A recent report released by on-campus security, safety and health service groups shows a stable leveling out of the amount of crime occurring on Penn State's campus, officials say.
Clifford Lutz, Penn State Police supervisor, said the report, based on University Park campus statistics, shows that the level of crime reported has remained the same and may have even fallen over the last year.
"I think crime trends at Penn State closely mirror those of Pennsylvania and the nation," Lutz said.
He added the university community is no more dangerous than any other city around the state or country.
The report shows that Part I offenses (homicide and armed robbery) continue to be extremely low, while Part II offenses (assault and sex offenses) held fairly steady over the last three years (1999-2001).
However, the number of reported forcible rapes reported in 2001 rose to eight, an increase from 1999, when three were reported. The increase may have resulted from the university's creation of an anonymous and confidential system of reporting sexual assault to authorities, the report says.
Lutz said liquor law violations and public drunkenness citations also continue to be a problem for law enforcement officials. In 2001, there were 1,154 referrals for liquor laws violations, as compared to 736 in 2000.
Lutz said the number of Penn State football games during a given season can easily "skew" some of the crime data because a larger concentration of violations, such as underage drinking and public drunkenness, might occur during those weekends.
"When people look at those [statistics], you have to account for those other variables," he said.
Reed said police expect the number of illegal entries into dorms to show a dramatic drop in next year's report. The drop, he said, would most likely result from the implementation of the new 24-hour card-access policy, which is in place at all on-campus housing locations.
The findings -- which have been sent to students through university e-mail last week and this week -- is Penn State's annual campus security report for 2001. The results were gathered by Penn State Police Services, University Health Services and a number of other organizations, said Don Reed, police services officer.
Among the information included are statistics concerning documented crimes that occurred on campus, in off-campus buildings owned or controlled by Penn State and on public property within the university's boundaries.
The report's data is provided to students in compliance with the Jeanne Cleary Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. The act was instituted in 1990 by former President George Bush following the on-campus murder of Jeanne Cleary, a Lehigh University student.
"It's basically put in there so students and parents can compare crime statistics," Reed said.
Steve Danch (senior-finance) said he thinks the report's data is accurate. He added that he did not read the e-mailed report when it was sent to him.
"I don't really notice any bad crime around here," he said. "It's mostly petty stuff like drinking and vandalism."
Penn State Police Services employs more than 250 police and student auxiliary officers to serve the more than 13,000 graduate and undergraduate students who live in dorms, apartments and housing at the University Park campus.
