by our College Data Analytics TeamIs WCU 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 WCU:
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 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.
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.
| 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 | 75 | 1,670 | 6.16 | 4,000.00 |
| Arrests for Possession | 54 | 880 | 4.44 | 1,352.94 |
| Violence Against Women | 14 | 334 | 1.15 | 1,000.00 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 290 | 2,670 | 23.83 | 4,574.85 |
The chart below shows what percentage of WCU crime and safety incidents are in each category.
Disciplinary actions account for 67.0% of all crime and safety incidents at the school. Around 12.5% of the crime and safety-related incidents at Western Carolina University resulted in arrests for possession. About 17.3% of incidents were arrests for major crimes. Acts of violence against women accounted for 3.2% of incidents.
Comparison to Other Schools in the Nation
The charts below show how WCU 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 WCU crime and safety incidents happened in each location.
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.
| 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 | 74 | 1,585 | 6.08 | 4,000.00 |
| Arrests for Possession | 45 | 813 | 3.70 | 888.89 |
| Violence Against Women | 13 | 331 | 1.07 | 1,000.00 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 287 | 2,645 | 23.59 | 4,544.91 |
The percentage breakdown of WCU on-campus crime and safety incidents by category is shown in the following chart.
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.
| 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 | 69 | 167 | 5.67 | 101.80 |
| Arrests for Possession | 29 | 715 | 2.38 | 180.35 |
| Violence Against Women | 6 | 140 | 0.49 | 53.89 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 240 | 2,507 | 19.73 | 4,029.94 |
The chart below shows what percentage of WCU crime and safety incidents in residence halls are in each category.
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.
| 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 | 1 | 67 | 0.08 | 666.67 |
| Arrests for Possession | 9 | 245 | 0.74 | 1,294.12 |
| Violence Against Women | 1 | 24 | 0.08 | 555.56 |
| Disciplinary Actions | 3 | 137 | 0.25 | 137.93 |
The chart below shows what percentage of WCU student-related crime and safety incidents in the Cullowhee neighborhood surrounding the campus are in each category.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.