Rene Alvarez | Students' fears of crime are largely unfounded

Graduate-student life causes insomnia with thoughts like "Will I ever finish my dissertation?" "Will I find a job?" and "Am I going to die alone?"

Needless to say, a mind already filled with these kinds of irrational thoughts has a short trip to others like urban crime. I mean, hey, I live in West Philly - I should be scared, right?

Philly is a tough town. The Philadelphia Police Department's Web site reports that crimes involving both intent and use of force either have stayed about the same or have increased slightly over the last year. This includes more than 1,000 rapes and more than 10,000 robberies, aggravated assaults and burglaries.

So I'm right in being scared. Right?

Fortunately, I have the recent release of the campus crime report to cure my insomnia. And, fortunately for you, I've read this year's report - so you don't have to.

The report is the result of a federal mandate stemming from the brutal rape and murder of a Jeanne Clery at Lehigh University in 1986. Clery was murdered by a fellow student who entered her building through several propped doors and then gained access to Clery's unlocked door.

In the wake of the murder, Congress passed the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990. The law mandates that colleges must publish an annual report containing security policies and the year's worth of crime statistics.

And, with the investment of a lot of government time, money and effort, the U.S. Department of Education now requires colleges and universities to invest a lot of their own time, money and effort to report crime on and around their campuses.

Reporting these statistics may serve the purpose of providing information, but an unintended consequence may be a heightening of irrational fear of crime among Penn students and Philadelphia residents. Local news media exacerbate the situation with sensationalistic coverage of violence and murders. (NBC10 is leading with a homicide? It must be Tuesday.)

Let me assuage your fears. Last year, there was one reported murder on campus. Granted, that one may be one too many. But it helps to think of it this way: According to crime statistics reported on the FBI.gov Web site, there were 14,860 murders in 2005 in the United States. Of these, 2,070 were victims at the hands of a stranger and, in 6,724 cases, the perpetrators remain unknown. Meanwhile, 6,066 were committed by family members, close friends or someone known to the victim. The message is clear: You're more likely to be killed by someone you know. And make sure you keep your close friends close enough - 3,210 murders were committed by an "acquaintance."

Of these nearly 15,000 murders, 377 occurred in Philadelphia, which represents about 2.5 percent of the total. Thus, the one reported by Penn represents a statistical insignificance.

With 116 officers, Penn's police force is the largest private police force in the state. They patrol all of Penn's 260-acre main campus and work with the Philly police in ensuring safety and security in areas beyond that core area. You've probably seen them along Walnut and Pine streets and Baltimore Avenue, wearing their fluorescent neon garb.

While I'm grateful for their presence, I can't help but wonder if Penn is sending the right message to both students and Penn's long-time West Philly neighbors. Are the streets so dangerous that there needs to be an officer on every corner from 38th to 45th street? Isn't this show of force really just there to reassure Mommy and Daddy that their little darling from the lily-white suburbs is safe in the big, bad city?

As much as I appreciate the fine job the Penn police do, perhaps the Division of Public Safety could emphasize more the idea with which they open their Crime Report - safety and security is "shared responsibility," and crime prevention is an individual and collective responsibility.

If we acknowledge and accept that we're all in this together, then perhaps we'll all sleep a little better.

Rene Alvarez is a sixth-year History Ph.D. candidate from Chicago, Ill. His e-mail address is alvarez@dailypennsylvanian.com. Rico Suave appears on Tuesdays.

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