WASHINGTON – The number of sex offenses reported at American colleges and universities went up in the last decade even as overall campus crime decreased, according to an Education Department survey that also suggests high schools are safer than they used to be.
The report released Tuesday said 3,330 forcible sex offenses were reported on campuses in 2011, the latest data available for colleges and universities that researchers have analyzed. That was a roughly 52 percent increase from the 2,200 reported a decade earlier, according to the report. But the number of campus crimes in every other category, such as burglary and car theft, declined during the same period.
The report acknowledges the steady increase in college enrollment that occurred during that period – census data show nearly 21 million students in 2011 compared to roughly 16 million in 2001 – but says the number of crimes reported on campus nonetheless declined for all categories but sex offenses.
The survey primarily focuses on crime and safety at the nation’s elementary and secondary schools, where fewer crimes were reported than 20 years ago, according to the report.
Of students ages 12-18, 52 per 1,000 reported being victims of a crime at school in 2012, compared with 181 per 1,000 in 1992, according to the report. Away from school that rate fell from 173 per 1,000 to 38. Males were more likely than females to be victims of crime, and students in urban and suburban areas were more likely than their rural counterparts to have experienced crime.