your blinds or curtains.
Don’t offer an unobstructed view into your private
life.
- Install timers on your lamps and, if you have any, on
your outside lights. You can change the settings as often
as you want, so your routine will not be predictable. And
you can make sure you always come home to a well-lighted
place.
- Don’t ever drink more than you can handle. Refer
to the statistics cited above if you question why this is
good advice.
- Never let a stranger buy you a drink without watching
it being poured, stirred, and carried to the table. Date-rape
drugs are not a myth. Rohypnol, for example, causes severely
impaired judgment and, in combination with alcohol, can
cause blackouts for as long as eight to 24 hours.
- Choose carefully who you date. Try to get to know your
prospective boyfriend or girlfriend as well as you can before
you’re alone with him or her.
- Make sure somebody knows where you are and when you’ll
be back, and make sure they’re paying attention to
whether you make it home.
- If you’re traveling home from school, or going
on spring or summer break, double or triple your awareness
and safety measures. If you’re driving and have to
stop for gas, try to find busy truck stops or brightly lit
convenience stores. At the beach, the lake, or the ski resort,
keep your guard up. Predators thrive in environments where
potential victims gather and are made more vulnerable by
a relaxation of standards and the judgment-blurring effects
of alcohol.
- Report anything suspicious to the police immediately.
Don’t make excuses for other people. If someone makes
you uncomfortable by approaching you inappropriately or
seems to show up wherever you go, go to the police. Find
out your campus’s safety procedures and alert whomever
you can so they can take steps to protect you.
- Carry a cell phone, and make sure the battery is charged
(repeated for emphasis).
Follow up with Campus Officials
If you have any questions or concerns, direct them to campus
officials. There should be an office of campus security or
campus safety that you can easily contact and obtain information
from. And the larger schools have their own police departments.
However, if you have trouble locating the right office or
getting the answers you want, don’t hesitate to go right
to the office of the school president. The school has an obligation
to keep its students safe, and you have a right to know what
and how they are doing to that end.
Have a safe and successful school year.
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