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The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

The news site of Santa Barbara City College.

The Channels

Clery report adds stalking and domestic violence categories

Clery+report+adds+stalking+and+domestic+violence+categories
Courtesy Art

Campus Security published the Clery Crime Statistics in October, which features two new categories of stalking and domestic violence. The report includes listings of crime statistics from the previous three years.

“Besides from it being a federal mandated requirement, it’s the right thing to do,” Fricke said. “Crime statistics allows parents and students to decide which schools are safe.”

The statistics are mandatory for any college and university in the nation that receives federal funding under the Jeanne Clery Act. The two new categories included this year acknowledge the serious incidents within colleges on stalking and domestic violence.

The report shows that City College had one report of domestic violence on-campus in 2013. Numbers on stalking on the other hand, increased from six to 13 cases.

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Santa Barbara is considered a safe community, but the absence of dorm rooms is probably the biggest contributor to the minimal problems on campus according to Fricke.

“Institutions that offer on-campus housing always have much higher rate of sexual assault and stalking,” he said. “Generally all crimes are elevated to higher levels when you have on-campus dorms.”

Besides providing the community with information on what’s occurring on-campus, Fricke said that the statistics also makes the administration work on changes to make the school safer.

Petty theft is the most reported crime at City College, with numbers that indicate an increase from 41 crimes reported in 2011 to 48 in 2013.

Veronica Angeles, a student worker for the Security office, said she was shocked by the statistics about petty theft.

Grand theft is one of the most reported crimes on campus despite the radical decrease in 2013 with 12 reports, 50 percent less than the 32 crimes in 2011.

Two of the most frequent crimes reported on campus are harassment and threats. Even though they are included in security’s crime log, they are not required categories of the Clery act.

Harassment and threats are both broad terms to describe a wide range of incidents and Fricke suggests that this is the reason why they are included in the statistics.

The numbers of crimes that occur at City College are considered very low for the amount of students enrolled on campus. Major crimes like murder, forcible sex offenses and robbery are continuing to show few to zero reported incidents.

However, if a student is feeling worried or unsafe, Angeles advises students to use Campus Security’s escort service on campus.

“Students should try to walk with a group of people,” Angeles said. “Always be aware of their surroundings.”

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