MIT & Cambridge statistics on crime
Campus Police report numbers
Sarah Ritter—The Tech
How has crime at MIT changed in the past two years? In 2011, the MIT Police received six reports of rape and 22 reports of liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action on MIT’s campus, according to the 2012 MIT Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, released on Friday by the MIT Police. These are the highest numbers since 2007. In 2010, there were three reports of rape and 38 reports of liquor law violations on campus at MIT.
In addition, the MIT Police received one report of rape and 14 reports of liquor law violations off campus in 2011.
On-campus burglary reports totaled 16 in 2011, down from 22 in 2010. These are the lowest numbers since at least 2007, during which MIT Police recorded 197 on-campus burglaries.
In each of 2010 and 2011, there was also one report of motor vehicle theft and one report of aggravated assault.
The Cambridge Police Department reported 23 rapes, 158 motor vehicle thefts, 261 aggravated assaults, and 520 burglaries in 2011.
In the same year, the Harvard University Police Department reported 12 rapes, three motor vehicle thefts, seven aggravated assaults, 24 burglaries, and 35 liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action.
The MIT Police accept anonymous reports of sexual assaults, which are treated with confidentiality to the full extent of the law, according to the Security and Fire Safety Report. While MIT’s Report does not distinguish confidential reports in its statistics, Harvard’s does. All 12 rape reports in 2011 at Harvard were listed as confidential reports, which comprise the large majority of rape reports each year at Harvard.
In 2010, The Daily Beast ranked the safety of residential colleges nationwide with at least 6000 students, and found a poor showing from Boston-area schools. MIT came in 13th for most unsafe. Harvard took second place, just behind Tufts University in first.
Colleges and universities are required to disclose campus crime statistics under the Clery Act, passed in 1990.