The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday released its annual ‘Crime on Campus’ publication, detailing the volume and nature of crime on Tennessee’s college and university campuses.
The report compiles data submitted to TBI through the state’s Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System. Among the report’s findings:
Crime reported by Tennessee’s colleges and universities increased by 3.6 percent from 2018 to 2019, but has decreased overall by 12.3 percent since 2016.
Offenses categorizes as ‘Larceny/Theft’ made up 26.7 percent of all reported offenses in 2019.
Assault offenses increased by 26.1 percent between 2018 and 2019.
The overall category of ‘Sex Offenses – Non-Consensual’ decreased by 20 percent in 2019.
“This report will hopefully assist law enforcement, institution administrators, and government officials in planning their efforts in the fight against crime and create an awareness that crime exists as a threat in our communities,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “I wish to express my appreciation to all institutions of higher learning that consistently support a unified crime reporting system in Tennessee.”
In accordance to federal guidelines, the TBI strongly discourages the use of its published crime data to compare one agency to another. It is far more appropriate, in the TBI’s assessment, to compare an agency’s statistics over time.
The full report is available for review on the TBI’s website.