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.
