UC Berkeley Tops in Violent Crimes Among 330 Campuses, FBI Reports

The University of California, Berkeley, ranked first in violent crimes reported last year among more than 330 campuses in an FBI survey, the federal agency reported Wednesday.

Another large school, Michigan State University, finished second in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, generally reflecting a trend that larger, urban campuses face more crime.

A number of large campuses situated in cities, however, did not report their crime statistics to the FBI and were not in the survey.

“There is no requirement . . . to report crime figures to the FBI,” spokesman Bill Carter said.

Carter also emphasized that crime comparisons among campuses are difficult to make because of many variables, such as the school’s location, size and the number of students living on campus.

Berkeley, with about 30,000 students, had 71 violent crimes while Michigan State, with a student population of about 38,000, reported 60 violent crimes.

A Berkeley official defended the school, saying that much of the reported crime occurred off campus.

Campus police spokesman Tom Debley said Berkeley, which ranked second in last year’s survey, had cut its violent crime rate by 17% during the first six months of this year.