<p>The “personal crime index” does not consider the death rate from auto accidents, which is much higher in suburban areas. It also does not consider that much of the violent crime in cities occurs because of economic competition, i.e., drug dealing. That’s why suburbs are statistically less safe than inner cities, even dangerous ones like Philadelphia, Trenton, Camden or Detroit.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Money Magazine’s study is flawed because it does not take into account how or where municipal boundaries, which are used as reporting areas, are drawn. It’s also obvious from looking at the numbers on that website that in the process of trying to collect info on hundreds of towns, there were some serious errors in the data collection (for example, compare the number of bars listed on the site with the number of bars listed in a telephone book - its off by orders of magnitude).</p>
<p>Furthermore, your figures have absolutely no relevance to campus safety. According to the 2002 USDOE statistics on campus safety, in terms of crimes per student, Princeton is actually the third safest Ivy League campus, after Dartmouth and Yale.</p>