Expert: Criminals prey on college students

The following safety tips are provided by John Douglas, former head agent of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit and the nation’s leading expert on criminal personality profiling.

Douglas is also a pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis, and believes that “the best thing we as parents and students can do is take steps to prevent (crime).”

In an article that appeared in the Aug. 10, 2001, newsletter, Mind Hunter, Douglas said that criminals often prey on college-aged victims. He reminds students that, if they follow several basic rules, “you will be taking giant steps toward keeping yourselves safe.”

Safety Tips

• Carry a cell phone, and make sure the battery is charged.
  
• Carry mace or pepper spray, and keep the same handy in your room.
  
• Travel in groups whenever possible.
  
• Stay in well-lighted areas, and park as close to your destination as possible if you are driving.
  
• Try to get cash from indoor ATMs and during the day. If you have to go at night, take someone with you and do not talk to anyone you do not know. Avoid machines off the beaten track and those where people are loitering. Paying a small fee for using another bank’s ATM is well worth ensuring your safety.
  
• Do not work in unsafe areas and try to avoid late-night areas or shifts.
  
• By the same token, take morning or early afternoon rather than night classes whenever possible. Certain violent crime rates on-campus rose from 2000 to 2001, while they fell in off-campus areas.
  
• Lock your doors anytime you enter or leave your dorm room, apartment, or house. Have deadbolts installed. Make sure all entrances
  are secure if you are in a dorm or apartment. Dorms with 24-hour card key, hand scan, or other restricted access are infinitely safer than those with doors that can be propped open.
  
• Do the same with your windows. If you do not have sturdy burglar bars, keep the windows closed.
  
• Take it one step further and close your blinds or curtains. Do not offer an unobstructed view into your private life.
  
• Install timers on your lamps and, if you have any, on your outside lights. You can change the settings as often as you want, so your routine will not be predictable. And you can make sure you always come home to a well-lighted place.
  
• Do not ever drink more than you can handle. In 2002, approximately 1,400 college students die every year from alcohol-related deaths. A study by the Task Force on College Drinking, a federally funded group, found an annual 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault were facilitated or caused by excessive drinking.
  
• Never let a stranger buy you a drink without watching it being poured, stirred, and carried to the table. Date-rape drugs are not a myth. Rohypnol, for example, causes severely impaired judgment and, in combination with alcohol, can cause blackouts for as long as eight to 24 hours.
  
• Choose carefully who you date. Try to get to know your prospective boyfriend or girlfriend as well as you can before you are alone with him or her.
  
• Make sure somebody knows where you are and why you will be back at all times. Make sure they are paying attention to whether you make it home.
  
• If you are traveling home from school, or going on spring or summer break, double or triple your awareness and safety measures. If you are driving and have to stop for gas, try to find busy truck stops or brightly lit convenience stores. At the beach, the lake, or the ski resort, keep your guard up. Predators thrive in environments where potential victims gather and are made more vulnerable by a relaxation of standards and judgment-blurring effects of alcohol.
  
• Report anything suspicious to the police immediately. Do not make excuses for other people. If someone makes you uncomfortable by approaching you inappropriately or seems to show up wherever you go, go to the police. Find out your campus’s safety procedures and alert whomever you can so they can take steps to protect you.