The Clery Security Report, which details the statistics of violations and offenses that have occurred throughout all of Hopkins's Campuses (including those abroad), was released last Thursday.
The report takes into account the crimes that have been committed within the past three years, 2010 being the most recent.
The Homewood Campus reported the most incidents of the seven campuses, but Thomas L. Sipes, Assistant Director of Campus Safety and Security, noted that this is not a reflection of security measures taken by Hopkins and is partly due to the fact that Hopkins is located in an urban environment.
"Crime can take place anywhere and at anytime if the right opportunity exists. Being aware of your environment, working cooperatively with the police, Campus Safety and Security and related support elements can reduce the risks involved with urban living," Sipes wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
In addition, the report mentions specifically that besides Homewood, Peabody, the Nanjing campus and the Medical Institutions, every other campus listed is a commuter campus. This means that there are no residence halls, dormitories or non-campus buildings or property for those campuses.
According to the report, over 2,700 of Homewood's 4,870 undergraduates and 1,656 graduate students resided in university housing, dormitories, and apartment buildings in the spring semester of 2011.
Sipes considers the mere presence of security personnel around these residences an invaluable force for the safety of Hopkins Homewood campus, as well as for many of the off-campus residences.
"Although Campus Safety and Security law enforcement jurisdiction is limited to Johns Hopkins University property, we provide visibility which in itself produces a deterrent effect. With Campus Safety and Security's added ‘eyes and ears' and the ability to have direct radio contact with the Baltimore Police, we play a significant proactive role in the deterrence of crime," Sipes wrote.
The statement itself states that crimes included in the report are collected from what is given to the appropriate offices at each campus, meaning that it is not a completely comprehensive collection of crimes.
Focusing on the Homewood Campus, from 2009 to 2010 there was a decrease in on-campus crimes from 270 to 250 and a decrease of non-campus crimes from seven to two (in the Referrals for Campus Disciplinary Action category). There were zero hate crimes and sexual assaults reported.
Sipes reiterated the location of Hopkins as a potential factor for it's apparent higher crime rate than other campuses.
"It is important to remember that every city experiences crime to some degree and everyone should educate themselves about crime prevention. The incidence of crime on campus has been very low in recent years and is currently at an all time low," Stipes wrote.
In the three years accounted for in the report there have been three burglaries, one robbery, one weapons law violation and the rest of the on-campus violations were for alcohol and drug related activities. In the non-campus category, there were five burglaries, one robbery, one motor vehicle theft, and the rest of the reported violations stemmed from alcohol and drugs. Burglary was the most common violation for off-campus crimes.
"The majority of liquor law violations are reported to us after the fact with no actual involvement by Campus Security. As to drug use, most cases involve minimal quantities of marijuana," Stipes wrote.
From 2009 to 2010 the liquor law violations decreased from 242 to 212 and the drug related violations increased from 27 to 38.
"The trend from alcohol to marijuana is a national one as well. In every report you will see alcohol down, drugs up in the student population," Shelly Fickau, Director of Residential Life, wrote in an e-mail to The News-Letter.
Residence hall violations increased from 252 in 2008 to 270 in 2009, with a slight decrease to 249 in 2010.
"Our numbers are much lower than the national average. And as far as decreasing our number of total offenses that have occurred within those years, they have gone down if you look at the number of students each year," Fickau wrote.
"Since 2005, the University Administration has taken a very proactive approach with security to improve the safety of the Hopkins community. Security's approach is an ever-changing dynamic. We are always monitoring and assessing crime trends, making the necessary adjustments to reduce the opportunities for crime," Stipes wrote.
Stipes noted that an increased presence of security and new technologies are a part of the continually changing improvements of security on campus.
"The increase of officer patrols and the ‘Smart' CCTV camera system are important elements in Security's crime prevention/deterrence strategy," Stipes wrote. "It is our philosophy that security is a continuous and ever-evolving process and in this regard Campus Safety and Security will strive to keep JHU among the safest campus communities."
The Clery Act, the reason for the publication of this report, is a federal law established in 1990, that requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. The compliance to this law is monitored by the United States Department of Education, who can halt the federal student financial aid programs to universities that do not comply.
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