The number of reported sexual assault incidents on the UCLA campus, particularly forcible rapes, increased significantly from 2012 to 2013, according to an annual crime statistics report released Friday by university police.
The 2013 UCLA Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics and Annual Fire Safety Report listed 13 reported forcible rapes on campus that year, up from four reports the year before. The total number of sexual offenses on campus reported to police increased from 15 to 33.
UCPD spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein said higher sexual assault figures do not necessarily indicate an increase in crime, but rather an increase in the number of survivors who report their assaults to police.
“It’s supposed to go up until we know that people are reporting, and then we should see numbers going down,” Greenstein said.
The report also showed that the frequency of some other crimes, including burglaries and robberies, decreased by a small margin. The number of burglaries in 2013 decreased by one to 75, and the number of robberies decreased by three to two. The number of liquor law violations, such as underage drinking, referred for disciplinary action but not arrests decreased from 585 to 407.
Compiled by Sam Hoff, Bruin senior staff.
Let me get this straight… the numbers go up, but that doesn’t mean crime is increasing, but if the numbers go down, it means crime is decreasing? How convenient.
I think what that formula means is that crimes were occurring in the past, but the statistics didn’t reflect this because victims of sex offenses did not make a report—for possible reasons such as shame, guilt, fear, etc. So the numbers will go up as more victims are becoming encouraged to do so through campaigns that support them such as the “7,000 in Solidarity” campaign. The point is that after a while the numbers will begin to stabilize and then “hopefully” decline as more preventative measures and campaigns address these problems. By the way, aggravated assaults and motor vehicle thefts rose by roughly 28% and 41%, respectively.