We’ve talked here before about the trouble with campus crime statistics, and in our workshops for parents and high school students we explain why higher crime statistics at a school can actually be a good sign of a proactive campus. Now there’s a great article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that delves further into this. Jennifer Beeman, the director of the Campus Violence Prevention Program at UC Davis sums it up very well:

“The students know where to go, and the people they go to know where to send them,” says Jennifer Beeman, director of the program, which operates out of the campus police department. “If we’re doing our job, the numbers are going to be higher.”

This is why a good policy that has clear, simple reporting procedures is so important. If you make reporting difficult, painful, threaten punishment for violating a school rule while being assaulted, etc., of course you’ll see lower crime numbers. But your campus won’t be any safer.