Crime Statistics at the Ivies

by Nick Summers | August 31, 2006 at 11:37 pm

This morning's shooting death of L'Salle Harvey, a military veteran taking college prep courses at Penn, puts crime and safety front and center in everyone's mind -- especially parents nervous about dropping off freshmen this week in Philadelphia, Manhattan and New Haven.

But are urban Penn, Columbia and Yale really the most dangerous Ivies? We compiled crime statistics from across the Ivy League to find out. (Click to enlarge.)Crime Statistics at the Ivies
These are total stats (on campus plus off) for 2004, the last year for which data are available. There's some fascinating stuff in there:

  • Sixty-three forcible sex offenses? And those are only the ones that get reported.
  • Can Brown (19 crimes, not including burglary) really be such an Eden of tranquility? Or are campus police fudging the numbers?
  • Somebody please tell us Dartmouth caught the fucking arsonist(s).
  • Seventeen stolen cars at Penn, one at Columbia: New York has better subways, no parking. We bet there's zero DUIs there, too.
  • No murders and no manslaughters -- that we can believe. Zero nonforcible sex offenses? Puhlease.

Crime reporting in the Ivy League has improved dramatically (thank a 1999 law), but it's still too unreliable. Look at Harvard's burglary rate -- holy shit! Is Thomas Crown Jr. an undergrad or something? Actually, the Crimson explains that Cambridge police just feel like including larcenies in that figure, when no other schools do.

To use a sadder example, L'Salle Harvey's death may never get counted. As a "visiting student," his status is pretty vague. "He is not a student here," a Penn spokesman emphasized to us over the phone.

When the university reports its figures on Oct. 31, 2007, it can decide whether to include L'Salle or not. We know what we bet will happen.

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2 Responses to “Crime Statistics at the Ivies”

  1. Peter Says:
    September 28th, 2006 at 3:35 pm

    No drug law offences at *Brown*? Puhleeaze…

  2. John Brotonalli Says:
    November 16th, 2006 at 12:55 pm

    If you actually read the linked Crimson article, it says that it’s the Harvard Police that include larcenies in the burglary count, not the Cambridge Police. But the writer of this blog should really know the difference anyway.