In keeping with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security and Campus Crime Statistics Act, also known as the Clery Act, the Department of Public Safety recently released the statistical report for crime on Fairfield’s campus for 2014. This act requires all colleges and universities, both private and public, to release crime statistics and summaries of security policies annually.
The Clery Act was named in memory of Jeanne Clery, a student who was raped and murdered in her residence hall at Lehigh University by a fellow student that she didn’t know on April 5, 1986.
According to Assistant Director of DPS John Ritchie, this year’s crime statistics included in the Clery Report contained few surprises as compared with the statistics of past years.
The report reads that nine cases of sexual offenses occurred during 2014, an increase from the four cases which occurred in both 2013 and 2012. However, Ritchie noted that this is not all that substantial of an increase, attributing the seemingly high number to other causes.
“We expect to see an increase in this, just because people are more comfortable with their options,” Ritchie said, referencing the way in which the University has recently begun to inform students more frequently of the ways in which they can report a sexual offense and the resources that are available to them, such as bystander training and Step up Stags training for freshmen.
Ritchie went on to say that students and faculty should not be concerned about this statistic, as nine sexual offense cases is still a relatively low number, despite it being more than what was reported in recent years. He added that the increase doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more cases of sexual offenses on campus, but that more of these cases are being reported.
“I don’t think the climate is changing and there are physically more offenses happening, but that the climate is changing in sense of comfort level in reporting these cases,” Ritchie said.
Ritchie also noted the new categories of statistics that came out in 2013, dating violence and stalking and domestic violence, are difficult to decipher any trends from given that we only have statistics from 2013 and 2014 to go off of.
One hate crime based on race and one based on sexual orientation were reported in 2014, a slight increase from zero in both categories in 2013. Both crimes were in the form of vandalism, according to Ritchie.
The number of disciplinary referrals and arrests for drug abuse violations both experienced significant drops from the 2013 numbers. In 2014, there were 642 disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations, compared to 1,270 in 2013, and the number of arrests for drug abuse violations decreased from 52 in 2013 to 33 in 2014.
While many may view this substantial change in statistics to be a result of less drug and alcohol use on campus, Ritchie says that this change is actually attributed to the fact that DPS and the Dean of Students Office have recently updated their system of distributing referrals to students for alcohol possession.
As Ritchie pointed out, “The reality is, you only have to refer those people who are actually in violation of state law.” Thus, Ritchie went on, only those students actually in possession of alcohol receive referrals now, rather than simply anyone who is consuming alcohol.
Ritchie explained the reasoning behind this change in tactics, primarily on the part of the Dean of Students Office, saying, “We don’t want to over report statistics. You don’t want to over report — you kind of want to get as close as you can.”
According to Ritchie, nothing in the 2015 Clery Report was particularly alarming. He mentioned that in the past 10 years, the statistics have remained relatively consistent, noting that in 2004, there were 62 larceny incidents, whereas in 2014, there were 60 larceny incidents. This he added is “remarkable” considering the fact that the student population has increased in size drastically over the last 10 years.
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