Once again, we step into a role that is best served by our local newspaper, but the JG-TC would rather just quote the same fake rankings than take the time and effort to research the data behind the rankings. It appears that following their biased agenda ranks above journalism so we will attempt to fill the void. One of the best reasons these rankings are junk and shouldn't be used or believed is because the FBI says not to. This is the first in a series of articles that will show why blindly believing a ranking or website just because you want the facts to be true is a bad idea.
If you accept that Charleston is the #2 safest college town in the United States according to Safewise and have it in commercials, websites, shared on social media or used it as a fact to prove your point, then you cannot dispute any of what is to follow. The data is the same FBI UCR data Safewise (and every other crime data analysis) uses, the formula to calculate the score is the same formula Safewise lists on their website. Their formula is just adding the violent crimes per 1000 people to the property crimes per 1000 people then dividing by 2. We can use this same basic technique using college enrollment and crime data from their police departments instead of the college town. The local police department and campus police department report different data, so by using data specific to the college this should give us an even better flawed ranking.
Out of 32 schools reporting data, the same Safewise formula that has Charleston as #2 safest, puts EIU as #27. When we look at just the violent crime rankings, EIU is the most violent campus in Illinois. In fact, the violent crime rate is over 2x higher than 2nd place Loyola University while having an enrollment of 7917 less students. Eastern leads the state in robbery and assault rates as well as having the 2nd highest rape rate while ranking 17th in enrollment. Some of the other 31 schools are University of Illinois:Urbana, College of DuPage, Northern Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University:Carbondale. To make it really hit home, during our initial analysis on crime rates on all 658 colleges and universities that have police departments including Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, Ohio State University, Ohio State University, we found EIU is the 36th most violent campus in the entire country.
If you accept that Charleston is the #2 safest college town in the United States according to Safewise and have it in commercials, websites, shared on social media or used it as a fact to prove your point, then you cannot dispute any of what is to follow. The data is the same FBI UCR data Safewise (and every other crime data analysis) uses, the formula to calculate the score is the same formula Safewise lists on their website. Their formula is just adding the violent crimes per 1000 people to the property crimes per 1000 people then dividing by 2. We can use this same basic technique using college enrollment and crime data from their police departments instead of the college town. The local police department and campus police department report different data, so by using data specific to the college this should give us an even better flawed ranking.
Out of 32 schools reporting data, the same Safewise formula that has Charleston as #2 safest, puts EIU as #27. When we look at just the violent crime rankings, EIU is the most violent campus in Illinois. In fact, the violent crime rate is over 2x higher than 2nd place Loyola University while having an enrollment of 7917 less students. Eastern leads the state in robbery and assault rates as well as having the 2nd highest rape rate while ranking 17th in enrollment. Some of the other 31 schools are University of Illinois:Urbana, College of DuPage, Northern Illinois University, and Southern Illinois University:Carbondale. To make it really hit home, during our initial analysis on crime rates on all 658 colleges and universities that have police departments including Arizona State University, Texas A&M University, Ohio State University, Ohio State University, we found EIU is the 36th most violent campus in the entire country.
- Once again if you are going to use this ranking in commercials/PR or refer to it as fact, then you can't argue any of the previous data and rankings as not being real or factual. If Charleston is the 2nd safest college town, then EIU is the most violent college in Illinois. You can't be one without the other. You can however follow FBI advice and stop using fake rankings in your commercials, PR material and talking points.
- Notice how the Safewise Score of the "30 Safest College Towns" list seems to be driving their rankings, if they were actually using "relevant safety, security, and community outreach programs" and "other important factors" , one would expect some deviation. Not surprisingly, if you read it closely, this is just word play to trick people.
- This data comes from the UCR data reported by the University's PD to the FBI and is separate from the data reported by the local police department. Since these crimes were handled by campus authorities and not local, one can assume they involved students, occurred on campus or locations close enough to campus or habited by enough students to be considered de facto campus. Keep in mind just because these crimes are happening on campus doesn't mean the students are the ones committing them, the data just shows crimes are happening not who commits them.
- And finally, for those too lazy to click/tap: "UCR data are sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions and institutions of
higher learning. These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which
adversely affect geographic entities and their residents. For this reason, the FBI has a longstanding
policy against ranking participating law enforcement agencies on the basis of crime
data alone. Despite repeated warnings against these practices, some data users continue to
challenge and misunderstand this position"
