3 Key Takeaways From New Federal Data on Campus Crime
By Emma KerrMarch 29, 2018
An annual study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that reports of forcible sex offenses more than tripled from 2001 to 2015.Adam Calaitzis/iStock
The National Center for Education Statistics on Thursday released its 20th annual “Indicators of School Crime and Safety” report, a lengthy study of trends in crime at schools and colleges. Much of the report concerns crime in elementary and secondary education, but a section of it deals with safety on college campuses. Here are three key takeaways:
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An annual study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that reports of forcible sex offenses more than tripled from 2001 to 2015.Adam Calaitzis/iStock
The National Center for Education Statistics on Thursday released its 20th annual “Indicators of School Crime and Safety” report, a lengthy study of trends in crime at schools and colleges. Much of the report concerns crime in elementary and secondary education, but a section of it deals with safety on college campuses. Here are three key takeaways:
1. The number of reported forcible sex crimes more than tripled from 2001 to 2015.
Across the nation, reports of forcible sex offenses on campuses increased 262 percent, up from about 2,200 crimes in 2001 to about 8,000 in 2015, the most recent year for which data are available. In just the year from 2014 to 2015, reports of forcible sex crimes increased 18 percent. About 5,100 rapes and 2,900 fondling incidents were reported in 2015, the first year institutions were asked to categorize forcible sex offenses.
The spike in reports followed significant attention and efforts at reform at American colleges. In 2011 the federal government heightened enforcement of the gender-equity law known as Title IX, prompting many colleges to overhaul their policies.
The Association of American Universities’ 2015 survey, the first of its kind, found that many institutions had changed or been in the process of changing their training to prevent sexual assault for students and faculty members, and had recently developed new programs to help victims of sexual assault.
2. Arrests for drug-law violations are up.
For the first time since 2001, the first year relevant data were collected, arrests for drug-law violations neared arrests for liquor-law violations. While liquor-law violations have declined since 2001, down to just 13.5 per 10,000 full-time-equivalent students in 2015 from 23.5 in 2001, drug-related violations increased from 10.2 per 10,000 students in 2001 to 13.1 in 2015.
Data for nonarrest referrals, almost always the result of residence-hall incidents, show disciplinary referrals for drug and alcohol violations both increased. For drug-law violations, the number of referrals was up 134 percent from 2001 to 2015. For liquor-law violations, the number of referrals rose 42 percent.
3. Nearly 40 percent of hate crimes related to race.
Of the 27,500 criminal incidents on campuses in 2015, a slight increase from the previous year, 860 were hate crimes, for which race was the most common motivator, at 40 percent. Four out of five hate crimes were motivated by race, religion, or sexual orientation. The three most common types of hate crime were vandalism, intimidation, and simple assault.
The report includes crimes involving students on campuses after normal class hours, but does not include off-campus crimes involving students. Data in the report come from public four-year institutions, nonprofit four-year institutions, and public two-year institutions.
