Do Campus Crime Statistics Make You Safer?

Since the early-1990s the Federal government, through the US Department of Education, requires more than 6000 colleges and universities to publish an annual report disclosing their campus security policies and three years of selected crime statistics related to that college or university.

US Department of Education collects this data and makes it available on web sites and in published reports. You can see the data for any particular institution that is required to report. You can sort the data by the size of institutional enrollment, or you can check institutions by states, or by the type of instructional programs they offer.

This is an impressive collection of data but it begs the question of whether or not it actually means anything. It's difficult or impossible to prove a negative but you have to wonder if the millions of man-hours that have been spent in collecting, compiling, and reporting this data has made one college student, anywhere, safer.

Crimes occur in big cities, small cities, and towns and villages everywhere across the globe. It should not surprise anybody to learn then that crimes also occur on college campuses in big cities, small cities, and towns and villages across the globe. As you might expect the statistics reveal that the campuses with the highest crime rates are located in big cities adjacent to areas with the highest crime rates. A small size art oriented college located in Boston always ends up near the top of the "Crimes on Campus" list. A little investigation reveals, however, that the majority of those reported crimes occur in and around a notorious subway station in a high crime area immediately adjacent to campus.

Other writers who have commented on the effectiveness of this data for keeping students safe have pointed out that some schools, particularly some located in major metropolitan areas, have been fined one or more times by the US Department of Education for failing to accurately report on campus crime. The bottom line is that if you are concerned about safety on campus, either for a school which you are thinking of attending, or a school that you currently attend, forget the statistics, do your own investigation, and use your own common sense.

Alcohol and violence go hand-in-hand on college campuses. The Harvard School of Public Health reports that 77% of students who hang around regularly with a binge drinker will either be a victim of or the perpetrator of an assault or a DUI. The old birds of a feather maxim still applies.

Keep your dorm room or your apartment door locked when you are out and when you are inside. Next to bicycle theft burglary seems to be the most common campus crime.

The same rules that apply to urban streets apply to urban college campuses and also to the pastoral rural college campuses. Walk in lighted areas and in a group whenever and wherever you can. Always be aware of your surroundings.

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Crime on Campus: Do Colleges Have Too Much Power?

Penn State students gather at the university to express solidarity with the alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky case

A lot of big colleges have their own police departments. They are staffed with sworn officers who have the ability to investigate everything from burglaries to murder. Depending on the type of transgression and how it gets reported, some alleged crimes are dealt with in on-campus proceedings and some are passed on to local prosecutors. One of the most troubling aspects of the Penn State scandal is that school officials who were notified that a young boy was allegedly raped in a campus shower in 2002 did not report the incident to local authorities. Their inaction begs the question that even though there are laws in place that stipulate the proper protocol to follow upon hearing reports of sexual abuse, assault and harassment on campus, What's to stop officials at large-scale institutions — many of which operate full-fledged police departments — from sweeping such unpleasantness under the rug?

It's often hard to know how alleged crimes are handled on campus, in part because honor committees and other campus judicial systems have confidential proceedings. One of the few oversight tools the government has is the Clery Act. Named after a Lehigh University student who was raped and strangled by another student in 1986 in her dorm room, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial-aid programs to disclose each year the number of alleged criminal offenses, including sexual offenses, that are recorded on campus or in other areas that are under university control, such as remote classrooms and fraternity houses. In addition, schools must also issue timely warnings in cases in which the reported crime represents a threat to the campus community. Last week the Department of Education announced that it was launching Clery Act investigations at two schools: one at Penn State involving allegations that former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had sexually assaulted boys on campus and the other at Milwaukee's Marquette University for allegedly failing to report in a timely manner allegations that two athletes had sexually assaulted female students. (Read about whether colleges are doing enough to combat sexual violence.)

"If these allegations of sexual abuse are true, then this is a horrible tragedy for those young boys," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement announcing the department's investigation into Penn State. "If it turns out that some people at the school knew of the abuse and did nothing or covered it up, that makes it even worse. Schools and school officials have a legal and moral responsibility to protect children and young people from violence and abuse."

But despite having such responsibility, disclosing campus crime has often been a process fraught with confusion, loopholes, inaction, inconsistencies and, in some cases, negligence and cover-ups. To date, seven colleges and universities have paid Clery Act fines for failure to comply with the law; sometimes the violation stemmed from not having the appropriate institutional structures in place, sometimes from failing to disclose information. The most egregious case to date took place at Eastern Michigan University in 2006 when administrators were found to have covered up the rape and murder of a student, letting her parents think she had died of natural causes. The university was fined $350,000, the largest fine ever paid under the Clery Act. (A lawsuit forced Eastern Michigan to pay the victim's family an additional $2.5 million.)

Going after Penn State and Eastern Michigan for violating reporting requirements in these instances is a bit like going after Al Capone for tax evasion. Where the Clery Act wields the most influence is in how schools handle the much more common transgression of students being sexually assaulted.(Read about fighting school violence.)

Some of the schools that have been investigated for possible Clery Act violations have their own police forces. Others, like Marquette, do not. Because the members of Marquette's public-safety department are not sworn officers, the university had an obligation to report any accusations of sexual assault to a law-enforcement agency, and in the two recent cases involving athletes, the investigations may have been harmed because police did not get the information quickly, according to a statement Milwaukee County district attorney John Chisholm made in May.

The ability schools have to make decisions internally and utilize in-house departments is what allowed a Penn State football player to admit in a campus judicial proceeding in December 2002 to raping a fellow student during the fall semester, but not to have his punishment — a two-semester suspension — kick in until after he played in a January bowl game.

Stories like that are why the Department of Education, which is charged with regulating schools under the Clery Act, says it has stepped up its efforts in the past few years, after facing criticism in the past for not conducting enough reviews and not imposing penalties when violations were found. Under the Obama Administration, the department created a team dedicated to compliance, monitoring and enforcement of the Clery Act. So far this year, six institutions have been found at fault and are facing fines — Oregon State University, Lincoln University in Missouri, the University of Northern Iowa, the University of Vermont, Washington State University and Yale University — which is the same number of institutions that were fined in the first 18 years of the law's existence. Four other institutions are either in the process of being fined or are appealing. "It takes vigilance," Justin Hamilton, spokesman for the Department of Education said. "We can never be in every university all the time, nor do we want to be. We want to trust the schools and believe that they are living up to their obligations, but when they're not, we will act decisively, effectively and fairly." Hamilton says the department now regularly conducts campus visits even on those campuses where no incidents have been reported, closely monitors media reports and has conversations with people on the ground in an effort to be more proactive.

S. Daniel Carter, director of public policy for Security on Campus, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of campus crime, said the Administration's efforts have helped. "One of the keys to ensuring that colleges and universities do not keep crimes, including sexual violence, secret is for the Department of Education to continue improving its Clery Act oversight," he said. At the time of the March 2002 incident involving Sandusky and a young boy in a Penn State locker room, only nine schools had ever even been reviewed under the law and only one fine (a modest $15,000) had ever been paid. Now a total of 49 schools have been reviewed, and 26 of them have been reviewed in just the past three years. According to Carter, the majority of the investigations in the past three years were randomly selected, whereas in the past, reviews were generally only conducted in the aftermath of a high-profile incident. Additionally, six-figure fines are now the norm rather than the exception. "The random reviews in tandem with six-figure fines are a strong incentive for institutions to not try and sweep things under the rug," Carter said. Still, he added, "Ultimately, sometimes there's no way to know what's happening on campus unless someone who does know comes forward."

Read about Yale's secret society.

Read about the top 10 crimes of 2010.

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A Campus Crime Story that Stunned the Nation

No. 4 - Rank of the Penn State scandal among biggest crime stories since January 2007

The sexual abuse scandal rocking Penn State and shocking the nation—triggered by the arrest of former defensive football coach Jerry Sandusky on charges of sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period—was the No. 2 story in the news media from November 7-13. With coverage building as the scandal mushroomed, leading to the firing of the school’s president and its iconic 46-year head football coach, Joe Paterno, the story accounted for 16.9% of the newshole, trailing only the presidential campaign (24%).  

That makes the Penn State saga, the fourth biggest U.S. crime story since PEJ began tracking news coverage in January 2007—although it received a fraction of the coverage of the top two stories. (Not counting acts of terrorism or political scandals.)

The No. 1 crime story since 2007 was the January 8, 2011, shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Jared Lee Loughner opened fire on the representative and shot 19 people—killing six—in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson Arizona. The event accounted for 56.6% of the newshole from January 10-16, 2011. (This past week, Giffords talked about her long recovery from those grave injuries in a TV interview.)

The second-most covered crime story was the April 16, 2007, massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people before taking his own life. That tragedy accounted for 50.9% of the newshole the week April 15-20, 2007.

Just ahead of the Penn State scandal, the third-biggest crime story was the July 5, 2011, acquittal of Casey Anthony who was accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee three years prior. The verdict stunned much of the nation and the story accounted for 17.3% of the newshole the week of July 4-10, 2011.

Rounding out the top five crime stories was the September 16, 2007 arrest of O.J. Simpson for armed robbery and kidnapping while trying to retrieve sports memorabilia at a Las Vegas Hotel. The story filled 13.5% of the newshole the week of September 16-21. Simpson is serving 33 years for the charges.

Tricia Sartor of PEJ

Date Posted: November 16, 2011

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Campus Crime Statistics - College Administrators Prefer You Didn't Know Them

It's a bit curious that during ten informational college sessions my wife and I attended between 2003 and 2007, not once was the issue of campus crime statistics discussed. Yet the "Jeanne Clery Campus Security Crime Act" requires US colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses.

The "Clery Act" is named in memory of Jeanne Clery, a nineteen-year-old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered while asleep in her residence hall room on April 5, 1986. Jeanne's parents, Connie and Howard, discovered that Lehigh students hadn't been told about thirty-eight violent crimes on their campus in the three years before the murder. The Clerys joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact this law, which was originally known as the "Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990."

The law was modified in 1992 to require schools to give certain basic rights to victims of campus sexual assault; in 1998 it was changed again to expand reporting requirements. The 1998 amendments also formally named the law in memory of Jeanne Clery.

Additional amendments in 2000 and 2008 added provisions regarding registered sex offender notification and campus emergency response. The 2008 amendments also added a provision to protect crime victims, "whistleblowers", and others from retaliation.

In compliance with the "Clery Act", the US Department of Education now provides The Campus Safety and Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool, an on-line program that offers instant customized reports of campus crime and fire data. By logging onto this tool - see below - anyone can view crime statistics specific to one school, or compare data from schools selected by size of enrollment, program, type of institution or state.

The Cutting Tool collects data from the Office of Postsecondary Education Campus Safety and Security Statistics database where crime statistics and fire statistics are submitted annually by all universities that receive Title IV funding - those that participate in federal student aid programs.

Additionally, as part of the "Clery Act", the US Department of Education requires that all universities that receive Title IV funding also comply with all regulations outlined in the Handbook for Campus Crime Report - a guide that walks universities through the "Clery Act" requirements. There is also an on-line companion to the guide called the Campus Crime Reporting Training Video - http://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.html#training - I recommend that every parent of an incoming freshman watch it. It discusses how universities must establish security policy, record and disclose reported crime both on campus and off, and even discloses an invisible 'one mile rule' which is an extension of the college campus for off campus crime reporting.

I became concerned about campus security when taking my own daughter to a university in Wooster, Massachusetts to which she had been accepted. It was a small private school with an excellent academic reputation; however, a police precinct on the edge of campus worried me. That Wooster was a distressed town with a campus in the middle of the city did not help matters.

I approached one of the students the day we were visiting and asked about the school's safety. He told me that after 4 p.m. my daughter should find someone to walk her to classes. Obviously, this was a major concern and one of the factors that dissuaded my daughter from accepting admission.

Recently I used the online tool - http://ope.ed.gov/security/ - and discovered that the school had a light amount of crime in 2007 and 2008, the first two years my daughter would have attended - most crimes were burglaries. Moreover, the statistics the "Clery Act" collects are all reported crimes, not just those that lead to convictions; it is possible that some on the list were unsubstantiated or dismissed. But there is a lesson to be learned here. Do not let a depressed area around your university, prejudice your decision as it did mine.

On the other hand, knowing the statistics never hurts.

Barry Simmons is a freelance financial aid expert who sells his best selling book 'How To Send Your Child To College For Free Or Close To It' on his website (link: http://www.collegeisfree.com ). His site also offers quite a bit of free college resource material including his humorous blog following the first year and a half of his son's experience at college.

Campus Crime - How to Discover Campus Crime Statistics

Knowing the campus crime statistics of a College or University you're considering is vital to making an informed enrollment decision.  It's your first defense against preventing an incident against you or someone you love.

But, trying to find the crime statistics on the websites of every college you're considering can be frustrating and time consuming.

There is an easier way to discover campus crime statistics for any college on a single website.

The Campus Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool was developed by the Office of Post-secondary Education (OPE - part of US Department of Education).

The tool is designed to provide quick customized reporting.  The information is pulled from the OPE database used to aggregate the annual information submissions from required colleges and universities.  The campus crime statistics are all in one place so you don't have to search all over the internet.

A post-secondary institution is 'required' to submit specific crime statistics annually if they receive Title IV funding - those that participate in federal student loan programs.  This is a requirement of the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.

The campus crime statistics found with this tool are not going to match, exactly, information reported by the FBI.  It is more inclusive.  For example, it includes statistics on 'alleged' crimes reported to campus security and local police departments.

Some of the statistics you can check:

Illegal weapons possessions
Drug arrests
Liquor law violations
Murder and manslaughter
Forcible and non-forcible sex offense
Robbery
Aggravated assualt
Motor vehicle theft
And other categories...

Should you consider campus crime statistics just if you are a woman or have a daughter?  Of course not.  You or your son can be at risk too.

These crime statistics are not the only things you should consider either.  I have two sons and two daughters.  I'd like to know about the College or University's policies regarding handling of crime.

If they receive Title IV funding, they are required to comply with the Clery Act.  So what.  They report crime and alleged crimes.  What are their disciplinary policies?  Is it immediate expulsion if accused - you'd like to know that if your son is attending.

What are their past behaviors and actions with crimes.  Have them cite some examples of specific incidents and how they handled them.  Even better, do some research online about the specific school and ask about specific situations you learn about.

What about prevention?  Tools like alert systems, support groups and training classes?  Are they an institution more focused on complying with bureaucratic requirements, or do they have a culture of safety and prevention?

Remember, campus crime statistics can only tell you so much.  Some schools might be 'lucky' or under-reporting.  Only by conducting your own due diligence by asking the tough questions will you know the real meaning behind the crime statistics of the College or University you're considering.

How do protect those you care about? Get the "7 Strategies to Protect Yourself in Any Situation" Special Report Here and learn the simple steps you can take immediately to protect and, if necessary, defend against any threat. David Koons is the founder of Protect and Defend, a company specializing in self defense, personal protection and campus safety services. He is an expert of self defense, personal protection strategies and former member of an elite military special forces unit. http://protectanddefendinc.com

Campus Crime Statistics

Moving away to college is a huge step, and one that is often nerve-wracking both for parents and students. When the time comes to choose a college, you'll be looking at plenty of numbers, from GPA and SAT scores to the number of students attending the school. Although the crime rate might not be at the top of your mind when you're deciding which school to attend, maybe it should be. After all, you'll be living there for four years, and you should feel safe doing so.

For nearly two decades, the U.S. Department of Education has collected crime statistics from more than 6,000 colleges and universities nationwide. This annual report covers campus security policies and crime statistics related to the crimes happening on college campuses. This information is available through the Department of Education website and in published reports, where you can see data for any particular school, as well as combined data for all schools. For example, these statistics show that one in five women will become the victim of a sexual assault during her four years spent on campus. Overall, the staggering number of crimes committed on campus underscores the need for paying attention to campus safety.

The statistics gathered for each school include the rates of selected crimes, ranging from assault to vandalism, committed on the school campus each year. As you might expect, schools with the highest crime rates are those in large cities that themselves are known for high crime rates. Statistically, the safest colleges are located in smaller towns that have lower crime rates.

Schools keep statistics for crimes that happen on the campus itself, as well as in areas bordering the university property. The crime statistics shown in this report are broken down by offense, including major crimes such as homicide, sex offenses, hate crimes, robbery, and assault. The crime statistics also show "incidents" such as liquor law violations, drug possession, or weapons possession, which may result in disciplinary action on campus rather than an arrest by the police. In addition to the overall crime rate at the school, these statistics also show to what extent alcohol may be a problem on the campus, as the statistics show alcohol-related offenses such as DUI and minors in possession of alcohol.

So, what can you do with all of these campus crime statistics? Do they actually mean anything? You may be wondering if the time spent reading the crime report can actually make you or your son or daughter safer on the college campus. If you are concerned about safety on campus, certainly take into account the crime statistics when researching potential colleges.

However, it's also important to use your own common sense and prepare for the potential of crime. After all, as the statistics show, no college campus is 100% safe- and no city or town is, either. If you fall victim to a crime, you won't be comforted by statistics about how low the crime rate is. While college is an exciting time, it's also time to think about your safety. Carry non-lethal self defense products, such as a canister of pepper spray or a personal alarm, so that you can protect yourself and avoid becoming part of these statistics.

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Report Cards on College Campus Crime

In 1986, Howard and Connie Cleary's daughter, Jeanne, a student at Lehigh University, was murdered on campus. In addition to founding the non-profit Security on Campus, Inc. in 1987, they lobbied for a new federal law that would require colleges and universities to disclose both ongoing and annual reports on campus crime and security policy.

Originally enacted by the Congress in 1990 as the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, the law was codified as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and made applicable to all postsecondary institutions participating in federal student aid programs. It was renamed the Clery Act - specifically, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act - after a round of amendments were made to the Act in 1998.

Annual report cards

The Clery Act mandates that schools publish annual reports by October 1st detailing the previous three years of campus crime statistics. Also required are explanations of existing sexual assault policies, statements attesting to a basic level of victims' rights, a description of the campus law enforcement authority and contact information for students to report crimes.

When compiled and published each year, each school is to distribute the report immediately to all current students and staff, and notify applicants and prospective employees that it is available. Institutions may employ any of various means of notification, including e-mail and website postings, as long as each intended recipient is given the precise URL (Uniform Resource Locator, or web address) for the report. School officials must also make printed, paper copies available.

The report is also submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, which will then aggregate the findings of over 6,000 schools. The Clery Act crime statistics are the gold standard for American college campus crime data, even eclipsing the value of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, which collects data from a mere 400-some schools. A third trusted source of this data comes from The Chronicle of Higher Education, but the Clery Act reports are by far the best information available on crime at postsecondary institutions.

Crime statistic and categories

The definition of "campus" is important to understanding the data. Schools keep (and report on) statistics for crimes that occur directly on campus, on some off-campus facilities like fraternities and sororities ("Greek housing"), remote classrooms, in school vehicles (buses, trams) and in certain public areas that border school property. The county sheriff, local police forces, campus police and security personnel all contribute statistics and statements to the Clery Act report, as do other school staff, employees or officials that have "significant responsibility for student and campus activities." Schools are encouraged, but not required, to have confidential reporting procedures. However, once they opt to establish such a system, they are then required to inform the campus community of its existence. As mental health professionals and ministers are exempt from the reporting obligations, a confidential reporting system could capture enough additional crime data to affect a school's objective safety rating.

There are seven reporting categories for campus crime, several of which have additional sub-categories. The categories are outlined in the following manner:

Homicide
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter
Negligent manslaughter
Sex offenses
Forcible offenses including rape
Non-forcible offenses
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Vehicular theft
Arson

There is also a lesser category ("incident") that must be reported if there is a disciplinary referral to the campus judicial affairs office, or an arrest by a law enforcement agency. The incidents that require reporting include all types of liquor law violations, all drug law violations and weapons possession. Only the arrest is counted if a student is both arrested and given a school referral.

The Clery Act further requires that the data be mapped out, denoting the geographical areas as being on campus, campus student residences, non-campus buildings or "public property" such as parks, streets and sidewalks. In addition, the report must disclose if any reported crime was a "hate crime" under either state or federal law, or both.

Timeliness and responsibility

Unless a student is a victim, perpetrator or witness, the way most students even become remotely aware of the Clery Act is by the occasional "timely warnings" that schools publicize, as well as the separate, comprehensive crime log they make available for public inspection. The decision to issue a "timely warning" is a subjective one on the part of the school administration, and is normally considered only when a person or act is deemed to pose an imminent and/or ongoing "threat to students and employees." The public log must be available for viewing by any interested party, not just persons affiliated with the particular school. The log must contain records of everything that is reported to campus police or security personnel, and is to be continuously updated in a manner specified by the Act.

Using the data

The crime information is not collected merely for the sake of amassing statistics. There is a very real responsibility on the part of postsecondary institutions to provide a safe and healthy environment for scholastic pursuits. Crime on campus, of all levels and kinds, is antithetical to the very notion of the university, a place of contemplation, problem-solving, creative beauty of every kind and the dynamism we associate with education, discovery and free inquiry.

Schools are dynamic, certainly. Constantly in a state of flux, altered by ongoing arrivals and departures and integrated to varying degrees with the surrounding communities, college campuses can be statistically safe yet still be the site of violent attacks, property crimes and even personal harassment. A victim is rarely comforted by finding out how low the rate is for the crime committed against her. She is, of course, 100% victimized.

And so the Clery Act reports are dutifully, if not routinely, filed at the end of September every year. Some people have made it their lives' work to ensure that this data gets into the hands of concerned parents and families. The non-profit run by the Clery family - SecurityOnCampus.org - makes abstracts, reports and analyses available on a continuous basis, and The Chronicle of Higher Education and the FBI both publish additional campus crime data. A little reading and research are all that stands between you and a clear picture of campus crime in America. If you are thinking of enrolling in college, or know someone who is, now is a good time to start.

The author if this article was sponsored by Automated Video Systems dba EZWatch Pro, a leading provider of video surveillance systems designed for school and campus security. When considering a security solution please consider EZWatch Pro Surveillance Camera Systems.

Woman Raped Near OSU Campus

By Andy Long
Published: June 25, 2011
Updated: June 25, 2011 - 12:27 PM » 0 Comments | Post a Comment COLUMBUS, Ohio --

University police have issued a crime alert after a burglary and rape near the Ohio State University campus.

Columbus Police detectives said that around 2:15 a.m. Saturday, a man entered a house on the 100 block of East 12th Avenue in Columbus.

The suspect then physically and sexually assaulted a 21-year-old woman inside, detectives said.

It is unknown how the suspect entered the house.

According the crime alert issued by OSU police, the suspect was described as a white heavyset male.

Columbus police said that the victim is a former OSU student.

Anyone with information regarding this crime should contact Columbus police at 645-4545 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 461-TIPS.

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