Pacific University’s annual Clery Act Crime Statistics have been released for the 2017 calendar year. These reports are in compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, better known as the Clery Act, originally enacted in 1990.
The annual report includes statistics like preliminary criminal offenses, hate crimes, violence against women’s offenses and arrests and referrals for disciplinary actions. While dense and somewhat difficult to read, it includes important figures that students, staff and faculty should be aware of.
In the last three years Pacific has reported significantly less drug and alcohol law referrals. With only 63 liquor law referrals and 45 drug law referrals filed in 2017, these numbers present less than half of what was reported back in 2015, these being 133 and 114 referrals respectively.
According to Jerry Rice, campus public safety manager, these numbers are reflective of a few outside trends he has noticed in the last couple of years.
“I think it’s a combination of a few factors,” Rice said. “Off campus housing opportunities for students and creative ways of consuming drugs have both become more popular lately.”
Rice is referencing all of the new apartments being built in Forest Grove, citing them as opportunities for older students to simply live off campus, thus separating themselves from Campus Public Safety’s (CPS) normal campus wide circle. Drug related items such as vape pens, Juuls and edibles, which have become more popular forms of consumption, also make it more difficult for CPS to detect violations.
Pacific’s 2017 calendar year also saw less sexual related charges reported. For example, actions such as stalking, fondling, domestic violence and rape were all down in reports from the year immediately prior. There was a small spike in the number of dating violence cases, going up to five from last year’s zero. However, with numbers unable to reach even double digits up for statistical analysis it is difficult to indicate any legitimate and striking trend.
No matter the numbers displayed on a report, CPS encourages students to familiarize themselves with their resources on and off campus as well as understand their own role in helping everyone feel safe and protected at Pacific. Students can view the Clery Act Crime Statistics and find resources by visiting the Campus Public Safety page on Pacific’s website.
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