Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 30, 1995 TAG: 9502010024
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Campus officials reported 4,837 drug-related arrests, 34.3 percent more than the 3,601 reported for 1992. The numbers were contained in a survey of 796 schools released Sunday by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Aggravated assaults rose by 2.7 percent, but the number of rapes declined by 19.9 percent and burglary dropped 4.5 percent.
A total of 15 murders were committed, down from the 17 reported in 1992, the survey found.
A 3-year-old federal law requires colleges to compile crime statistics and provide them to students and staff. The chronicle based its data on the security reports of 796 colleges and universities with enrollments over 5,000.
The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor reported no murders, six rapes, seven robberies and 30 aggravated assaults in 1993. According to the survey, there were 215 drug-related arrests and 12 arrests for weapons violations.
Among the crimes reported by Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., were 106 arrests for liquor-law violations. At Winona State University in Winona, Minn., there were no arrests for liquor, drug or weapons violations, but the school did report three forcible-sex offenses and three aggravated assaults in 1993.
Although they worry about a general increase in violent campus crime, school officials caution that higher numbers may simply indicate more aggressive law enforcement and more accurate reporting.
Differences in the way crimes are reported and categorized also may skew campus crime data, school officials say.
Rapes, for example, are not always included in the statistics from campus police if the assaults were reported only to residential advisers or campus rape crisis centers.
by CNB