January 30, 2009

In Campus-Crime Reports, There's Little Safety in the Numbers

By SARA LIPKA

Numbers suggest certainty, and when it comes to campus crime, everybody wants answers. That's what the Clery Act set out to reveal: How many rapes, burglaries, assaults? When? Where? Enacted nearly two decades ago, the federal law requires colleges to send the government lengthy reports each year, detailing their policies and tallying their total crimes.

But do statistics keep students safe? As campus security has become a national fixation, some scholars of the Clery Act —

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