"Safe Housing"

 Looking for a house can be a very stressful time for everyone, but there is one common question between all homebuyers and renters, “Is this area safe?”. When sending your child off to college for the first time you can be very distressed over the fact that your child is finally leaving home and looking for a place to live that is going to be safe. In this opinion editorial parents, students, and other interested parties will be provided with the information to prove that areas with low population density and lack of public spaces are the safest places to live.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, safe is defined as being “Secure from threat of danger, harm, or loss.” By analyzing the Boulder open data source and the University of Colorado Police Department dataset, we are able to see what crimes are happening and where they are happening. The Colorado Police Department daily crime log allowed insight into what types of crimes were happening on the University of Colorado campus. The Boulder County crime data allowed an overall view of what was happening.

The first step in the analysis was to create a map of boulder in which we were able to see the sheer amount of crimes that were happening and where they were happening. Below you can see a map of the University of Colorado Boulder campus with the amount of different types of crimes and a count of how many times that crime was committed in a certain area.

By looking at the count of how many crimes that were committed, we can see that the most populated areas are where the most arrests happen. Specifically we can see that all of the crimes are located in very populated areas, such as Pearl Street, 29th Street Mall, and The Hill. This is indicative that in Boulder, crime is more likely to happen in heavily populated areas. By moving into a house or apartment complex that is in close proximity to these Boulder hotspots, you are more susceptible to petty crimes happening around you. We can see that around these hotspots there are more counts of Trespassing, Theft, and Vandalism. We can assume that Trespassing is happening around Pearl Street and The Hill because there is a high amount of students drinking at bars and houses around these areas. Below we can see on which days of the week that petty crimes are happening.

The graph above shows that there is a high density of crimes being committed on nights such as Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, this could be tied to the nights which students are out studying or people are busy at work. Quiet nights like these seem like the perfect opportunity for people to commit crimes such as vandalism, theft from a vehicle and burglaries, since people are busy they are unaware of what is happening around them. The theft from vehicles has a spike on Monday through Wednesday which is unlike any other category, which was very peculiar. I believe these types of crimes happen on nights such as Monday through Wednesday because they are quiet evenings just the same as the vandalism and burglary spikes.

By looking at the amount of crimes in Boulder during 2019, we can see that the two top categories are trespassing and vandalism. When looking into other datasets such as the CUPD dataset we can see that the main offenses that they are dealing with are more towards drug and alcohol violations as well as theft. We can assume that most of the arrests and reports that the CUPD is dealing with are on campus and in the surrounding areas. The CUPD dataset shows us an insight into the type of crimes that students are committing specifically and what generally is going on around the University of Colorado campus. The Boulder county dataset allowed me a view into what sorts of crimes were happening in the Boulder compared to what was happening at CU.

From the CUPD Dataset we can see that most of the arrests for alcohol violations are located on the streets, and that they are mainly located on Colorado Avenue. We can also see that the thefts are located mainly in the University Memorial Center and in the University Dormitories. This is similar to the Boulder police department dataset because all the main crimes are located in largely populated areas.

Heavily populated areas are known to have a much higher crime rate than smaller communities. The reason for this is that in large cities there is a sense of anonymity, according to John Braithwaite in his article about Population Growth and Crime. He states that “in a world of strangers men lose their feelings of responsibility for their fellow man.” This means that in big cities people stop caring about what is going on around them so people believe they have a chance for not getting caught. Whereas in smaller towns a delinquent is more likely to get caught for his or her behavior. Braithwaite also states that because of anonymity there is a weak social control over the people allowing for social disorganization what causes social manifestation of crimes. Finally Braithwaite states that since there are more people in larger cities people who commit crimes are more likely to find other people with the same criminal tendencies.

After analyzing both the University of Colorado Police department dataset and the Boulder open crime data it is safe to assume that most crimes happen in heavily populated areas. When trying to decide where to live in Boulder you would want to stay away from areas such as 13th Street and College Avenue, Pearl Street, and the 29th Street Mall. By staying away from these heavily populated areas, you are decreasing your chances of having thieves and vandals harming your safety.