by: Mason Gentry
Jeanne Clery was tragically murdered in her college dorm in 1986. According to the Clery Center, parents in that time had no means to access crime data and statistics of the campuses in which their children studied. Since then, the federal government has enacted a statute that demands all colleges and universities participating in federal aid programs to both maintain and disclose a log of crime statistics and security information, according to the Federal Student Aid website. This is called the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.
Parkland College crime data can be found on the Parkland website in the “Crime Statistics” link. There, you will find the table representing Parkland’s Annual Safety Report (ASR) which records the criminal acts on a yearly basis. Also, under that link, anyone may access Parkland’s Daily Crime Log, which is updated frequently and gives a brief description of the date, crime, location and closure of the incident. This resource is not only a tool for understanding the safety of their environment but for students to analyze the differences in schools across the country, pointing out trends between colleges and universities.
“Universities might have higher crime rates due to the freedom that many new students experience while at university.”
There are interactive websites which allow users to compare crime statistics and data across different schools. For example, the United States Department of Education will organize up to four different colleges or universities and allow for comparison on a data table.
When comparing Parkland College to other schools—Eastern Illinois University, Lake Land College and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana—there is a trend of universities having higher disciplinary incidents resulting in a report on the data table.
When asked what the cause of this trend might be, Parkland student Jack McLane answered that “Universities might have higher crime rates due to the freedom that many new students experience while at university.” However, it is also likely the case that large campuses with student housing, bars, parties and events are more likely to commit crimes. The area encompassing these things is much greater than the area that is held by smaller, community college campuses. There are also many more roadways and non-student activities happening daily within larger campuses, attributing to their higher rate of crime reports.
When Lydia Gallaher, the Board of Education’s Student Trustee, explained that there is a discrepancy between what is counted on the daily report and what is counted on the annual report. She said that “… in daily crime logs, you see what happens every day, then you look at our ASR. There’s barely anything on there. What happens is, the Clery Act has to fit [reports] into their definition of a crime.” This is immediately evident when comparing the annual and daily crime reports, as the latter typically lists more. Because the Clery Act requires that schools report crimes on all adjacent property to the campus, the Daily Crime Log is littered with crimes committed outside of the campus, as well as on it.
All crimes seen on campus by a Campus Security Authority (CSA) are federally mandated to be reported by that individual. According to Parkland’s Public Safety, the list of current CSAs includes the Dean of Students, Faculty/Staff advisors to student clubs, athletic coaches, study abroad coordinators and many other Parkland faculty. The Clery Act requires that CSAs report qualifying crimes happening on or adjacent to campus facilities.