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Abstract: 

Each time violent crimes such as rape, murder, or a group shooting such as the Cho case at Virginia Tech take place, a new call for increasing campus safety is made as well. Yet, although everyone decries crime of any type, and violent crime on American campuses in particular, it is seldom pointed out that campuses are safer than the communities that surround them and that American college and university administrations and police are being held to a much higher standard than are local governments and municipal police forces. For example, crime rates on Virginia campuses, the sites of two shooting sprees in recent years, have generally been lower in virtually every category than the crime rates within the State of Virginia as a whole and in the United States as a whole. An additional study has shown the same to be true for the institutions in 14 other southern states.

Keywords: Virginia Tech; Clery Act; Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education;

Affiliations:  1: CSSD Contributing Editor.