Last year when I first travelled to the United States for a “semester abroad” experience at the California State Polytechnic University, I was warned of three situations (a) never wander off campus without letting a friend know, (b) always let someone know about your plans for the day and (c) never take a drink from a stranger on campus and during recreational weekends. These came from a cousin who has been working and living on 54th Street New York City, the centre of juvenile crime in the United States of America.

Travelling to foreign destinations for a foreign education has enticed us all at one point or the other; it is almost like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that almost never shines on this part of the world. For those who have the money and for those who do not, studying at prestigious, world-class schools of learning is an overwhelming idea on its own. However, according to the Women's Self Destruction Online statistics, every year a million teenage girls get impregnated in the United States of America. A European Commission research based on crime statistics from 2007 indicates that the United Kingdom “has the highest rates of violence in the world, making it the crime capital of the world.”

Although the United Kingdom might be the centre of crime in Europe, other parts of the continent have also been affected. The Venezuelan government only recently decided to cut down on federal funds allocated for public universities (due to the global recession), and this caused havoc in the country when political violence transcended into university violence. That evening students on motorcycles entered the Student Union Building and discharged firearms. Three university buses were burnt down the following day.

It was only in May 1988 when the first “campus crime” was reported to authorities — freshman Jeanne Clery from the Lehigh University was raped and murdered inside her dormitory room. Thereafter, various states passed laws whereby universities and colleges had to reveal crime statistics and this eventually lead to formation of an online data source through which parents could keep a track record of campus crime on each institution. Unfortunately, many Pakistani parents do not consider “college crime” an “issue” while deciding where to send their children for the next two or four years.

College crime, however, is not a “western” phenomenon only. India's growth in many sectors including education definitely requires for a round of applause, but statistics show that because eve-teasing on campus and in the nearby vicinities is on the rise, many shy females have started complaining.

On July 9, 2009, Shambhavi Anand, a student told the Chandigarh Times, “Women cops in plain clothes should be deployed around college campuses.” A day prior to this episode, SCIC (a UT police crime investigation cell) arrested a BA-11 student of DAV College on the account of possessing an unlicensed pistol and five cartridges. The accused Shiv Karan Singh is the son of Moga District Excise Commissioner Jasjit Singh who is also the president of the college wing of the Indian National Students' Organisation.

Oftentimes, we all become prodigies of pre-ordained statements and allegations; XZY is the son of an MNA so he must be involved in drugs and violence and ZXY must be lecherous as he hails from a rich, political family. Not assuming that politics is the hub of corruption at all levels, it must only be a mere coincidence that many young violence-imposing persons are reported to be hailing from similar backgrounds.

Since the Delhi High Court has ruled out homosexuality as illegal in India, authorities have started worrying about the harassment of homosexual individuals on university campuses. According to the Times of India, the state higher education department is considering the addition of new clauses to the anti-ragging law, in order to reduce violence enforced on gay students and give them protection.

During my time at the California State Polytechnic University, I was given an assignment based on Frank Warren's book PostSecret, and was walking around the campus looking for students willing to share a secret on the handicam. When I approached two boys happily striding towards the dorms, they quickly assembled in front of me and said, “We are architecture majors ... and we're gay!”

During that same time, “Proposition 8” was a big deal in California prior to Barrack Obama's election, and it was overwhelming to see that the two boys were considering keeping their sexuality a “secret”. Whether this demonstrates California's conservativeness or something else, the implications of such laws on students requires a greater understanding. Yet many parents here do not consider such issues that must be discussed with their children before they head out to weave all their academic dreams into reality. Perhaps, many parents feel better off by simply not addressing these issues and allowing their children to be exposed to a wider world — on their own.

So how safe are we? Relatively speaking, campus crime in this region is not as big as it is in western countries at the moment. Only recently, while skimming the newspapers I found out of a scandal surrounding a leading accountancy college in Lahore. According to a staff report published in an English daily, the young girl “went to a shop near her college at around 12.00 noon to buy a card for her cell phone.” Here, she was harassed by seven classmates at gunpoint after which she was “loaded into a car” and taken to a guesthouse near Ghalib Market. The boys then “forced her to drink alcohol” and after torturing her, left her at the college gate. According to the same staff report, the girl's mother stated that “the principal did not pay heed to her complaints”.

Only last year news reports shocked the living daylights out of many when it was founded that a fourth-year student majoring in Economics at the country's most prestigious university committed suicide in the hostel one April afternoon. The student had not been doing well that quarter and it has been understood that he was extremely disheartened because the university's administration had put him on probation.

It is about time that phenomenon such as “exam pressure” and “academic stress” be taken seriously ... even in Pakistan. The competition is cut-throat and students are finding many escape routes to vent out the building frustration.

It is unfortunate that many universities and colleges in the country do not even have a counseling department or a psychologist/doctor on duty during office hours. I know (for example) that there is no one I can talk to at college if I am undergoing personal stress. But then again, psychologists and psychiatrists are more of a “western” phenomena and it is considered shameful if a teenager is talking to someone about personal issues or academic-related problems.

Not only does this create a vicious circle where the student begins losing out on confidence, it also carves out ways for students to indulge in juvenile crimes on campus and around it. It is about time that we wake up and smell the coffee. It is about that time that we deal with college crime ... before it becomes a grave issue as in the western world.

The writer heads Essays Pakistan and is editor of the country's first academic journal, iWrite.

info@essayspakistan.com