Microsoft is drawing flak from a new app which has an "avoid ghetto" feature. This supposedly helps any Windows Phone owner to stay away from neighborhoods with a bad rep. But will it also help curb sexual assaults?

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CNET reports that the "avoid ghetto" function (an unfortunate term coined by CBS Seattle) combines crime statistics with GPS to suggest safe routes to smartphone users. Writes CNET's Chris Matyszczyk:
It's one thing to avoid areas where there might have occurred physical assaults and gunfire. It's another to avoid, say, places where burglaries are popular, as one suspects quite a few allegedly nice areas are subject to burglars' desires.
While the idea of an app that helps you avoid neighborhoods with a high level of sex crimes has good intentions, it still has its limitations. So unless it can pinpoint exactly the whereabouts of these supposed rapists, what's stopping them from moving on to where you live? Whether such information can really help women avoid being rape is still up for debate. But at least it's a start, right?