After a decline during the pandemic, government data shows that the number of crimes reported by college campuses across the country in 2022 has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Crime reported by almost 6,000 institutions has increased by approximately 8% compared to 2019. The increase in crimes between 2019 and 2022 coincided with many students returning to campuses after the pandemic.
The recent increase in campus crime across the country was primarily driven by a rise in reported motor vehicle thefts, which more than doubled from 2019 and accounted for more than a quarter of crimes in 2022, according to USA’s reporting Today.
The recent spike represents the largest increase since universities and colleges that receive federal funding began reporting campus safety statistics. Experts are skeptical about this trend, according to USA Today, but parents are concerned.
New England’s Ivy League schools are not immune to the uptick in campus crime. Here’s what the data says.
Check out USA TODAY’s Crimes on Campus tool for detailed information. Zoom in on the map below to search crimes on more than 10,000 college and university campuses. Don’t see a map? Click here.
Reported crime rates at Brown University
Brown University was not immune to the spike, with a total of 91 reported crimes in 2022. In 2020 and 2021, the number of reported crimes was 21 and 42, respectively. From 2014 to 2019, the average number of reported crimes was 57.
At Brown, 18 of the 91 violations reported in 2022 were motor vehicle theft.
There were 21 reports of rape, 28 reports of serious assault and 12 reports of fondling. There were also nine reports of burglary, two reports of robbery and one report of arson.
Brown had an undergraduate enrollment of 7,639 in fall 2022.
In response to the data, Deputy Director of News and Editorial Development Amanda McGregor wrote in an email that Brown has a “culture of reporting” that helps them address the incidents.
“Brown University is proactive in reporting crime data, and this is part of our strong commitment to prevention and response,” McGregor said. “The safety of our community is always our top priority.”
To address the “national issue of sexual and gender-based harassment and violence on college campuses,” McGregor wrote that Brown was creating a new Office of Equity Compliance and Reporting in the Division of Campus Life in 2024 to address reporting of crimes like this make possible. easily possible, adding that the increased crime rates actually show the abundance of resources Brown has in the field of crime reporting.
“[T]The University has proactively encouraged a culture in which students report incidents of sexual assault and misconduct and seek and receive support and assistance from the University,” she wrote.
The school also educates students and campus community members on safety, including personal safety, securing personal property and staying vigilant.
Reported crime rates at Yale University
Connecticut’s Ivy League school, Yale University, had 135 reported criminal offenses in 2022, with a student population of 6,645 in the fall of that year.
There were 41 reports of rape and 17 reports of fondling. There were 35 reports of motor vehicle theft.
In 2020, a total of 114 crimes were reported at Yale, and in 2021 there were 115 crimes reported.
The crime report numbers for 2022 are higher than the last three years before the pandemic, 2017, 2018 and 2019, as their crime report numbers were 108, 123 and 124 respectively.
Reported crime rates at Harvard University
Harvard University, the crown jewel of Commonwealth higher education, had 172 reported criminal offenses in 2022, with a student population of 7,240 in the fall of that year.
There were 75 reports of motor vehicle theft, 34 reports of burglary and 23 reports of fondling. There were also 16 reports of rape, 17 reports of serious assault, five reports of robbery and two reports of arson.
In 2020, Harvard had a total of 120 reported crimes, and in 2021 the school had 106 reported crimes.
The total number of reported crimes in 2022 is also higher than pre-pandemic figures, as Harvard had 135 reports in 2018 and 134 reports in 2019.
Reported crime rates at Dartmouth College
The Ivy League Dartmouth College in New Hampshire had a total of 65 criminal offenses in 2022, with an undergraduate enrollment of 4,458.
The most numerous offenses were burglary and motor vehicle theft, with 24 reports of burglary and 18 reports of motor vehicle theft.
Dartmouth had 23 crime reports in 2020 and 46 in 2021.
The total number of crime reports of 65 is a slight return to pre-pandemic crime reports, as 2018 and 2019 each had a total number of 71 crime reports. However, rape made up a much larger share of reports in those years than in 2022.
Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Wicklocal.com: Data: Crime is rising on college campuses. How the New England Ivies are fair.
