College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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2019 Boston College Crime & Safety Report

Is Boston College safe? Below we'll take a look at crime statistics for the college campus and surrounding areas.

Info in this crime and safety report on Boston College:

Understanding the Crime Stats for Boston College

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 uncommon for a school to report zero incidents for any or all 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.

Although zero incidents of reported crime is nice, it doesn't necessarily mean that the school is safer. It could indicate lax reporting. Likewise, a high number of incidents may just mean that the school is stricter about law enforcement and reporting.

Boston College Overall Crime Stats

1,051 Total Number of Incidents
71.27 Incidents per 1000 Students
Boston College reported 1,051 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 14,747, that's 71.27 incidents per 1,000 students.

The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.

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 Crimes371,6702.514,000.00
Arrests for Possession18800.071,352.94
Violence Against Women263341.761,000.00
Disciplinary Actions9872,67066.934,574.85

Boston College Overall Crime by Category

The percentage breakdown of Boston College crime and safety incidents by category is shown in the following chart.

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Disciplinary actions account for 93.9% of all crime and safety incidents at the school. Around 0.1% of the crime and safety-related incidents at Boston College resulted in arrests for possession. About 3.5% of incidents were arrests for major crimes. Acts of violence against women accounted for 2.5% of incidents.

Comparison to Other Schools in the Nation

The charts below show how Boston College 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

Boston College Overall Crime by Location

The chart below shows what percentage of Boston College crime and safety incidents happened in each location.

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Boston College On-Campus Crime Stats

1,050 Total Number of Incidents
71.20 Incidents per 1000 Students
Boston College reported 1,050 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on campus. Based on a student body population of 14,747, that's 71.20 incidents per 1,000 students.

The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.

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 Crimes361,5852.444,000.00
Arrests for Possession18130.07888.89
Violence Against Women263311.761,000.00
Disciplinary Actions9872,64566.934,544.91

Boston College On-Campus Crime by Category

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

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Boston College Residence Hall Crime Stats

985 Total Number of Incidents
66.79 Incidents per 1000 Students
Boston College reported 985 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019 that took place in residence halls. Note that these numbers are also included in the on-campus crimes category. That works out to 66.79 incidents per 1,000 students, considering that the student body population is 14,747.

The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.

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 Crimes311672.10101.80
Arrests for Possession17150.07180.35
Violence Against Women201401.3653.89
Disciplinary Actions9332,50763.274,029.94

Boston College Residence Hall Crime by Category

The chart below shows what percentage of Boston College crime and safety incidents in residence halls are in each category.

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1 Total Number of Incidents
0.07 Incidents per 1000 Students
Boston College reported 1 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on Chestnut Hill public property in areas surrounding the campus. Since the number of students at the school that year was 14,747, that's 0.07 incidents per 1,000 students.

The table below gives the number of incidents by category, and for comparision, also states the max number of incidents reported by any school in our analysis.

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 Crimes1670.07666.67
Arrests for Possession02450.001,294.12
Violence Against Women0240.00555.56
Disciplinary Actions01370.00137.93

The percentage breakdown of Boston College student-related crime and safety incidents by category in the surrounding Chestnut Hill neighborhood is shown in the following chart.

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References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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