With the annual Clery report now released, the faculty and students of SNHU now have access to public data that shows the safety profile of the campus. While the data only extends to last year, it provides a trend of how crime has shifted in three years (2018, 2019, 2020). With the advent of the COVID pandemic, there is a clear comparison for how the lower population might have impacted the reported rate of crime incidents.
The report itself breaks the data down by where the crime occurred. Additionally, it includes any criminal offenses that might have been unfounded. According to the report, there have been no falsely reported crimes in the last three years.
One of the most notable inferences from the data set is the consistent reports of robbery and motor vehicle theft. In the last three years, there have been no reported cases of these crimes. Another consistent statistic has been the presence of aggravated assaults. Similar to robberies and other theft, this crime has also been nonexistent in the last three recorded years.
The only theft-related crime reported in the previous three years was burglary. However, there was only a reported incident at a residence hall back in 2018. Since then, there have not been any reported crime incidents of this categorization.
While some crimes have been consistently nonexistent, others have been counted. Statistically, there were six reported cases of sexual assault in 2018. Over the next year, the rate of reported incidents remained constant. In 2020 the crime rate did drop to only one case; however, interpretation of this statistic must consider the significantly lower student population post-March.
Other crimes, such as fondling, had a rate as high as seven in 2018 before dropping to only one reported case in 2019 and 2020.
In addition to recording the number of criminal offenses, the report also keeps track of noted arrests. Broken down further by the type of offense, the categories are liquor law violations, possession or carrying of weapons and drug abuse. Out of the three categories, there has only been one arrest noted due to liquor law violations. While the arrest rate is notably low, the same cannot be said for disciplinary referrals.
When referrals are taken into account, weapon violations consistently remain at zero. However, drug abuse violations ranged from nine to ten except for 2020 where no referrals occurred. Disciplinary action was the highest for liquor law violations, which reached 200 cases in 2018. Like other categories, these reports declined following the drop in student population. However, even in 2020, the rate was at 21, double the peak of drug abuse violations in 2019.
For offenses listed under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the report lists the three categories of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. While there have been no known domestic violence incidents on campus in the last three years, there has been one listed incident of stalking each year since 2018.
Reports of dating violence fluctuated over the three years from four cases during 2018, dipping to none in 2019, before rising back to two cases in 2020. Finally, any reported hate crimes are listed, for which there have been none in the last three years.
