Violent Crime at UCI Slightly Higher in 1995

Violent crime at UC Irvine edged up slightly in 1995, even as the total number of incidents at University of California campuses fell to a 12-year low, mirroring a general decline in violence statewide, authorities said Tuesday.

There were 12 violent crimes--homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults--reported at UCI in 1995, up from 10 in 1994 on a campus where about 17,000 students attend school, according to an annual state report. Eleven of the incidents were aggravated assaults, an increase from six the previous year. The number of rapes fell from three to none during the same period, and there was just a single robbery in each of the past two years.

Despite the tiny increase, the number of reported violent crimes is “still really low,” said UCI Police Chief Kathy Stanley. State police officials said the relatively small number of reported crimes at UCI might be a result of the campus’ location in Irvine, which is also a low-crime area, and the relatively large number of commuters at the college. Total reported crime at UCI, which includes misdemeanors such as bicycle thefts and public drunkenness, increased by almost 200 incidents to 1,080 incidents during the same period, school statistics showed. Among the nine major universities in the report, overall crime declined by about 8%.

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Stanley said Tuesday that the small increase in violent crime does not mean the campus is “less safe,” and she noted that the crime rate is relatively low compared to other UC campuses. At UCLA, for example, there were 35 violent crimes reported in 1995, down from 56 in 1994.

“Overall, crime [at UCI] has stayed about the same,” she said. “There are not real peaks and valleys here. You’re talking about a difference of two or three incidents per year.”

“The real question should be: ‘Is the Irvine campus safe?’ ” Stanley said. “And ultimately, it is.”

School officials also pointed to a number of factors that may have contributed to the rise in aggravated assaults, including a student outreach effort that might have encouraged crime reporting and a small increase in student population. About 200 additional students attended UCI in 1995.

“There are so many variables with statistics. I could sit here and say, ‘Yes, this and this contributed to the numbers.’ But it could be true or not true--who’s to say?” Stanley said. “It’s hard to take numbers on a piece of paper and translate them into real life.”

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Sunny Lee, 22, a UCI student who earned her degree in criminology this year and now works on campus, said that she has never felt endangered during her four years on the campus.

“The majority of the time, I feel pretty safe,” Lee said Tuesday. “I know there are times when I walked home after studying at the library at night and felt perfectly safe.”

Lee attributed the campus’ peacefulness to its location in Irvine, which regularly makes a list of U.S. cities with the lowest crime rates.

However, vandalism at UCI increased from 56 incidents in 1994 to 88 in 1995. Narcotics-related arrests also rose, from 11 to 20, in the same period.

Statewide, violent crime dropped by 29% from 1994 to 1995 at nine UC campuses, according to an annual report by the UC Police Department. Property crime, including petty thefts, decreased by 6% during the same period.

Of the 3,035 arrests made in connection with campus crimes, only 12% involved individuals affiliated with a UC campus.

UC Santa Barbara Police Chief John L. MacPherson, coordinator of police services for the UC system, said that the decrease in violent crime is a result of community outreach efforts by all campuses.

“Through our interaction and partnership with the campus communities, we’ve been able to maintain an environment in which the university can carry out its academic mission,” he said.

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The dip in UC crime reflects a general decrease in crime in Orange County and statewide. Violent crimes in the county declined by about 6% from 1994 to 1995, according to the FBI. There was a 4% decline in crime statewide during the same period. On UC campuses, not all types of crime took a dive. In 1994, there were nine rapes reported, compared to 13 in 1995, with seven cases at UCLA alone. The number of bicycle thefts also increased by 2%.

At UCLA, an outreach program to persuade more students to report rapes may have contributed to the statistical increase in that crime from one incident in 1994 to seven in 1995, said Capt. Alan Cueba, supervisor of the UCLA Police Department’s patrol division. In the past year, UCLA police officers have been aggressively working with hospitals and college groups to convince college rape victims, who often fear reporting date rapes, to contact authorities, even if they are assaulted off campus.

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Campus Crime

UC Irvine experienced a slight increase in violent crimes from 1994 to 1995, while the nine-campus UC system recorded a 29% decrease:

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UCI UC system 1994 1995 1994 1995 Homicide 0 0 1 0 Rape/attempt 3 0 11 16 Robbery 1 1 62 45 Aggravated assault 6 11 100 62 Total 10 12 174 123

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Sources: UCI and UC police departments