Did you know that, despite the media coverage of criminal behavior across America that this is the safest time we've ever lived in?
While it's easy to follow the headlines and social media accounts of terrible crimes in the United States, in actuality, your chances of being the victim of a crime is lower than ever.
That's great!
However, most of us are more withdrawn than ever. We don't let our kids play outside as often. We clutch our purses in public. And we're overly suspicious of everything that surrounds us.
That's a shame, and we hope that trend changes at some point, lest we as Americans become so isolated that our fear prevents us from being truly happy and free.
But this research isn't about reporting crime. It's about reporting on the least amount of crime on college campuses.
Much like America, the majority of colleges in Hawaii are very safe, but crimes do happen on just about every campus every day. The purpose of this study is to aid those in the midst of a college search with additional data point to help them make the right choice.
So with that in mind, here are Hawaii's Safest Colleges For 2020.
Before we go anywhere, let us make super clear that basically every college campus is safe relative to your average city. Additionally, college campuses have been getting safer every year.
If you're looking for a safe plae to go to school, add Hawaii Pacific University to your college visit road trip around Hawaii.
Read on below for a detailed breakdown on how we analyzed the data for Hawaii, and continue on for a little more background on our safest college list.
For more reading on colleges around Hawaii, check out:
In order to rank the safest colleges in Hawaii, we simply had to look at the number of crimes that are committed on every campus in Hawaii in the last reporting year available.
In this case, we were able to obtain crime statistics from the US Department of Education Campus Safety And Security, which includes reported crimes that happened on each campus for every year, and on many detailed categories.
For our report, we looked at the most recent year available, which is the 2019 academic year. We created the following categories:
This data collection is required by the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act and the Higher Education Opportunity Act.
Our universe of colleges were limited to predominantly BA and BS conferring institutions with over 500 students and at least 1 reported crime.
We then ranked each of the 5 schools from safest to dangerous for each of the three criteria with 1 being the safest. Finally, we averaged the three scores together into a safety score with the lowest being the safest.
The colleges with the least number of crimes per student were deemed the safest colleges, and those with the most crimes and arrests per student are the most dangerous.
So it looks like if you want to get the safest school experience (not safety school!), you need to contact admissions at Hawaii Pacific University or University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Location: Honolulu, HI
# Of Undergraduates: 6,313
Violent Crime Per Capita: 0.0
Property Crime Per Capita: 0.0007
Sexual Assault Per Capita: 0.0005
Hawai'i Pacific University, commonly referred to as HPU, is a private, and nonsectarian university in Honolulu and Kaneohe, Hawai-i. HPU is the largest private university in the central Pacific, most noted for its diverse student body of nearly 5,000 students, representing nearly 65 countries. The school's top academic programs are in Business Administration, Nursing, Biology, Diplomacy and Military Studies, and Social Work.
Oceanic Institute of HPU, an aquaculture research facility, is located at Makapu-u Point. HPU is also present on military installations on the island of O-ahu.
Location: Hilo, HI
# Of Undergraduates: 2,646
Violent Crime Per Capita: 0.0
Property Crime Per Capita: 0.0027
Sexual Assault Per Capita: 0.0
The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo or UH Hilo is a public co-educational university in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, United States. It is one of ten branches of the University of Hawaiʻi system. It was founded as Hawaiʻi Vocational College (Hawaiʻi College) in 1941. In 1970 it was reorganized by an act of the Hawaiʻi State Legislature.
The university has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges since 1976. It offers thirty-three undergraduate and three graduate degree programs, and has about 3000 students; most are residents of Hawaiʻi, but there are many international students too.
Location: Honolulu, HI
# Of Undergraduates: 2,038
Violent Crime Per Capita: 0.0009
Property Crime Per Capita: 0.0018
Sexual Assault Per Capita: 0.0
Chaminade University of Honolulu is a private co-educational university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Founded in 1955 by the Society of Mary, a Roman Catholic religious order also known as the Marianists, Chaminade is located in the historic Kaimuki district of Honolulu at the base of St. Louis Heights. Chaminade offers bachelor's degrees in 23 fields of study and five master's degree programs. The school specializes in biology, business, criminal justice, education, forensic sciences, interior design, nursing, and religious studies. Chaminade University is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
Location: Honolulu, HI
# Of Undergraduates: 11,721
Violent Crime Per Capita: 0.0001
Property Crime Per Capita: 0.0025
Sexual Assault Per Capita: 0.001
The University of Hawaii at Mnoa is a public co-educational research university as well as the flagship campus of the University of Hawaii system. The school is located in Mnoa, an affluent neighborhood of Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States, approximately three miles east and inland from downtown Honolulu and one mile from Ala Moana and Waikiki. The campus occupies the eastern half of the mouth of Mnoa Valley. The John A. Burns School of Medicine, part of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, is located in Kaka'ako, adjacent to the Kaka'ako Waterfront Park. It is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges from the western mainland U.S. and is governed by the Hawaii State Legislature and a semi-autonomous board of regents, which in turn, hires a president to be administrator. This university campus also houses the main offices of the entire University of Hawaii system.
Location: Laie, HI
# Of Undergraduates: 2,353
Violent Crime Per Capita: 0.0
Property Crime Per Capita: 0.0042
Sexual Assault Per Capita: 0.0014
Classes began at BYU-Hawaii in September 1955 as the Church College of Hawaii to accommodate the burgeoning LDS population in the Territory of Hawaii. This was largely a result of McKay's views on both education and strengthening the church outside of its longtime intermountain west U.S. base. The original class consisted of 153 students and 20 faculty meeting in old World War II buildings, with Reuben D. Law as the school's first president. The school's first buildings were dedicated on December 17, 1958. The college was at first a two-year college but was reorganized in 1959 to become a four-year college. By 1961 the college had been granted four-year accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Dormitories, a cafeteria, and other buildings had also been constructed.
If you're looking at an undeniably effective and thorough way to measure how safe (and dangerous) each college campus is in Hawaii, we've done a good job of portraying the data in a straightforward manner.
Additionally, we'd like to add that while the data never lies, we did choose certain criteria over others - meaning had we chosen to include other crime numbers, or measured the data in a different way, the list would have been different.
However, we'd think you'd agree that this is an effective way to measure campus safety, as we aggregated most of the largest categories for you. We encourage you to visit the National Center for Education Statistics and make your own conclusions if you so wish.
For more reading on colleges around Hawaii, check out:
Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.
He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.
If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.
You can find out more about him on LinkedIn.