UC Davis Tops List Of Dangerous American Schools
A few weeks ago, a quiet house party turned into a nightmare for one 19-year-old University of California, Davis student when four men she’d never met cornered her in a bedroom of the Lexigton Apartments near the college. Davis Police were able to track down three of the four men and charge them with sexual assault, kidnapping and false imprisonment—those men are now sitting in jail on $1 million bail, awaiting trial for the charges.
According to a new survey conducted by Reader’s Digest based on information from the federal Office of Postsecondary Education, the scenario described above as well as others helped UC Davis achieve a title of being one of the most dangerous colleges in the United States. The survey ranked 285 schools based on enrollment and violent crime statistics—rape, assault, burglaries, even fires (see the list of dangerous and safe schools).
Chino Mayrina, a sophomore at UC Davis, told RadioMatthew.com he feels safe at UC Davis despite the survey. “I’ve been on campus late at night on many occasions and I’ve never once felt that my safety was threatened,” Mayrina said, adding that when an incident does occur on campus, it’s usually meant with strong opposition by the student body. “There have been incidences, such as the vandalism on the KDVS studios and the violence at the Epic Quad Battle last year, that have been bad, but reactions toward such incidences have been strong.”
So, I decided to check out the statistics myself. A federal regulation called the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires colleges post crime statistics regularly. However, when I tried to access the report via the UC Davis Police Department’s website, I was met with a broken link. Upon furthur research, I found out that UC Davis has repeatedly been in violation of the Crime Statistics Act, with a formal complaint being filed by Security On Campus, Inc. in 2000 following a Sacramento Bee investigation of rape on campus. Security On Campus alleges UC Davis failed to disclose rape statistics when the university published the Crime Statistics Act between 1996 and 1999.
With a lack of resource from UC Davis itself, I decided to turn to local news stories regarding crime on the campus. The university reported a rise in burglaries, assaults and sexual offenses in 2004 according to one news report. UC Davis officials contend that the statistics do not necessarily indicate a rise in crime; instead, the university says the increase was due to new procedures in place making it easier for students to report crimes.
The City of Davis isn’t without fault either—over the past year, Davis Police have responded to 340 vehicle burglaries (an average of 6 per week), 267 residential burglaries (average of 5 per week), 287 assaults (an average of 23 per month) and 7 weapons violations (see the map here). According to Crimenumbers.com, there were 3.6 reported cases of violent crime per 1,000 residents and 26 cases of forcible rape in 2005. Crime statistics were not available from Crimenumbers.com for this past year.
Dangerous schools like UC Davis can take certain steps to bringing safety to the campus. Installing video cameras, electronic-access cards and self-locking dorm doors are excellent ways to promote safety and security. Statistically, students generally feel safer on campus when the school regularly monitors video cameras and routinely patrols the campus. Implementing an emergency preparedness plan and programs relating to drugs, alcohol and fires make students aware of safety precautions and health issues that could be introduced while living or studying at a college or university (see what safe schools are doing, and unsafe schools aren’t).
In my past life, I was a tree or something. If not a tree, something that grew old and didn't move very much. I'm pretty convinced of this.
February 12th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Some schools like Daid can’t afford security cameras and may believe that they are an invasion of privacy. And like anything else, they cost money.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hi, can you provide a link to the actual Reader’s Digest survey somewhere? the link provided just goes back to their homepage, and the survey you are referring to doesn’t show up in the search based on any keywords I’ve tried.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:36 am
@Bill: How do security cameras in dorm hallways and parking lots invade privacy? Unless you’re planning on getting it on in a convertible or the halls of the dorms (eww, by the way), I doubt there’s anything to worry about. As for cost, that’s easily taken care of by cutting funding from other areas in an attempt to beef up security. Nothing’s more important than the safety and well-being of a person. Sure, you might be able to afford that trip to the regional football playoffs, but if it comes at the cost of a college student’s life, is it really worth it?
@Eugene: You can find the survey in the March 2008 issue of Reader’s Digest Magazine. They may not make all of the surveys and content available online to those who do not subscribe to their magazine, which is why in the post, I offered resources on some of the material found in the article.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Some colleges don’t care for the whole “Big Brother” concept. And I applaud that move.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
@Bill: Do you also choose to shop at stores that don’t monitor their customers using surveillance cameras? Or purchase fuel at gas stations that don’t have video security? Or do you consider those to be too “Big Brother”-y for your tastes?
February 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Bill is absouletely right.
Some colleges can’t afford security measures like this.
And as far as the back talk goes, no one can really avoid being watched at stores. It’s just they way the world it is today. Unfortunately.
February 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
@Laura: I disagree. I say college can’t afford not to have good security measures put into place.
February 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I go to a well-known University and they have cameras to the point where it’s scary. But we need to have safer schools, no question about it. Just read the papers. Someone gets killed in a school every day. It’s sad. And personally, I don’t think some silly cameras are going to threaten anyone. We need something more intimidating, like more police officers patrolling key areas of campus.
February 16th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Security should be a high priority among all campuses. Just recently there was a shooting at Northern Illinois University; then there was Virginia Tech, etc. It just goes to prove that the security of the campuses needs to be tightened. Surveillance cameras are good objects to invest in. Sometimes, however, cameras alone aren’t enough. The colleges and universities need to ensure safety for all of their respective students.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Security cameras do work. It’s way cheaper to install cameras in strategic locations than to hire lots of secuity guards that would be bored anyways. I go to Davis, and i know we’ve wasted money on lots of other things such as big plastic bike lockers. Plus, the security camera is more of a psychological deterent for criminals. For example, they’re like the big mirrors that are in the back of convenience stores. A thief is likely to be able to steal without even the cashier seeing him, but the fact that there is a big mirror is enough to stop him from even trying. Same goes for the camera - truth be told….they don’t even need to recording anything (of course why wouldn’t they anyways)…. the fact that they are there should be enough to stop criminals from trying.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
This immediate next part isn’t substantiated, but I’ve been hearing that UC Davis’ crime rates are actually inflated by our medical school campus, UCDMC, which is located in a not so savory part of Sacramento. If this is true, then I think the report actually gives a false sense of how unsafe Davis is.
From being here for about 6 years (undergrad, working FT on campus, and now in law school), I’ve found that UC Davis, if anything, is a pretty safe campus. As a girl, I feel relatively safe walking late although it can get a little creepy at night just as it might be in any dark place. There’s also always the option of calling the Aggie Hosts to get a ride back to my car.
There are a lot of bike thefts, but considering how many bikes are on campus and in town, is that really a surprise? As for rapes and other sexual crimes, I don’t really think they’re as common as they seem by the stats. Stuff like date or acquaintance rape happen at every college. If anything, my concern would be more about attacks by strangers…Also, do the City of Davis stats count in the “dangerous campus” stats, or is it just crimes that occur on campus? It wouldn’t seem to make sense to add the city stats to the campus ones, because if that were the case I’m sure plenty of other cities would land much higher in crime rates than Davis would.
As for cameras, I guess the main question is where should they be installed, at every entrance of halls or just dorms? All the dorms are electronic-card access only; it’s up to the residents themselves to enforce who lets who in though.
Also, sometimes the crimes are brought on by non-affiliated people. For instance, there was the guy who got shot and killed about 4 years back outside of a freshman dorm. He was just some guy who knew someone there and was disturbed. It wasn’t like someone actually attending/working at UC Davis was being violent.
I dunno, I just doubt the results of this report…I need to see exactly what this report includes first.
Of course, go figure I’d see this after the whole pipe bomb incident last night :) sigh. Once again, I’m not saying Davis is the safest place in the world, but it’s truly a far cry from being so high on a “most dangerous campus” list.