For the most part, the Boston College campus can be considered a safe environment.
Not all students, however, are able to spend the entirety of their years at BC living on campus. Every year, a large portion of BC students move into off-campus apartments, facing concerns about the safety of their new environment.
The city of Newton has been named the safest city in America for two out of the last three years by Morgan Quitno Press. The cities were ranked based on crime rates in six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. Money Magazine recently ranked Newton 22nd in its list of the 100 safest cities in which to live. According to Money Magazine, the personal crime risk in Newton is 29, well below the national average of 100; while the property crime risk is also well below the national average of 43. The number of personal crime incidents was 60 per 100,000, while the number of property crime incidents was 1,018.
Last year, however, saw reports of several assaults within the Brighton community, an area where many BC students live off campus. The city of Boston, which includes the area of Brighton, is considered to have a high crime rate. According to areaconnect.com, a Web site that compares the crime rates of different U.S. cities using data from FBI crime reports, Boston had an overall crime rate that was worse than the national average in 2004.
The BCPD offers several safety tips that can be applied by students living off campus, such as being aware of the surroundings, keeping roommates informed of when and where one is going out, travelling in groups during the evening and night hours, and remembering to keep doors and windows locked. The rest of the tips, as well as more information about crime prevention can be found on the BCPD's Web site, http://www.bc.edu/offices/bcpd/.
Be the first to comment on this article!