Data Guide
Understanding Clery Act Crime Statistics
What the Clery Act requires, how crimes are categorized, geographic boundaries, and common misinterpretations of campus safety data.
The short answer
In the 2023 reporting year, motor vehicle theft was the most-reported on-campus Clery Act offense nationwide, property crime, not violent crime, dominates the counts.
By the numbers
What gets reported, in practice
- 32,402
- On-campus incidents reported (2023)
- 14
- Clery Act offense categories
- 5,673
- Institutions required to report
Most-reported on-campus Clery Act offenses
Total reported on-campus incidents by category, 2023 reporting year
- Motor Vehicle Theft
Motor Vehicle Theft
10,898 incidents
- Burglary
Burglary
6,991 incidents
- Rape
Rape
5,697 incidents
- Fondling
Fondling
4,664 incidents
- Aggravated Assault 2,731
Aggravated Assault
2,731 incidents
- Arson 672
Arson
672 incidents
- Robbery 636
Robbery
636 incidents
What Is the Clery Act?
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act is a federal law requiring all Title IV colleges and universities to disclose crime statistics and security information. Named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old student murdered in her Lehigh University dormitory in 1986, the law was enacted in 1990 and has been amended several times since.
The law serves a straightforward purpose: students and families deserve standardized, comparable crime data when evaluating institutions. Before the Clery Act, campus crime was largely invisible to prospective students and their families.
What Gets Reported
The Clery Act requires institutions to report specific categories of crimes that occur within defined campus geography:
- Criminal offenses - Murder and non-negligent manslaughter, manslaughter by negligence, rape, fondling, incest, statutory rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
- VAWA offenses (added 2013) - Domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. These were added by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act amendments.
- Arrests and disciplinary referrals - Liquor law violations, drug law violations, and illegal weapons possession.
- Hate crimes - Any of the above crimes plus larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, or vandalism motivated by bias against race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, disability, gender, or gender identity.
Geographic Boundaries
Clery Act statistics distinguish between several geographic categories, and understanding these is critical for correct interpretation:
- On-campus - Any building or property owned or controlled by the institution within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used in direct support of the institution's educational purposes.
- On-campus student housing - A subset of on-campus, covering residential facilities only. Reported separately to highlight dormitory-specific incidents.
- Noncampus property - Property owned or controlled by the institution that is used in direct support of educational purposes but is not within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area. Includes study-abroad locations and satellite campuses.
- Public property - Property within or immediately adjacent to campus that is accessible to the public, such as public streets and sidewalks running through or alongside campus.
Common Misinterpretations
Campus safety data is frequently misunderstood. Here are the most common pitfalls:
Higher numbers do not always mean less safe. A campus with more reported incidents may simply have better reporting infrastructure and a culture that encourages victims to come forward. Underreporting is a well-documented problem across all campuses, the schools that look worst on paper may actually be the most transparent.
The campus that looks worst on paper may simply be the one where victims feel safe enough to report.
Disciplinary referrals are not crimes. Drug and alcohol disciplinary referrals often reflect proactive enforcement by resident advisors and campus security. A high number of referrals can indicate an institution that takes policy violations seriously rather than one with a substance abuse problem.
Zero crimes does not mean zero risk. Very small institutions or campuses in rural areas may report zero incidents in some categories. This does not mean crime is impossible, it means no incidents were reported during the survey period.
Year-to-year changes need context. A single unusual incident can dramatically change a small school's statistics. Always look at multi-year trends rather than reacting to a single year's data. PlainCampus shows historical trends on each school profile to help with this analysis.
How PlainCampus Presents This Data
PlainCampus normalizes all crime statistics by enrollment to produce a safety score (incidents per 1,000 students). This makes comparisons fair across institutions of all sizes. We also rank institutions nationally and within each state, provide year-over-year trend data, and break down incidents by category and location type. Every data point traces back to the official OPE Campus Safety Survey filing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does campus safety data come from?
PlainCampus uses data from the U.S. Department of Education OPE Campus Safety Survey, which collects Clery Act crime and fire safety statistics from all Title IV-participating institutions. This is supplemented with IPEDS enrollment data for normalization. All data is federal, standardized, and publicly available.
How often is campus safety data updated?
The Department of Education releases new OPE Campus Safety Survey data annually, typically several months after the reporting period ends. Crime statistics are reported with a one-to-two year lag. PlainCampus updates when new federal data becomes available.
What does the safety score mean?
The safety score is the total number of on-campus Clery Act reportable incidents divided by enrollment per 1,000 students. A lower score means fewer reported incidents relative to campus size. This normalization makes comparisons fair across institutions of different sizes.
Frequently asked questions
Where does this data come from?
All figures on this page derive from the U.S. Department of Education's Clery Act campus safety data (the OPE Campus Safety and Security Survey), supplemented with IPEDS enrollment figures for per-1,000-student normalization. We cite the underlying agency and series in the methodology section. No proprietary aggregators are used.
How often are figures updated?
Each series follows its own publication cadence. We refresh our database within 30 days of each upstream release. Specific update timestamps appear in the page footer where available; the methodology page documents the cadence per data series.
Can I use this data for my own analysis?
Yes. The underlying federal data is public domain. Our presentation, calculations, and editorial commentary are licensed for individual reference. For commercial republication or large-scale data extraction, contact us at the email listed on the contact page.
What if the figures here disagree with another source?
Different sources use different methodologies, definitions, geographic boundaries, and reference periods, disagreement is normal and informative. Our methodology page documents exactly which series and reference period we use for each metric, so you can reproduce or audit the figures against the upstream agency directly.
Put this to use
See these category definitions applied to a real ranking, not just in the abstract.
- See the categories reflected in the national ranking. Full rankings
- Check any single campus's own reported categories. Search campuses
- Learn where Clery's on-campus boundary ends. Campus vs. city crime
Category definitions and totals reflect the most recent Clery Act reporting year filed with the U.S. Department of Education.
The national and per-institution statistics on this page are rendered directly from PlainCampus's federal Clery Act database. The history of the Clery Act itself (Jeanne Clery's 1986 murder, the law's 1990 enactment) comes from public legislative record, not this portal's live database. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
PlainCampus is for informational purposes only and does not constitute safety, security, legal, or enrollment advice; the data describes reported on-campus activity, it is not a complete picture of safety at any campus and cannot predict any individual student's experience. See our appropriate use guidance.