NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

Statement of Pascal D. Forgione, Jr.

Commissioner of Education Statistics

National Center for Education Statistics

at the release of

Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions

 This morning, the National Center for Education Statistics is releasing Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions, the first national report on campus crime and security. The report presents data collected in spring 1996 on campus crime statistics for the years 1992, 1993, and 1994 and includes information on campus security procedures, programs, and annual security reports compiled by institutions. The data for this report were by law to be published by institutions in their annual security reports dated September 1, 1995.

Background

The Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 requires institutions participating in federal Title IV student financial aid programs to disclose information about campus safety policies and to provide statistics concerning whether certain crimes took place on campus. The Act also specifies that institutions are to use the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting/National Incident-Based System to compile their crime statistics.

In addition, the Act requires the Secretary of Education to make a one-time report to Congress on campus crime statistics. To provide information for the report, the Office of Postsecondary Education asked the National Center for Education Statistics to conduct a survey on campus crime and security at postsecondary education institutions. The survey collected information from institutions about campus crime statistics, annual security reports compiled by institutions, and campus security procedures and programs. The response rate for the survey was 93 percent.

This survey was the first attempt to gather such information from a nationally representative sample of postsecondary institutions. Specifically, we collected data, using a national probability sample, from public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit postsecondary education institutions at all levels (less-than-2-year, 2-year, and 4-year, including graduate level) that participate in federal Title IV student financial aid programs. The results of this survey not only provide the first national estimates about campus crime and security but also allow comparisons to be made between various kinds of institutions.

In interpreting these statistics, it is important to remember that the crime statistics reported are for occurrences of crime ON CAMPUS (whether the victims were students, staff, or campus visitors) and do not include crimes committed against students at off-campus locations.

It should also be noted that the crime statistics only reflect crimes that were reported. The Campus Security Act requires institutions to report statistics for specified on-campus crimes that were reported to local police agencies or to any official of the institution with significant responsibility for student and campus activities. Other crimes may have occurred on campus, but gone unreported.

Campus Crime Statistics

Although comparisons between crime statistics for 1992, 1993, and 1994 are in the report, we have chosen to highlight the data from 1994 because the data show that violent crimes and property crimes have remained stable over this three-year period.

The Campus Security Act requires postsecondary institutions to report about the occurrence on campus of various crimes. Violent crimes (murder, forcible sex offenses, robbery, and aggravated assault) were reported by about a quarter of the institutions. For 1994, less than 0.5 percent reported a murder, 9 percent reported incidents of forcible sex offenses, 12 percent reported robbery, and 18 percent reported aggravated assault.

Property crimes (which here includes only burglary and motor vehicle theft, since these are the only property crimes the Act requires institutions to report) were reported by 44 percent of the institutions. For 1994, 37 percent had experienced burglary, while 23 percent reported motor vehicle thefts.

For 1994, institutions reported an estimated total of about 10,000 violent crimes and about 38,000 property crimes. The individual crime composition for violent crimes was about 20 murders, about 1,300 forcible sex offenses, 3,100 robberies, and 5,100 cases of aggravated assault. For property crimes, institutions reported about 28,800 burglaries and 9,000 motor vehicle thefts.

To account for differences in institutional size, the number of crimes were converted to crime rates per 1,000 students. In 1994, the overall violent crime rate was 0.65 per 1,000 students, with individual rates of 0.001 per 1,000 for murder, 0.09 per 1,000 for forcible sex offenses, 0.21 per 1,000 for robbery, and 0.35 per 1,000 for aggravated assault. Property crime rates were 2.57 per 1,000 in 1994--1.96 per 1,000 for burglary and 0.61 per 1,000 for motor vehicle theft.

Statistics on Definitions Used by Institutions to Compile Annual Security Reports

The Federal Bureau of Investigation definitions, which the Campus Security Act specifies are to be used to compile crime statistics, were used by 40 percent of institutions, state crime definitions by 45 percent, and other definitions by 16 percent. Use of the FBI definitions varied greatly by size of institution, with larger institutions using the FBI definitions more frequently than smaller institutions. For example, while 81 percent of institutions with 10,000 or more students used the FBI definitions, just 17 percent of institutions with less than 200 students used these definitions.

However, since most students attend larger institutions (i.e., institutions with 3,000 or more students), 73 percent of students attended institutions that used the FBI definitions, 24 percent attended institutions that used state crime definitions, and 4 percent attended institutions that used some other set of definitions. Thus, the majority of students attended institutions using the mandated FBI definitions, and most of the remaining students attended institutions using state crime definitions.

Annual Security Reports

The Campus Security Act requires postsecondary institutions to publish and distribute an annual security report containing information about campus security policies and crime statistics. The report is to be distributed annually to all current students and employees and, upon request, to prospective students and employees.

Most institutions (87 percent) compiled an annual campus security report, although the proportion ranged from 64 percent of other less-than-2-year institutions to 98 percent of public 4-year institutions. Larger institutions were more likely than smaller institutions to prepare these annual security reports, ranging from 76 percent of those with less than 200 students to 100 percent of those with 10,000 or more students.

Almost all students (98 percent) attended institutions that compiled annual security reports.

To Order the Report or to Access the Report via the Internet:

Copies of Campus Crime and Security at Postsecondary Education Institutions are available from New Orders, Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. The stock number is 065-000-00973-1 and the price is $11.

The report is also available via the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/NCES/pubs/97402.html

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Last updated February 25, 1997