Clery Act Reportable Crime Category Distribution
PlainCampus presents the distribution of reported incidents across the Clery Act crime categories tracked in the US Department of Education campus safety dataset. Figures are drawn directly from the current dataset, aggregated by crime category.
Research period:
Research question
Across the Clery Act crime categories tracked at 5,673 US postsecondary institutions, how do reported incident counts distribute across the major category types (violent crimes, property crimes, hate crimes, VAWA offenses), and which categories account for the largest aggregate incident volume?
Methodology
This ranking reflects the data currently in our database, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.
Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.
Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.
Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.
Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.
Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.
See the methodology page for the complete ETL pipeline, source vintage, and column lineage.
Clery Act Reportable Crime Category Distribution
Live data: reflects the current dataset
The ranked top 10
Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.
| # | Crime category | Total incidents | Reporting institutions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | motor_vehicle_theft | 21,897 | 5,673 |
| 2 | burglary | 21,060 | 5,673 |
| 3 | rape | 17,743 | 5,673 |
| 4 | fondling | 13,931 | 5,673 |
| 5 | aggravated_assault | 7,207 | 5,673 |
| 6 | robbery | 1,847 | 5,673 |
| 7 | arson | 1,647 | 5,673 |
| 8 | statutory_rape | 196 | 5,673 |
| 9 | murder | 63 | 5,673 |
| 10 | negligent_manslaughter | 10 | 5,673 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Campus Safety and Security Survey, Crime Category Files. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, Campus Safety and Security Survey, Crime Category Files. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.
Findings
Top entity in the ranking
The top-ranked record in this dataset is motor_vehicle_theft, with a value of 21,897 on the Total incidents column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.
Distribution shape
The gap between the top-ranked record (21,897) and the 10th-ranked record (10) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.
Aggregate context
Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.
Source provenance
The records in this ranking originate from U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, specifically the Campus Safety and Security Survey, Crime Category Files. PlainCampus ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.
Why this ranking matters
Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.
What this analysis cannot tell us
The Clery Act, formally the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, requires postsecondary institutions participating in federal student aid programs to disclose specified categories of crime occurring on campus, in residential facilities, on adjacent public property, and in non-campus buildings under institutional control. Reported counts include only incidents meeting Clery-defined geographic and category criteria; many crimes occurring off-campus or in non-Clery-defined locations are not included. The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) added specific reporting categories for dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. Reported incidents include cases that resulted in arrest, disciplinary referral, or no formal action; reporting standards encourage broad disclosure rather than only adjudicated cases. Institutional reporting compliance varies; under-reporting and over-reporting have both been identified in US Department of Education audit findings. Cross-institutional comparisons of aggregate incident counts should consider enrollment size, residential versus commuter campus composition, and the institution's reporting culture. Higher reported counts can reflect better compliance and a culture that encourages reporting, not necessarily higher actual incident rates.
Secondary cut from the same source
Violence Against Women Act offense category distribution across reporting institutions
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, Clery Act Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting - https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/campus.html
- U.S. Department of Education, Campus Safety and Security Data Files - https://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/
Every figure on PlainCampus is rendered directly from federal Clery Act source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal Clery Act source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. 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.