NEWS
Crime rates are taking a tumble
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Also by Chris Werner:
- New ticket lottery off to bumpy start (October 22, 2004)
- Whitewater mourns over student's death (September 22, 2004)
- The changing face of UW System leadership (September 1, 2004)
- Crossing the line (April 29, 2004)
- La Crosse student died of alcohol, drowning (April 30, 2004)
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- Rape increasing on college campuses (November 21, 2002)
- Students contest Madison's low crime rating (November 13, 2002)
- FBI says crime rose 2.1 percent in 2001 (October 29, 2002)
- UW crime statistics' reporting method questioned (December 9, 2001)
by Chris Werner
Thursday, December 11, 2003
By
In the first study of its kind, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that crime rates are steadily decreasing on college campuses nationwide.
The report, entitled “Violent Victimization of College Students,” stated that these students are less often the victims of violent crimes, with every 68 per 1,000 students ages 18 to 24 facing victimization. Non-students in the same age category, however, experienced victimization more regularly. For 1,000 such people, 82 were victimized.
The analysis focused on the years of 1995-2000, during which the rate of violent crime declined by 40 percent among college students and fell 44 percent for non-students.
“[The report] examines the incidents of college-student victimization and compares the findings to persons of similar age in the general population. In addition, the report determines the extent to which student victimization occurs in campus and off-campus locations and settings, as well as the prevalence of alcohol and drugs in student victimizations,” the BJS stated on its webpage.
The BJS found that on average annually, more than 526,000 of the 7.7 million college students in this age group are the victims of violent crime, which includes simple and aggravated assault, rape and robbery. For students living on campus, the chance of facing such crime is lower; it is 10 percent higher for those off campus.
Donald Downs, University of Wisconsin professor of political science, law and journalism and mass communication, said that fluctuations in crime rates can be attributed to various societal factors, such as economic conditions.
Downs added that a decrease in crime as a whole has contributed to the lowering in campus crime, but, nonetheless, he recognizes that “it tends to go in cycles.” He said he also believes universities do not always adequately publicize campus crimes.
Indeed, college students are less likely to report such crimes to police because they feel the matter is a personal one, the report found.
The BJS also looked at other crime factors, such as the influence of drugs and alcohol, the use of firearms, and gender and ethnicity. For example, males’ chances of being victims are nearly twice as high as those for females. Likewise, unlike African American and Caucasian students, Hispanics are more apt to experience equivalent rates of violence to their general-population peers.
