Have a Child Attending Penn State? You Need to Check Pennsylvania Criminal Records

Is your child headed off to college in the fall? Maybe he or she plans to attend Penn State University? If so, you may need to check Pennsylvania criminal records. If you live out of state, you should do some research on the crime rates in the area in which your child will be living and attending college. Even if you live in Pennsylvania, with nineteen branch campuses in addition to the main campus, your child may not be attending classes or sleeping in a dorm room close to home. Therefore, you may want to research the crime rates in the area in which that particular campus is located.

When researching Pennsylvania criminal records, you should search by county rather than city. Aside from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh, which are the major cities in Pennsylvania, most cities are small, with some being referred to rather as towns or villages. While a specific city may have a low crime rate, the county as a whole may have a much higher crime rate. Pennsylvania has an area of nearly 45,000 square miles, and the state contains sixty-seven counties. While some are, of course, larger than others, if divided equally, each county would have an area of less than seven hundred square miles. Therefore, it may be wise to research the county in which your child's college is located and surrounding counties as well.

If your son or daughter is attending the main campus at University Park, you will want to check Centre County's crime rates. When you do, you will find that they are much lower than the national average, with thefts and burglaries being the crimes that are committed the most. Both Penn State Hazleton and Penn State Wilkes-Barre are located in Luzerne County. While Hazelton and Wilkes-Barre do not have high crime rates, the county as a whole does. The city of Berwick is located in both Luzerne and Columbia counties, and the forcible rapes rate in Berwick is much higher than the national average. It is also higher than that of Philadelphia, one of Pennsylvania's largest and most criminal cities. Of course, Philadelphia has a much higher population than Berwick, but that is taken into consideration when crime rates are calculated. Harrisburg is Pennsylvania's capital city, and it is also a city in which a great deal of crime, such as murder, rape, and assault, is committed. The city's crime rates are double and triple that of the national average. While Middletown's crime rates are generally at or below the national average, Harrisburg is located only minutes away. Therefore, Dauphin County's crime rates better reflect the risks of studying so close to a high crime area than Middletown crime rates do. When you send your child off to college, you want to be sure that he or she is going to be safe. When examining Pennsylvania criminal records, you need to be sure to look into the surrounding areas as well as the city that the campus is located in.