The 25 Highest-Risk College Campus Neighborhoods
First National Crime Risk Survey of All Four-Year Colleges
In the first national study of its kind, APBnews.com and CAP Index Inc. have assessed and ranked the nation's 1,497 four-year colleges by campus neighborhood crime risk.
Using proprietary statistics developed by CAP Index, the 1999 APBnews.com/CAP Index College Community Crime Risk Assessment has determined the 25 highest-risk and 25 lowest-risk campus neighborhoods in the country.
The APBnews.com/CAP Index analysis is the first attempt to do a comparison of all four-year college campuses using a uniform national measure for neighborhood crime risk. Traditional statistics, like the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), are more than a year old when they are released. Meanwhile, crime statistics gathered by colleges themselves have been widely criticized for being unreliable and inconsistent. CAP Index's system, on the other hand, uses fresh data in a nationally standardized format to predict crime risk for the coming year.
The highest campus neighborhood risk found was that of Morris Brown College in Atlanta's University Center, a cluster of small historic campuses. Three other schools in University Center -- Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College -- were also among the five highest neighborhood crime risk rankings.
The lowest risk of all was measured for the pastoral setting of Anna Maria College, a small Catholic liberal arts school in Paxton, Mass., about 50 miles west of Boston.
How the Ratings are Determined
CAP Index -- its name stands for "Crimes Against Persons" -- provides neighborhood crime risk assessments to clients that include the U.S. Department of Justice and companies such as the Bank of America, Exxon and McDonalds. The company is headquartered in Exton, Pa.
The system does not measure actual crime rates but rather estimates the risk of crime for the coming year through a sophisticated computer model that compares socioeconomic data to past reports of actual crime.
The factors that drive CAP Index's estimates of crime risk include household income, family structure, migration patterns, housing values and average level of education. The computer model does not use information on race or ethnic origin.
The assessment of neighborhood crime risk looks at the total environment encountered by students as they move around the campus and its surrounding areas. This neighborhood focus is important because some schools have used a loophole in federal law to avoid reporting crimes that occur on public sidewalks or streets adjoining their private campus buildings.
College officials interviewed by APBnews.com emphasized that while the general risk of crime in a broad neighborhood may be high, the measures taken to secure a campus can dramatically alter the actual risk faced by students on that campus. The officials point to the importance of having an adequately trained and managed campus police department, proper lighting throughout the campus and other security systems such as escorts and key cards for dormitories.
The APBnews.com/CAP Index risk assessments do not account for security practices on any campus. They do not weigh the numbers of police or security guards at each college, or how much colleges spend on lighting, walls or fencing. They do not change based on whether a school is attended by mostly commuters or residents.
25 highest-risk campus neighborhoods (nation-wide)
In descending order of risk, the APBnews.com/CAP Index analysis identified the 25 schools with the highest-risk campus neighborhoods as:
1. Morris Brown College, Atlanta
2. LeMoyne-Owen College, Memphis, Tenn.
3. Spelman College, Atlanta
4. Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta
5. Morehouse College, Atlanta
6. VanderCook College of Music, Chicago
7. City University of New York/City College, New York
8. Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Fla.
9. Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, La.
10. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
11. Temple University, Philadelphia
12. Texas Southern University, Houston
13. Georgia State University, Atlanta
14. Albany State University, Albany, Ga.
15. Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C.
16. Sojourner-Douglass College, Baltimore
17. William Carey College, Hattiesburg, Miss.
18. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey/Camden, Camden, N.J.
19. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta
20. Fort Valley State College, Fort Valley, Ga.
21. Coppin State College, Baltimore
22. Harris-Stowe State College, St. Louis
23. Saint Louis University, St. Louis
24. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago
25. University of Houston, Houston
Officials aghast at findings
Many college officials were aghast at APBnews.com's findings, which strictly rank college neighborhoods rather than interior campuses, where violent crime is rare. They feared the ratings will be used to tar their school as being "high crime" when their campus itself is safe.
"You can imagine, as an institution of higher education within a major metropolitan area, we're very sensitive as to how our safety and security on campus is portrayed," said David Peters, commander of protective services for campus police at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). UIC, a commuter school, shares several square miles of Chicago's West Side with hospitals, public buildings and public housing projects
Florida Colleges Campus Neighborhoods Crime Risk
College
CityRisk FactorNational Rank
Edward Waters College Jacksonville108
University of Tampa Tampa969
Florida State University Tallahassee 977
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Tallahassee 9 90
Bethune-Cookman College Daytona Beach9118
Nova Southeastern University Fort Lauderdale 9129
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach FL 9 134
Palm Beach Atlantic College West Palm Beach FL 9 150
Florida Memorial College Miami FL 9 176
Saint Thomas University Miami FL 9 177
Florida International University Miami FL 9 188
University of Florida Gainesville FL 9 198
Barry University Miami Shores FL 8 216
University of South Florida Tampa FL 8 225
Eckerd College St. Petersburg FL 8 287
University of Miami Coral Gables FL 8 295
Saint John Vianney College Seminary Miami FL 8 305
Ringling School of Art and Design Sarasota FL 8 324
Jacksonville University Jacksonville FL 8 403
Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God Lakeland FL 7 443
Florida Southern College Lakeland FL 7 445
Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton FL 7 473
Flagler College St. Augustine FL 7 512
New College of the University of South Florida Sarasota FL 6 567
Florida Institute of Technology Melbourne FL 6 568
Northwood University West Palm Beach FL 6 576
Warner Southern College Lake Wales FL 6 599
Webber College Babson Park FL 6 599
Rollins College Winter Park FL 6 673
Stetson University Deland FL 6 698
International College Naples FL 6 726
University of West Florida Pensacola FL 6 733
Florida Baptist Theological College Graceville FL 5 833
University of North Florida Jacksonville FL 5 870
Florida Christian College Kissimmee FL 5 880
University of Central Florida Orlando FL 5 892
Saint Leo College Saint Leo FL 5 939
Lynn University Boca Raton FL 4 1148
Clearwater Christian College Clearwater FL 4 1174
