Tennessee Crime On Campus Report: Assault Reports Increase, Rape Reports Down

NASHVILLE, TN — Crime on the state's college campuses increased by 0.8 percent last year with marked increases in assaults and fraud and a sharp drop in reported rapes, according to the annual Crime On Campus report from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The TBI said more than a quarter of all offenses — 27 percent — were larceny or theft. Historically, that category is the most frequently reported of on-campus crime.

Fraud offenses increased by 8 percent in 2016, with what the TBI said was "a substantial increase" in impersonation offenses, which includes identity theft. There were 36 reports of impersonation in 2016, up from 13 the year before.

Assaults were up 21 percent year over year, but reported rapes dropped from 62 to 45 in 2016.

Despite an increase in kidnapping reports — 11 in 2016 against just two in 2015 — and a 31 percent increase in aggravated assaults, the overall violent crime rate on Tennessee campuses fell 3 percent in 2016. (For more local updates, click here to sign up for the Nashville Patch's daily newsletter and free, real-time news alerts, or find your local Middle Tennessee Patch here.)

By far, Vanderbilt had the highest number of reported campus crimes, but it should be noted that the "campus population" there is significantly larger than at colleges with larger student populations, due to a large staff, as the hospitals qualify as "on-campus." At Vanderbilt, reported rapes were down year to year — four in 2016 against 10 in 2015 — but assaults jumped 13 percent. Drug offenses jumped nearly 27 percent year over year. Larceny and theft made up the largest sector of reported crimes with 405 reports, up from 385 in 2015.

At Tennessee State, there were 48 assault reports in 2016, down from 67 the year before. There were 40 reports each of larceny or theft and drug violations up from 34 and 28, respectively.

At Middle Tennessee State, theft were down to 120 against 147 in 2015, but remained as the most frequent reported crime.

See the full Crime on Campus report for 2016 and find previous years' reports.

Image via TBI