top of page
The Claremont Independent

5C Crime Reports Show Fewer Sex Offenses, More Drug/Alcohol Abuse

The Claremont Colleges (5C’s)—which include Pomona College, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Scripps College, and Pitzer College—released their annual security reports Tuesday morning under compliance with the Clery Act. The reports compile reported crimes occurring on campus and on certain off-campus properties in the past three calendar years (2015, 2016, and 2017).

According to the data released, there appears to be an overall decreasing time trend with reported sex offenses—including rapes and fondling—robbery, assault, burglary, and vehicle theft. However, judicial referrals for liquor law violations and drug abuse violations have increased.

Claremont Colleges Sex Offense Data


Sex offense dropped over the three years for only Pomona College, CMC, and Pitzer. At Pomona, while there were 12 reported rapes in 2015, and 13 in 2016, the number drastically dropped to seven by 2017. There is also a decreasing time trend regarding incidents of fondling; while there were six cases in 2015, 13 in 2016, there were two cases in 2017. Data shows that for these three years, sex offenses peaked in 2016.

At CMC, while there were 22 reported rapes in 2015, and 17 in 2016, the number drastically dropped to eight by 2017. With incidents of fondling, while there were nine cases in 2015 and 2016, there were four cases in 2017.

At Pitzer, there were 18 reported rapes in 2015, 12 in 2016, and 14 in 2017. There were six fondling incidents in 2015, nine in 2016, and five in 2017.

Meanwhile, at Scripps and Harvey Mudd, sex offenses actually increased in number. At Scripps—a women’s college—rapes rose from seven in 2015, to eight in 2016, and 14 in 2017. Fondling incidents also increased from zero in 2015 to three in 2016 and eight in 2017.

At Harvey Mudd, rapes increased from nine in 2015 to 10 in 2016 to 12 in 2017. Fondling incidents peaked with 16 in 2016, but decreased to three by 2017.

In all the Claremont Colleges combined, rapes decreased from 68 in 2015 to 60 in 2016 to 55 in 2017; however, sex offenses peaked in 110 before decreasing to 77 in 2017.

The Claremont Colleges comply with a plethora of state and federal legislation regarding sexual offenses, including Title IX, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. Pomona also partners with Callisto, a third-party confidential reporting act, to allow students to complete a sexual misconduct report, with the option to submit it directly to the college’s Title IX Coordinator. Calls to Campus Safety police to report sex offenses can also be anonymous. According to a student attending Scripps who asked to remain unnamed, more importantly, “we shouldn’t promote a culture where men feel entitled to women’s bodies.”

For alcohol and drug offenses, across the Claremont Colleges, arrests and judicial referrals rose from 531 in 2015 to 573 in 2016 and finally 580 in 2017. Again, trends differed greatly across the colleges.

Claremont Colleges Drug and Alcohol Incidents Data


Pomona had 220, 210, and 261 alcohol incidents respectively in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Drug offenses decreased from 82 to 73 from 2015 to 2016, but rose to 90 by 2017.

At Harvey Mudd, alcohol incidents hit a low in 2016 at 10, but then increased to 20 by 2017. Drug incidents show a steady rise from 10 in 2015 to 28 by 2017.

At CMC, alcohol incidents increased from one in 2015 to eight in 2016 to 11 in 2017, with drug offenses also rising from seven in 2015 to 34 in 2017.

Data from Scripps shows a steady decrease in alcohol incidents from 102 in 2015 to 72 in 2016 and finally 34 in 2017. Drug incidents, however increased from four in 2015 to 14 in 2016 before decreasing to nine in 2017.

Alcohol incidents at Pitzer peaked at 98 in 2016 before decreasing to 43 in 2017. Drug incidents, however, steadily rose from 27 in 2015 to 46 in 2016 to finally 50 in 2017.

It is important to note that without data from more years, time trends could not be properly established, the data only indicates increases or decrease in sex offense and drug and alcohol incidents for the three years shown in the report.

The Claremont Colleges—while utilizing the same Campus Safety police system—have different policies on sex offenses, drugs, and alcohol, as outlined in each of their respective crime reports.  

Comentarios


bottom of page