SIVACRACY.NET

There is always widespread shock and panic whenever someone opens fire in a school or university classroom. It's horrible when it happens. And it shakes each and every one of us who consider such places special, even sacred, spaces for teachers and students.

However, I have been cautioning for a long time about overreactions to the recent shootings. Let's be clear: There are many thousands of Americans who live daily with threats of gun violence in their daily lives. College and university students and faculty simply do not face that threat as anything more than a rare statistical anomaly.

The fact is schools, colleges, and universities are safer than they have ever been and much safer than the country at large. Here is more evidence from Chronicle.com:

Colleges Have Better-Prepared Police and Less Crime Than They Used To, Report Says

By SARA LIPKA

Not only are college campuses safer than they used to be but they also have less crime than the country at large does, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The report, "Campus Law Enforcement 2004-5," updates one that the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics published more than a decade ago, using data from the 1994-95 academic year.

Over the 10-year span, the new report says, violent crimes on college campuses decreased by 9 percent, to 62 per 100,000 students in 2004. Private campuses reported twice as many violent crimes per student as public institutions did. But nationally, the rate was far higher: 466 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.

Property crimes on college campuses also declined—by 30 percent, to 1,625 per 100,000 students in 2004—according to the report. Private colleges also reported a higher rate of property crimes than their public counterparts did, but the levels at both fell short of the national rate, 3,517 per 100,000 residents, the report says.

Its campus crime statistics come from the Education Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the Justice Department's own survey data. That department polled 750 four-year institutions with enrollments of at least 2,500 students and 163 two-year institutions with enrollments of more than 10,000, yielding data from more than 80 percent of each group.

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