Rape and Safety in and around Bozeman (2013, violent crime)

[LGM19]

We have a young family and are considering relocating to Bozeman for all the wonderful positive aspects of living in a town with access to nature. I was however alarmed to see the crime statistics for Bozeman which are not what I thought it would be given Bozeman's overall reputation for being safe. The rape rate for last year was 41 rapes which is much higher than the national average per capita. Can anyone explain this or has any insight to the low grades for crime that Bozeman receives on some of the neighborhood watch sites online?

[volosong]

Originally Posted by LGM19

We have a young family and are considering relocating to Bozeman for all the wonderful positive aspects of living in a town with access to nature. I was however alarmed to see the crime statistics for Bozeman which are not what I thought it would be given Bozeman's overall reputation for being safe. The rape rate for last year was 41 rapes which is much higher than the national average per capita. Can anyone explain this or has any insight to the low grades for crime that Bozeman receives on some of the neighborhood watch sites online?

You need to supply some sources for the statistic you cite. From what I found on the City-Data city page and FBI, crime of all types, including rape, is less than the national average; for some categories, much less.

source: "The data for United States is from FBI, US Department of Justice Crime in the United States 1993-2012 Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Data source: UNODC, Crime against women, Sexual Violence Tables as of July 2013, Crime and criminal justice statistics, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2013)" and http://www.city-data.com/city/Bozeman-Montana.html

[NW Crow]

In general Volosong is right that violent crime is low in Bozeman. But comparing the 41 rapes mentioned on the CityData table for 2017 to the USDOJ data it does appear that the overall rape rate may be about 50% above national average. The explanation? Well, part of it is that Bozeman has 3 times as many females and males ages 18-24 as national average and about 40% more ages 25-34. So much larger populations at greatest risk and potentially more perpetrators of that age range too. If you adjust for the demographics there appears to be less risk of rape in Bozeman for young adults per number of young adults. There is just a much larger share of young adults in the total population. Of course, rape could occur to other ages but it is mainly experienced by younger people. Bozeman has less teenagers. All the demographics have an impact on the rates and crime totals. In general I don't think Bozeman has an unusual level of rape considering the unusual elevated young adult demographics; but if you have young folks in the household, yeah, you and they should be careful about where they go, what they do, who they associate with.

[historyfan]

I do not know how statistics stack up.

But I do know that there has been an awareness & outreach campaign about reporting rape. More sexual crimes that used to go unreported are now reported.

I do not think of Bozeman as a dangerous place.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by NW Crow

In general I don't think Bozeman has an unusual level of rape considering the unusual elevated young adult demographics; but if you have young folks in the household, yeah, you and they should be careful about where they go, what they do, who they associate with.

To put it more bluntly: Easy way to avoid rape in a college town: don't go partying and get sloppy-drunk.

[eddie gein]

The only thing that makes sense here is a lot of reported date rapes among college students. I can't think of a whole lot of cities around that are the size of Bozeman that I'd feel any safer in than there.

[countryboy73]

Rape rates are likely higher due to a modernized(looser) definition of the crime, and as already stated, the large number of younger people present. Bozeman is not a bad town. Not my choice for a hometown, butnit ain’t a bad place, or unsafe.

If you are worried about forcible rape, well, that’s what they make situational awareness, concealed weapons, knives, and other skills for. The side effect of being armed and trained is that the predators, nearly always well educated in choosing targets, will generally choose a target that indicates an easy victim, which the armed and trained individual rarely presents. Had a neighbor out here in flyover country get mugged(!) in his barn yesterday. Dopers. No place is absolutely safe. You simply have to make your own safety.

[MikeyMike11]

Never heard of a rape or violent crime, except from drunken idiots on campus and Downtown, usually college kids, but also oil rig workers with a brand new shiny paycheck on break for a few days. I just went up to the mountains for the weekend and got back to find MY CAR WINDOWS were left open all weekend, with like $5k in tools just sitting there on the street... out in the open. After a heart attack or two, I noticed nothing was touched. I don't even know where my house keys are, although more and more, I am wanting to get a security camera (getting old I guess). I have never been a victim of violent or property crime in 20 years here.

[alaskaflyer]

I would also mostly ascribe it to a relatively large college in a system that is focusing on sexual assault issues among students, in a relatively small city.