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Education news and issues in the Ozarks.

New Report Looks at Crime on MSU Campus

MSU

A report just released by Missouri State University’s Department of Safety and Transportation looks at crime on and around campus.  The report, for 2014, compares crime in 2012 and 2013 with that year’s offenses.

Sexual assault is also looked at in the new report, a crime that has gotten a lot of attention on college campuses across the United States. Now required to be accounted in separate descriptive categories, ‘sexual offenses,’ dropped from six attacks in 2013 to five in 2014.

Tom Johnson, director of the Department of Safety and Transportation, said that SHARP classes, offered on campus, help students to avoid being sexually assaulted.

“It focuses on things you can do to escape a situation, but it also give you more tools to just be aware of what’s going on around you,” he said.

Other crimes also fell in 2014, including drug law violations. During the 2013 semesters, there were 68 violations for use, distribution or possession of illegal narcotics.  The number of drug law violations dropped by more than half in 2014 to 32 offenses.

“Typically in my career, I’ve noticed that it kind of goes in cycles, but I’d like to say it’s more of an awareness of the people that the usage is detrimental to your school career and things like that. I would hope that that’s a part of it; that people are becoming educated as to what damage it can do to your career,” Johnson said.

Burglaries rose at MSU in 2014 from six in 2013 to 11 the next year. Liquor law arrests reached 30 crimes in 2014 from 11 in 2012.

There were no hate crimes, no murders and no weapons law arrests in the three years the report looked at.

View the report here.