The Facts: The 2010 annual report on crime in and around N.C. State reveals that N.C. State has lower reports of many different crimes in comparison to its neighbors.
Our Opinion: Students and Campus Police should be commended for their efforts to reduce crime in and around campus. However, we should be wary of believing that these reports reflect reality. There is still crime that goes unreported and must be addressed in hopes of creating a safer campus.
Campus Police are mandated each year to release an annual report on crime on campus and surrounding areas. This report is federally required for any institution receiving financial aid due to the Clery Act. The Clery Act was named in memory of Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old freshman at Lehigh University, who was raped and murdered in her sleep in 1986.
The annual report must outline the cases of murder, sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, manslaughter, arson and arrests reported on campus. Also included are statistics for alcohol, drugs, and weapons violations.
In 2010 there were no cases of murder, manslaughter, rape, or arson reported. The most common crime reported was larceny (the theft of property without the use of violence or intimidation) with 386 cases. Alcohol violations were the second most crime reported with 44 cases receiving citations, 188 cases receiving campus judicial action, and 16 cases of arrests being made. Alcohol violations narrowly beat out drug violations, which came in third, with 32 cases receiving citations, 126 receiving campus judicial action, and seven cases of arrests being made.
By comparison, N.C. State’s campus had less crime reported than its surrounding areas. It had lower per capita reports of motor vehicle theft, rape, burglary and larceny than Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte.
These statistics should not be interpreted as the reality of crime at N.C. State. There is crime that goes unreported, the most notable being cases of rape. The National Institute of Justice reported in 2005 that during a five-year college career, one in five women will experience rape. This statistic is directly at odds with the eight cases of rape reported at N.C. State from the years 2007 to 2010. This statistic outlines an obvious flaw in the system in which crimes are reported.
The Campus Police and students should be commended for creating the positive environment for students to live and learn. Initiatives such as Wolf Alert, the Rape Aggression Defense Program (RAD), and the Safety Escort Service undoubtedly have a large impact on keeping our crime reports low. However, this is only a start to creating a safe campus.
Moving forward, students and Campus Police need to enlighten others about the dangers of these unreported crimes. No criminal activity should go unreported, as to not report such an act is to tolerate such an act.
