Campus Safety - Crime Stats

Parents Forum
1

<p>Found the link to Department of Ed crime stats on the Yale website
<a href="http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/Search.asp&lt;/a> has 2002-2004 criminal offense data. Pretty interesting stuff </p>

<p>Here's the on-campus criminal offenses reported in 2004 at HYP.</p>

<p>Harvard<br>
Sex Offenses-Forcible - 29 (up from 16 in 2003)
Robbery - 0
Agravated assault - 4<br>
Burglary - 372<br>
Car Theft - 7
Arson - 0</p>

<p>Yale
Sex Offenses-Forcible - 4 (down from 5 in 2003)
Robbery - 4
Agravated assault - 0
Burglary - 82<br>
Car Theft - 10
Arson - 0</p>

<p>Princeton
Sex Offenses-Forcible - 3 (down from 10 in 2003)
Robbery - 0
Agravated assault - 1
Burglary - 58<br>
Car Theft - 13
Arson - 0</p>

2

<p>MIT 2004 stats (right down the street, approximately, from Harvard)</p>

<p>Sex Offenses-Forcible - 1
Robbery - 2
Agravated assault - 4
Burglary - 108
Car Theft - 10
Arson - 1</p>

<p>There is an interesting disclaimer added:</p>

<p>Caveat:
The majority of these buglaries were unforced entries into unlocked areas.</p>

<p>In other words, students leaving their dorm rooms open. (104 of the 108 occurred in residence halls.) An Institute police officer told me last April that theft was really their main crime, and the perp was almost never someone other than a student. Sad.</p>

<p>You can look up pretty much any school using the website provided by the OP. They distinguish between on-campus, on-campus residence halls (a subset of the first category), non-campus, and public property.</p>

3

<p>I was very surprised at the 500+ to 600+ (out of 7900 students) liquor law violations per year at a Silicon Valley school. It ruined my image of good Catholic boys and girls.</p>

<p>The 1,200+ liquor law and 600+ drug law violations per year (out of 15,000 students) over the hill in Santa Cruz didn't surprise me at all.</p>

4

<p>I am very sceptical about the alcohol and drug offenses. Some of the biggest party schools record a low number of offenses because all but the most serious issues are ignored. Other schools are more serious in dealing with infractions and the stats may appear worse.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, it doesn't appear to be mandatory that all college safety/security departments report accurate and complete data to the OPE. It may be that some party schools decline to submit data because they don't want the government and public knowing just how out-of-control alcohol and drug use are on their campus.</p>

6

<p>29 sex offenses at Harvard? What accounts for this high number comparatively? More people reporting there?</p>

7

<p><a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349129%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349129&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Reported Theft, Sex Offenses Rose in 2002</p>

<p>The Crimson - Harvard Newspaper
Published On Friday, October 03, 2003 12:00 AM</p>

<p>By HANA R. ALBERTS
Crimson Staff Writer</p>

<hr>

<p>The number of sexual assaults reported on campus increased for the fourth straight year in 2002, while total thefts edged up slightly, according to crime statistics released by the University in August.1</p>

<p>Last year there were 25 sex offenses reported on Harvard’s Cambridge campus, up from 23 in 2001, 16 in 2000 and 11 in 1999.</p>

<p>There were 632 robberies, burglaries and larcenies, up from 591 in 2001, but down from a four-year high of 709 in 2000.</p>

<p>Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) spokesperson Steven G. Catalano warned against drawing conclusions from relatively small changes in the statistics, noting that these figures typically fluctuate from year to year.</p>

<p>Catalano attributed the increase in reported sex offenses to campus-wide efforts to improve outreach, an explanation echoed by several campus rape counselors and rape prevention advocates.</p>

<p>HUPD is concerned about the increase, Catalano said, but the department is also encouraged that victims are coming forward more often.</p>

<p>“We know that rape occurs,” he said. “The numbers trouble us, but the flip side is that people are starting to trust us and realize we can help...they’re using us as a resource.”</p>

<p>Sarah B. Levit-Shore ’04, president of Coalition Against Sexual Violence (CASV), agreed that the change in assault numbers is probably due to increased reporting rather than more campus assaults.</p>

<p>“One possible conclusion to draw would be that there are more sex offenses occurring on campus,” she said. “But it seems unlikely, because there is no reason I’m aware of for the rate of sexual assault to increase over the past four years. More likely, people are just increasingly willing to report the rapes.”</p>

<p>Catalano said HUPD has spread the word through self-defense classes, literature and safety talks.</p>

<p>“The biggest hindrance was that people used to be afraid we would violate confidentiality...and force them to press charges,” he said. “But there has been an increase in the amount of formal reports because the department has worked very hard to go out to the community and explain how we handle a sexual assault investigation.”</p>

<p>The statistics came as part of an annual campus crime report mandated by the Clery Act, a federal law named for a Lehigh University undergraduate who was raped and murdered in 1986.</p>

<p>All of the sex offenses reported at Harvard fall under a category defined by the Clery Act as sexual acts “directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim in incapable of giving consent.” </p>

<p>The 2002 increase came after a year of protest for greater awareness about sexual violence at Harvard and the subsequent formation of a committee to examine the problem of assault on campus.</p>

<p>Levit-Shore said this attention may have in part driven the increase, encouraging more victims to come forward.</p>

<p>The 2002 statistics also reveal a changing dynamic in the breakdown of sexual assaults by how they are reported.</p>

<p>Almost half of the offenses—12 out of the 25—were formally reported to HUPD. In previous years a higher percentage of the offenses was reported to senior tutors, deans or University Health Services. The campus officials notified HUPD only of the occurrence of an alleged offense.</p>

<p>But Kathryn E. Nielson ’05, who is a peer counselor specializing in issues of sexual assault, said that although more students are reporting offenses, the numbers still reflect only a small portion of the total.</p>

<p>“Sexual assault is such a sensitive issue, there’s such a stigma attached to it,” she said, adding that students might not be willing to report rapes because of the “guilt and self-blame” that follow the incidents.</p>

<p>Levit-Shore pointed to several reasons why sex offenses could go unreported. </p>

<p>“Survivors might not be expecting anything to come of [reporting to HUPD],” she said. “Or they’re not labeling the experience as a rape or sexual assault. There’s also a fear you won’t be believed.”</p>

<p>Stealing Harvard</p>

<p>Beyond the continued rise in reported sexual assault, few of Harvard’s crime statistics revealed marked trends.</p>

<p>The rise in campus theft runs counter to a 1 percent decrease in property crime in Cambridge. According to the Cambridge Police Department, violent crime rose by 6 percent in 2002.</p>

<p>A small minority of campus thefts—155 out of 632—occurred in residence halls. According to Catalano, a majority of the crimes were believed to be committed by individuals from outside the Harvard community.</p>

<p>Harvard’s theft levels appear to be astronomical when compared to other area schools as well as the other Ivies. According to the Clery Act statistics, in 2001, Tufts University reported 23 campus thefts; Boston University, 58; and New Haven’s Yale University, 72.</p>

<p>But according to Catalano, Harvard is far more inclusive in its reporting. Harvard includes both burglaries and larcenies—thefts committed by trespassers and community members, respectively—in its report, where only burglaries are legally mandated.</p>

<p>Other schools label many more of their thefts as larcenies, Catalano said.</p>

<p>“We’re in a position where our theft rate looks much higher than every other school around,” Catalano said. “Ours is probably not much different if [other schools] included the larcenies. But the reason we put in both numbers is so you can get a feel for the true nature of theft at Harvard.” </p>

<p>“We’re putting ourselves under closer scrutiny,” Catalano said.</p>

<p>In 2002, Harvard reported no homicides, manslaughter or arson on campus. There were six drug law violations and two bias crimes, both of which involved a victim’s sexual orientation.</p>

<p>—Hera A. Abbasi contributed to the reporting of this story.</p>

<p>—Jenifer L. Steinhardt contributed to the reporting of this story.</p>

<h2>—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at <a href="mailto:alberts@fas.harvard.edu">alberts@fas.harvard.edu</a>. </h2>

<p>There are other articles on the net regarding Ivy League and other colleges.</p>

8

<p>another web site with searchable links to hazing inc hamster cocktails ( I don't even wanna know)- binge drinking- sexual assualts- campus police web sites.....</p>

<p><a href="http://www.securityoncampus.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.securityoncampus.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The Clerys established this organization after their daughter was murdered by a fellow student ( whom she didnt' know) at university.</p>

9

<p>It ruined my image of good Catholic boys and girls.</p>

<p>Are you kidding?
The Catholic schools are often the ones with the wildest parties and most out there behavior. It was true when I was in high school and it seems still to be true in our area.
I don't know what the reason is for this- parents absolving themselves from a supervisory role because they think the school takes care of it?
Students chomping at the bit because they have a more structured school day than in many public schools?
I have known several students who were "sent" to Catholic schools apparently because their parents didn't know what else to do with them.
The one that was in school with me- before he went to Catholic school is in prison for 20 years for rape & assault of a woman whose house he was burglarizing.
No I know that that isnt the schools fault- but it is a fact that parents who are over their heads- but are still involved enough to do something about it- do look at religious schools as an easy fix</p>

10

<p>I agree with emeraldkity4---Catholic high schools have lots of parties, like the public hs around here. Two of my kids went to Catholic hs and the next two went to small Christian hs. What a difference.
However, the Catholic colleges overall can't hold a candle to the partying that goes on at public campuses, at least in Calif. Believe me, I know---my eldest went to UCSB. The next three were not allowed to apply to UCSB, Santa Cruz, or Berkeley. Why throw your kids into that kind of environment?</p>

11

<p>Unfortunately, the Clery Act does not require campuses to report vehicular or pedestrian incidents. Busses at the University of Illinois have run over and killed two students in the past year. Several other students have been hit on campus by busses, cars and bicycles. </p>

<p>Parents and students would be well advised to ask campus security at any college in which they are interested about vehicular and pedestrian incidents. Walk the campus and see for yourself if traffic patterns are designed to limit vehicular traffic, especially on through streets. Are speed limits strictly enforced? Do campus police actively ticket drivers who don't stop at stop signs? Find out what measures are being taken to correct any problems. When you send your son or daughter to college, you don't want your child returned in an urn or body bag.</p>

12

<p>U OF I actually had 4 bus pedestrian accidents- 3 of them fatal in 19 months- however one had been talking on a cellphone and another had on headphones- the one with headphones was given a ticket.</p>

<p>Whether pedestrians/bicylists have the right of way or not- when it comes down to their injury rate- vs those in vehicle- it would behove them to be more proactive in their behavior</p>

<p>No dark clothing- jaywalking- inattentiveness due to distraction of cell phone/headphones- being especially careful when it is raining etc.</p>

<p>My daughter doesn't even have her liscense- thus she bikes or takes transit & I am very aware of others using the streets- but hell- some of the behavior- makes me want to shake somebody</p>

<p>Use common sense! wearing dark clothing- jumping out from behind parked cars- crossing a crosswalk when all lanes of traffic have not stopped- not paying attention to young children walking behind! ( 3 of them about 3 or 4 years old)- yakking on phones and not noticing that traffic/light has changed- in some areas we even have joggers going down middle of street- I don't know what they think the sidewalk is for?</p>

<p>My daughters school is small enough that it is an enclosed campus- no streets running through- few cars- I imagine that a larger campus- with a lot more cars- it is easier to get casual about paying attention - but the campuses around here have huge speed bumps, even some of the side streets have huge speed bumps- not that I am advocating speed bumps they are a PITA- but there should be an enforced speed limit- </p>

<p>But it is scary- the next suburb over- has a high percentage of what appear to be immigrants- who have very casual ideas about traffic laws- jsut walk out in front of you, sometimes several crossing the street at once in different places- jumping out from behind parked cars- and seemingly not even realizing that there is traffic on the road.</p>

<p>We do have a great many number of injuries/fatalities of young students being hit waiting for a bus- crossing a crosswalk- it is really tragic- and often I blame the city, because there isnt' a light at an established crosswalk- or there is a stop light on one side but not the other.
Some of our cities don't seem set up for pedestrians. but if we want to encourage mass transit and discourage driving- we have to make it safer.</p>

13

<p>The young women who were killed at Illinois were legally crossing in crosswalks. Neither jumped out in front of the bus. Both entered the crosswalk when all vehicles were stopped. In both cases bus drivers illegally failed to check the intersections before beginning to turn. The on-camera bus showed one young woman for a sustantial time as she approached the intersection, stopped at the curb, checked traffic, then proceeded across three lanes before the bus began its turn and hit her. Yet the bus driver said he never saw her. Both bus drivers were ticketed. Neither young lady had a chance of avoiding being hit. Proactiveness would not have prevented either accident.</p>

<p>Until the University of Illinois stops blaming the pedestrians and starts looking at who was at fault - the bus drivers - they will continue to have dead students. Blaming these innocent women is akin to saying a rape victim "asked for it." Thank goodness, the latest informaiton from UIUC is that at least one trustee has figured this out. In the meantime, parents of potential Illinois students should be aware of the abysmal traffic patterns at this university and the increase in pedestrian/vehicle accidents. Anyone who has driven on this campus knows it's another accident waiting to happen. </p>

<p>Parents of students at other schools should check the traffic patterns at those colleges. Some things to check:
- adequate lighting at intersections and crosswalks
- limited vehicular traffic
- active, involved campus security enforcing traffic rules
- few or no through streets</p>