Washington U (WUSTL) ranks 16th on list of most crime-rattled colleges
"The Daily Beast ranked Washington University in St. Louis 16th on its list of America’s 25 Most Crime-Rattle Colleges.
According to the website, from 2008 to 2010, Washington University had one murder, zero negligent homicides, 37 robberies, 34 aggravated assaults, 131 burglaries, 104 car thefts and zero arsons.
The Daily Beast said in determining the rankings, it analyzed college crime data from 2008 to 2010 made available through the U.S. Department of Education that universities are required to track and submit. The data represent reported crimes, not prosecutions.
'Once again, we believe the analysis and methodology used by the site are flawed and are not a credible analysis of crime patterns around our campuses,' Washington University officials said in a statement. 'In fact, the Daily Beast rightly pointed out its own weaknesses when it launched the rankings in 2009.' " ...
Hmm, not sure where they got those numbers, as they are severely inflated over the numbers provided on wustl's own site: http://police.wustl.edu/crime%202010.pdf
"Washington University officials also said they wanted to clarify that the one murder cited in the report happened in 2008 and was a domestic dispute that occurred in a hospital adjacent to, but not on, any of its campuses."
So that murder? Not even related. This ranking is such a load of crap.
As a student at WashU, I can tell you that crime will not affect your life at this school. Occasionally you will get an e-mail with a crime report notifying you that someone has been mugged off campus. That happens maybe once a semester tops. Campus is safe, you will never fell at risk walking around. Off campus, people know where to go and where not to go. The area surrounding campus is safe and WUPD patrols pretty diligently as well. And if anyone is still worried, come and visit! It's a wonderful campus and a great place to go to school.
^ Also of note, one of the crime alerts this year was to notify students that a car was stolen.
The girl had let them into her car to give them a ride. Complete strangers. THAT SHE DID NOT KNOW. Anyone should have recognized that that was not a smart decision.
(She did get her car back, I believe).
The vast majority of crimes are thefts of opportunity. The other big one is people leaving their dorm room doors open when they are not in them/ nearby, or leaving laptops unattended. I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but I have zero pity for someone who gets robbed because of something like this.
edit: I have a friend who was (attempt) mugged recently. Yes, it happens. But it is quite rare and it happens at every university.
Like all "top 25" lists on the planet, this is yet another that takes a small set of questionable data, and makes an amateur interpretation, which likely bears absolutely no relevance to real-life reality.
Yeah, the University of Maine is well-known as a truly scary place. Did they include coyote injuries in the violent crime stat at University of North Dakota? You can get arrested for cow-tipping at University of Connecticut (a bona fide "sport" of drunken students). There's your "crime". Good stats to base a "top 25" list on.
The OP should be ashamed for posting this bogus list.
I echo the above posts on the absurdity of that ranking. Use your head, don't wander around late at night, and you'll be safe. For everyone's amusement, I'd like to include the following (direct quote from WashU police, Nov 2010). Robberies / similar events are very rare.
"Two off-campus robbery incidents were reported to St. Louis and University City Police overnight:
At about 8:30pm, the fiancée of a Graduate student returned home in her car in the 6300 block of Cabanne in University City. She observed three subjects in front of the apartment building and drove to the rear. As she exited the vehicle, two suspects approached her; demanded her keys and money; and then attempted to take her vehicle. However the vehicle had a manual transmission and the suspects could not drive a manual transmission. The suspects fled on foot."
