“In ‘A social Honor Code,’ an opinion piece in the Daily Princetonian student newspaper, Samuel Parsons, a freshman from Wangaratta, Australia, challenged his classmates to right an all-too-common wrong. As in many communities, things can just … disappear. He suggests we stop looking away.” …
The experience of my children has been very different. They have frequently left their computers and cell phones unattended (something for which I have reprimanded them), and nothing has happened. I think that once my son had a sweater taken which he was on the Street, but it was a relatively common color and brand and he assumed it was accidental. I should also note that when my kids were in middle and high school, they had coats taken when they were at the ice skating rink, or at school or at parties and I didn’t think it meant that our hometown was particularly prone to theft.
In general, Princeton is a very safe campus and I don’t think that instances of theft are particularly higher or lower than in any other similarly situated school.