Spring Break
True Picture of Crime
Jennifer Grogan
Issue date: 12/4/01 Section: News
A college-age man boards a UConn bus and highjacks it at knifepoint.
Two UConn students are robbed of valuable jewelry at gunpoint outside their dormitory
A UConn student is charged with first-degree assault after allegedly stabbing a man during a fight.
A man with a knife forces a female student into his vehicle, drives off, then fondles her before releasing her unharmed.
These incident and others, all from the past 14 months, have raised the public profile of crime at UConn. In several cases, police issued crime alerts and the incidents were reported widely in the news media. They signal the changing nature and scale of crime at UConn.
UConn Police Chief Robert Hudd says he's seen the type and amount of crime grow in the 10 years that he's been chief.
"There was no police blotter in the paper 10 years ago because there was no need for one," Hudd said. "Any crime that happened was front page news."
Anyone can look at UConn's official crime statistics for the past three years on the police department's web site (http://www.police.uconn.edu/stoucr00.html). Called Uniform Crime Reports, they represent the official crime figures reported to the FBI each year and, under federal law, are made public by the university.
But the official figures only show the more serious types of crime and can overshadow the day-to-day crime that is more typical on this rural, sprawling campus with a population of 17,500 full-and part-time students.
A group of advanced journalism students spent the past three months looking at crime and security issues on campus and found:
* Alcohol fuels much of the crime at UConn, especially property damage in dorms, intimidation, simple assaults and disorderly conduct.
* Parking lots, especially the poorly lit and remote D-Lot, are easy targets for crime.
* More cases of sexual assault and hate crimes are being reported, but not necessarily to police.
It might seem surprising that many crime categories at UConn do not show an increase since 1996. In many categories, such as sexual assault and burglary, the number of crimes for 2000 were well below the average for the previous four years. However, there were increases in the most serious crimes in 2000 -- first-degree sexual assault, arson, armed robbery and aggravated assault.
Two UConn students are robbed of valuable jewelry at gunpoint outside their dormitory
A UConn student is charged with first-degree assault after allegedly stabbing a man during a fight.
A man with a knife forces a female student into his vehicle, drives off, then fondles her before releasing her unharmed.
These incident and others, all from the past 14 months, have raised the public profile of crime at UConn. In several cases, police issued crime alerts and the incidents were reported widely in the news media. They signal the changing nature and scale of crime at UConn.
UConn Police Chief Robert Hudd says he's seen the type and amount of crime grow in the 10 years that he's been chief.
"There was no police blotter in the paper 10 years ago because there was no need for one," Hudd said. "Any crime that happened was front page news."
Anyone can look at UConn's official crime statistics for the past three years on the police department's web site (http://www.police.uconn.edu/stoucr00.html). Called Uniform Crime Reports, they represent the official crime figures reported to the FBI each year and, under federal law, are made public by the university.
But the official figures only show the more serious types of crime and can overshadow the day-to-day crime that is more typical on this rural, sprawling campus with a population of 17,500 full-and part-time students.
A group of advanced journalism students spent the past three months looking at crime and security issues on campus and found:
* Alcohol fuels much of the crime at UConn, especially property damage in dorms, intimidation, simple assaults and disorderly conduct.
* Parking lots, especially the poorly lit and remote D-Lot, are easy targets for crime.
* More cases of sexual assault and hate crimes are being reported, but not necessarily to police.
It might seem surprising that many crime categories at UConn do not show an increase since 1996. In many categories, such as sexual assault and burglary, the number of crimes for 2000 were well below the average for the previous four years. However, there were increases in the most serious crimes in 2000 -- first-degree sexual assault, arson, armed robbery and aggravated assault.