15 Worst College Crime Areas

America's Top College Neighborhoods for Property Crime

By NeighborhoodScout.com

posted: 178 DAYS 12 HOURS AGO

filed under: College Finance, Insurance

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NeighborhoodScout.com and WalletPop.com recently released a report on the most dangerous neighborhoods for property crime in the U.S. Surprisingly, this exclusive list included numerous neighborhoods which are adjacent to some of America's largest and most prestigious colleges and universities.

Seeking to explain this phenomenon, many local police departments responded to the story by citing a young, transient population who are often on their own for the first time, living in close quarters, and not securing their belongings, as potential reasons college neighborhoods may be some of the highest risk areas for burglary, theft and motor vehicle theft.

Readers suggested that they would like to know which college neighborhoods have the highest risk for property crime. In response, NeighborhoodScout has identified the Top 15 College Neighborhoods for Property Crime in America. These neighborhoods have the highest estimated rates of property crime per 1,000 residents of any college neighborhoods in America. These neighborhoods do not necessarily have high rates of violent crime, which is not included in the analysis.

Top 15 College Neighborhoods for Property Crime in the U.S.
(Note: Colleges can be included in the list more than once, since more than one neighborhood near a particular college can make the list. Each neighborhood, shown in parenthesis, will be listed separately in the order of its property crime rate.)

No. 1: U.C. Santa Barbara
Isla Vista, Calif.
(Ocean Rd. / El Colegio Rd.)
1,019 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 2: Univ. of Texas
Austin, Texas
(Lamar Blvd. / Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.)
613 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 3: Saint Louis Univ.
St. Louis, Mo.
(Chouteau Ave. / Compton Ave.)
603 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 4: U.C. Berkeley
Berkeley, Calif.
(Haste St. / College Ave.)
502 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 5: Ohio State
Columbus, Ohio
(Summit St. / 12th Ave.)
498 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 6: Ohio State
Columbus, Ohio
(Lane Ave. / Neil Ave.)
490 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 7: LeMoyne-Owen College
Memphis, Tenn.
(Owen College / Union Ave.)
483 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 8: Univ. of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Penn.
(38th St. / Walnut St.)
459 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 9: Baylor
Waco, Texas
(3rd St. / Garden Dr.)
437 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 10: Univ. of Texas
Austin, Texas
(Lamar Blvd. / 24th St.)
435 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 11: Univ. of Akron
Akron, Ohio
(Thornton St. / Sumner St.)
427 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 12: Southwest Missouri State
Springfield, Mo.
(Southwest Missouri State U / Harrison St.)
419 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 13: Univ. of Southern California
Los Angeles, Calif.
(Figueroa St. / Adams Blvd.)
401 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 14: Univ. of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C.
(Whaley St. / Assembly St.)
394 property crimes per 1,000 residents

No. 15: Saint Louis University
St. Louis, Mo.
(Saint Louis U / Olive St.)
379 property crimes per 1,000 residents

Methodology

Location, Inc. offers the most detailed national database of neighborhood crime statistics available today.

Most city and town crime data are incomplete and inaccurate because crimes are reported by individual law enforcement agencies (municipal, university, county, etc.), rather than by city or town, and many cities have more than one agency responsible for law enforcement. Even FBI data are reported by agency not by city or town.

But Location, Inc. collects data from all 17,000 local law enforcement agencies in America, and uses a special approach to assign reported crimes from each agency to the city or town where they occurred. Our method provides an accurate representation of the complete number and types of crimes that truly occur within any city or town.

With this accurate foundation, Location, Inc. uses more than eighteen proprietary computer models developed by its expert analysts to statistically estimate the number of violent crimes and property crimes for every neighborhood in the U.S. -- creating a national database of accurate neighborhood crime statistics and crime risk.

Our crime data cover every one of the 61,000 neighborhoods in America (sub zip code), and every one of the 14,464 cities, towns, villages, boroughs, and hamlets in the U.S. No piece of land in America is without detailed crime statistics.

For this study of the top 15 college neighborhoods for property crime, property crimes included were the property crimes from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports: burglary (breaking and entering, including breaking into private homes), motor vehicle theft, and regular theft (larceny over $50). Based on multiple years of data, and predicted to the individual neighborhood level by NeighborhoodScout's exclusive crime models, we list the top 15 college neighborhoods where your risk of becoming a victim of a property crime is highest. The rating is based on the predicted number of property crimes in the neighborhood per 1,000 population of the neighborhood.

The data are averaged across the most recent three years of non-preliminary (final) data from the FBI. This moving three-year window helps stabilize data where a single year could be uncharacteristically high or low, providing a more accurate risk assessment. Note that very recent changes in a neighborhood may not be reflected in our findings, as we use non-preliminary data in our models that take a year to be released.

Licensing Our Data

If your marketing, underwriting, risk assessment, fraud detection, or investment strategies are impacted by crime, or if neighborhood safety is important to you in selecting your next home, we provide the exclusive information you need for informed decisions that will save you time and money and increase revenue. To license our data, contact us at: info@locationinc.com

2009-12-16 12:04:42