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2019 University of California - Santa Cruz Crime & Safety Report

Is University of California - Santa Cruz safe? Below we'll take a look at crime statistics for the college campus and surrounding areas.

What you'll find in our crime and safety report on UC Santa Cruz:

Understanding the Crime Stats for UC Santa Cruz

Crime & Safety Definitions

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.

Number of Incidents

It is not unusual for institutions to report that no incidents occurred in some 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.

Zero incidents of reported crime may be nice to see, but it does not necessarily mean the school is safer, as it could indicate lax reporting. Likewise, a high number of incidents may just mean that the school is stricter about law enforcement and reporting.

UC Santa Cruz Overall Crime Stats

1,764 Total Number of Incidents
90.49 Incidents per 1000 Students
University of California - Santa Cruz reported 1,764 safety-related incidents involving students on or near campus or at other properties affiliated with the school in 2019. Since the number of students at the school that year was 19,494, that's 90.49 incidents per 1,000 students.

In order to make this data a little clearer, the table below shows the number of incidents by category and the maximum number of incidents reported by a school in that category.

CategoryNumber of IncidentsMax Number of Incidents (at any school)Number of Incidents per 1,000 studentsMax Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school)
Arrests for Major Crimes591,6703.034,000.00
Arrests for Possession278801.391,352.94
Violence Against Women433342.211,000.00
Disciplinary Actions1,6352,67083.874,574.85

UC Santa Cruz Overall Crime by Category

The percentage breakdown of UC Santa Cruz crime and safety incidents by category is shown in the following chart.

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Disciplinary actions account for 92.7% of all crime and safety incidents at the school. Around 1.5% of the crime and safety-related incidents at University of California - Santa Cruz resulted in arrests for possession. About 3.3% of incidents were arrests for major crimes. Acts of violence against women accounted for 2.4% of incidents.

Comparison to Other Schools in the Nation

The charts below show how UC Santa Cruz 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.

Arrests for Possession  (Incidents)
fewer
more
Arrests for Major Crimes  (Incidents)
fewer
more
Violence Against Women  (Incidents)
fewer
more
Disciplinary Actions  (Incidents)
fewer
more

We can factor in the size of the school and look at the incidents per thousand students as well.

Arrests for Possession  (Incidents per 1000 Students)
fewer
more
Arrests for Major Crimes  (Incidents per 1000 Students)
fewer
more
Violence Against Women  (Incidents per 1000 Students)
fewer
more
Disciplinary Actions  (Incidents per 1000 Students)
fewer
more

UC Santa Cruz Overall Crime by Location

The percentage breakdown of UC Santa Cruz crime and safety incidents by location is shown in the following chart.

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UC Santa Cruz On-Campus Crime Stats

1,753 Total Number of Incidents
89.93 Incidents per 1000 Students
University of California - Santa Cruz reported 1,753 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on campus. Based on a student body population of 19,494, that's 89.93 incidents per 1,000 students.

In order to make this data a little clearer, the table below shows the number of incidents by category and the maximum number of incidents reported by a school in that category.

CategoryNumber of IncidentsMax Number of Incidents (at any school)Number of Incidents per 1,000 studentsMax Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school)
Arrests for Major Crimes581,5852.984,000.00
Arrests for Possession218131.08888.89
Violence Against Women423312.151,000.00
Disciplinary Actions1,6322,64583.724,544.91

UC Santa Cruz On-Campus Crime by Category

The percentage breakdown of UC Santa Cruz on-campus crime and safety incidents by category is shown in the following chart.

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UC Santa Cruz Affiliated Off-Campus Crime Stats

10 Total Number of Incidents
0.51 Incidents per 1000 Students
University of California - Santa Cruz reported 10 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on affiliated off-campus properties. Since the number of students at the school that year was 19,494, that's 0.51 incidents per 1,000 students.

In order to make this data a little clearer, the table below shows the number of incidents by category and the maximum number of incidents reported by a school in that category.

CategoryNumber of IncidentsMax Number of Incidents (at any school)Number of Incidents per 1,000 studentsMax Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school)
Arrests for Major Crimes11640.05333.33
Arrests for Possession5640.26111.11
Violence Against Women11000.05194.44
Disciplinary Actions31440.15305.56

UC Santa Cruz Affiliated Off-Campus Crime by Category

The percentage breakdown of UC Santa Cruz crime and safety incidents by category on affiliated off-campus is shown in the following chart.

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UC Santa Cruz Residence Hall Crime Stats

1,579 Total Number of Incidents
81.00 Incidents per 1000 Students
In 2019, University of California - Santa Cruz reported 1,579 incidents related to crime and safety that involved students in residence halls. Note that these numbers are also included in the on-campus crimes category. That works out to 81.00 incidents per 1,000 students, considering that the student body population is 19,494.

In order to make this data a little clearer, the table below shows the number of incidents by category and the maximum number of incidents reported by a school in that category.

CategoryNumber of IncidentsMax Number of Incidents (at any school)Number of Incidents per 1,000 studentsMax Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school)
Arrests for Major Crimes371671.90101.80
Arrests for Possession17150.05180.35
Violence Against Women251401.2853.89
Disciplinary Actions1,5162,50777.774,029.94

UC Santa Cruz Residence Hall Crime by Category

The chart below shows what percentage of UC Santa Cruz crime and safety incidents in residence halls are in each category.

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1 Total Number of Incidents
0.05 Incidents per 1000 Students
University of California - Santa Cruz reported 1 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on Santa Cruz public property in areas surrounding the campus. Since the number of students at the school that year was 19,494, that's 0.05 incidents per 1,000 students.

In order to make this data a little clearer, the table below shows the number of incidents by category and the maximum number of incidents reported by a school in that category.

CategoryNumber of IncidentsMax Number of Incidents (at any school)Number of Incidents per 1,000 studentsMax Number of Incidents per 1000 students (at any school)
Arrests for Major Crimes0670.00666.67
Arrests for Possession12450.051,294.12
Violence Against Women0240.00555.56
Disciplinary Actions01370.00137.93

The chart below shows what percentage of UC Santa Cruz student-related crime and safety incidents in the Santa Cruz neighborhood surrounding the campus are in each category.

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References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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