Report: College campuses may be underreporting crime

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A report issued this month by a task force that studies campus safety expressed concerns that colleges across the nation may be underreporting crimes on their campuses. \nThe special task force, the National Association of Attorneys General’s Task Force on School and Campus Safety, was established after the Virginia Tech shootings to make recommendations on how to better prevent and respond to violence in schools and on college campuses and included 27 state attorneys general. \nThe association’s report is the latest in a list of government reports that suggest some universities may not be in full compliance with college crime reporting policies such as the Clery Act. \nBut at least one university official stressed that underreporting is not the case at University of Iowa. \n“Other campuses may struggle to comply with the terms of the law, but that’s never been a problem on our campus,” said Tom Baker, University of Iowa associate dean of students.\nThe Clery Act, originally known as the Campus Security Act, is a piece of legislation passed in 1990 that orders colleges and universities to disclose information about campus crime and security policies to both the students and the federal government. It is named for Jeanne Clery, a Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered in her dorm room in 1986. \nThe report recommended that both the federal government and the states should have crime and violence reporting requirements for schools and colleges that promote accuracy, full disclosure and accountability. The report went on to say that methods to ensure compliance with reporting procedures should be strengthened. \nThe NAAG isn’t the only group to suggest that universities have not been in full compliance with legislation such as the Clery Act. In March 1997, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that found universities have faced difficulty reporting crime statistics to the federal government. \nThe report attributes this to a number of factors, such as confusion between state and federal definitions of crimes, misattributions of various crimes and the exclusion of crimes reported to campus authorities other than public safety officials. \nBut some experts believe there may be other causes for underreporting. \n“No institution wants to advertise their flaws, so certainly that has been a factor,” said S. Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security on Campus Inc. “We’re starting to turn that around a little bit, but we’re certainly still going to have problems.” \nSecurity on Campus Inc., is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 by Jeanne Clery’s parents, Connie and Howard Clery. The organization seeks to increase safety on college campuses through the continued implementation and enforcement of the Clery Act.