by our College Data Analytics TeamIs Harvard safe? Below we'll take a look at crime statistics for the college campus and surrounding areas.
Our crime and safety report on Harvard includes:
Our crime statistics come from the U.S. Department of Education's Campus Safety and Security data. The four types of crimes we will be analyzing are violence against women, arrests for major crimes, arrests for possession, and disciplinary actions.
Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, and arson are the types of things included in the arrests for major crimes category. The violence against women grouping includes things such as domestic violence, date rape, and stalking. The arrests for possession classification deals with things such as weapons possession, alcohol violations, and drug violations. The disciplinary actions category involves possession of weapons, alcohol violations, and drug violations in the cases where no arrest occurred but some action was taken.
It is not uncommon for a school to report zero incidents for any or all of these categories. In fact, 56% of the schools we cover reported no arrests for major crimes, 67% reported no violence against women, 70% reported no arrests for possession, and 68% reported no disciplinary actions.
Although zero incidents of reported crime is nice, it doesn't necessarily mean that the school is safer. It could indicate lax reporting. Likewise, a high number of incidents may just mean that the school is stricter about law enforcement and reporting.
The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.
| Category | Number of Incidents | Max Number of Incidents (at any school) | Number of Incidents per 1,000 students | Max Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests for Major Crimes | 150 | 1,670 | 4.74 | 4,000.00 |
| Arrests for Possession | 11 | 880 | 0.35 | 1,352.94 |
| Violence Against Women | 30 | 334 | 0.95 | 1,000.00 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 22 | 2,670 | 0.69 | 4,574.85 |
The chart below shows what percentage of Harvard crime and safety incidents are in each category.
Disciplinary actions account for 10.3% of all crime and safety incidents at the school. Around 5.2% of the crime and safety-related incidents at Harvard University resulted in arrests for possession. About 70.4% of incidents were arrests for major crimes. Acts of violence against women accounted for 14.1% of incidents.
Comparison to Other Schools in the Nation
The charts below show how Harvard compares to other colleges and universities in the nation when it comes to each category of crime and safety-related incidents. Note that this does not take school size into account so larger schools are likely to have more incidents.
We can factor in the size of the school and look at the incidents per thousand students as well.
The chart below shows what percentage of Harvard crime and safety incidents happened in each location.
The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.
| Category | Number of Incidents | Max Number of Incidents (at any school) | Number of Incidents per 1,000 students | Max Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests for Major Crimes | 88 | 1,585 | 2.78 | 4,000.00 |
| Arrests for Possession | 1 | 813 | 0.03 | 888.89 |
| Violence Against Women | 17 | 331 | 0.54 | 1,000.00 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 20 | 2,645 | 0.63 | 4,544.91 |
The percentage breakdown of Harvard on-campus crime and safety incidents by category is shown in the following chart.
The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.
| Category | Number of Incidents | Max Number of Incidents (at any school) | Number of Incidents per 1,000 students | Max Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests for Major Crimes | 4 | 164 | 0.13 | 333.33 |
| Arrests for Possession | 0 | 64 | 0.00 | 111.11 |
| Violence Against Women | 1 | 100 | 0.03 | 194.44 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 0 | 144 | 0.00 | 305.56 |
The percentage breakdown of Harvard crime and safety incidents by category on affiliated off-campus is shown in the following chart.
The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.
| Category | Number of Incidents | Max Number of Incidents (at any school) | Number of Incidents per 1,000 students | Max Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests for Major Crimes | 28 | 167 | 0.88 | 101.80 |
| Arrests for Possession | 1 | 715 | 0.03 | 180.35 |
| Violence Against Women | 5 | 140 | 0.16 | 53.89 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 19 | 2,507 | 0.60 | 4,029.94 |
The percentage breakdown of Harvard crime and safety incidents by category in residence halls is shown in the following chart.
The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.
| Category | Number of Incidents | Max Number of Incidents (at any school) | Number of Incidents per 1,000 students | Max Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrests for Major Crimes | 58 | 67 | 1.83 | 666.67 |
| Arrests for Possession | 10 | 245 | 0.32 | 1,294.12 |
| Violence Against Women | 12 | 24 | 0.38 | 555.56 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 2 | 137 | 0.06 | 137.93 |
The percentage breakdown of Harvard student-related crime and safety incidents by category in the surrounding Cambridge neighborhood is shown in the following chart.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.