Crime on Tennessee's college campuses decreased overall in 2017, but reported DUI offenses increased sharply.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released its annual crime study detailing the volume and nature of crime on the state’s college and university campuses. The study compiles data submitted to the TBI.
Overall, crimes reported on campus decreased by 2.8 percent from 2016 to 2017. The majority of those were larceny/thefts. Robbery reports decreased by more than 55 percent from 2016.
Sex offenses-forcible also decreased, by 26 percent from 2016 to 2017. There was also a 27 percent decrease in reported rapes, from 63 in 2016 to 46 in 2017.
On UT Knoxville's campus, larceny/theft and drug violation reports were the most common. There were also 50 assaults on UTK's campus, and 2 rapes reported to the TBI.
Statewide, DUI offenses increased by 60.9 percent year-to-year. There were 41 DUI's reported on UTK's campus.
You can take a look at all the data, including reports on specific campuses, here.
As always, the TBI strongly discourages the comparison of one institution’s statistics to another. The factors impacting crime vary from community to community and rudimentary comparisons will most like result in inaccurate, generalized, and unfair conclusions of the perceived ‘safety’ of one campus over another. It is more helpful for context, in the TBI’s assessment, to compare an institution’s data over the course of several years.
“This report will hopefully assist law enforcement, institution administrations, and government officials in planning their efforts in the fight against crime and continue to create an awareness that crime exists as a threat in our communities,” said TBI Director Mark Gwyn.
The full 2017 ‘Crime on Campus’ report, along with similar studies dating back to 2001, is available for review online: http://www.tn.gov/tbi.
