5, 10, 51, 1a, and main & mcnab, go downtown. You can get some across the street from mac going along mainstreet to the left, or on campus heading out down sterling towards westdale.
I wouldn't advise wandering around late at night, but you should be safe along bus routes.
Here's a
crime map to get an idea of some of the incidents have occurred recently.. there's an official police one but I can't find it right now.
Hamilton is A LOT safer than a place like Toronto, people tend to be scared of it (DT in particular) for no real reason. Sketchy people hang out around james and king, but other than that, its not bad.
edit: im regularly on barton, it's not bad, but there's no real reason to be on that street; unless you're going to centre mall :p
there was, however there were 3 random stabbings last year; one at mcnab, two in the east end