According to the Annual Clery Campus Crime Report, there were 171 alcohol related disciplinary actions, six alcohol related arrests, 34 drug related referrals and four forcible sex offenses on campus during the 2012 calendar year.
The majority of violations were for underage use or possession of alcohol.
The College ranked third highest amoung NESCAC schools in reported number of alcohol violations this past year. Wesleyan and Trinity reported 604 and 266 violations, respectively.
The 2011 Clery Report tallied 149 alcohol-related disciplinary actions, one alcohol-related arrest and seven forcible sexual offenses. This year, therefore, had a decrese in the number of sexual offenses, but a marked increase in the number of alcohol related disciplinary actions.
So far in 2013, there have been 106 reported liquor law violations, two of which involved arrests and 36 reported drug law violations. With three months left in the year, these statistics reflect slightly lower numbers of alcohol related incidents and higher drug violations than may eventually occur as the year ends.
Bowdoin had the second lowest number of reported forcible sexual assaults in NESCAC, an improvement from last year when it was tied for third highest. However, these numbers may not accurately reflect levels of sexual assault on campus, according to Head of Security Randy Nichols.
“We can only report what comes to our attention,” says Nichols, “and sexual assault is notoriously underreported.”
The Clery Report is a mandated release by all colleges that discloses all on-campus incidents of the crimes specified in the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1998.
“These are federal statistics,” says Nichols. “It is very specifically defined what crimes get reported.”
Bike theft and larceny, somewhat common crimes on campus, are not included in the Clery report.
Also not reported are incidents that violate Bowdoin College policy but not Maine law, such as possession of hard alcohol on campus by non-minors.
The report only covers incidents that occur on-campus or on public property adjacent to campus, and does not include events in off-campus housing or crimes such as drunk driving that take place off campus.
Nichols stresses the importance of reporting crimes to Security. Even in situations where solving a case is unlikely, as is the case with crimes such as burglaries, it is statistically beneficial for Security to be aware of these incidents.
He also points out that year-to-year variations in reported statistics can reflect enforcement initiatives as well as actual incident numbers.