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2019 Northwestern University Crime & Safety Report

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

Our crime and safety report on Northwestern includes:

Understanding the Crime Stats for Northwestern

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 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.

Northwestern Overall Crime Stats

363 Total Number of Incidents
16.17 Incidents per 1000 Students
Northwestern University reported 363 safety-related incidents involving students on or near campus or at other properties affiliated with the school in 2019. That works out to 16.17 incidents per 1,000 students, considering that the student body population is 22,448.

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.

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 Crimes921,6704.104,000.00
Arrests for Possession38800.131,352.94
Violence Against Women373341.651,000.00
Disciplinary Actions2312,67010.294,574.85

Northwestern Overall Crime by Category

The chart below shows what percentage of Northwestern crime and safety incidents are in each category.

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Disciplinary actions account for 63.6% of all crime and safety incidents at the school. Around 0.8% of the crime and safety-related incidents at Northwestern University resulted in arrests for possession. About 25.3% of incidents were arrests for major crimes. Acts of violence against women accounted for 10.2% of incidents.

Comparison to Other Schools in the Nation

The charts below show how Northwestern 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

Northwestern Overall Crime by Location

The percentage breakdown of Northwestern crime and safety incidents by location is shown in the following chart.

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Northwestern On-Campus Crime Stats

291 Total Number of Incidents
12.96 Incidents per 1000 Students
In 2019, Northwestern University reported 291 incidents related to crime and safety that involved students on campus. Based on a student body population of 22,448, that's 12.96 incidents per 1,000 students.

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.

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 Crimes381,5851.694,000.00
Arrests for Possession08130.00888.89
Violence Against Women263311.161,000.00
Disciplinary Actions2272,64510.114,544.91

Northwestern On-Campus Crime by Category

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

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Northwestern Residence Hall Crime Stats

238 Total Number of Incidents
10.60 Incidents per 1000 Students
Northwestern University reported 238 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. Based on a student body population of 22,448, that's 10.60 incidents per 1,000 students.

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.

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 Crimes121670.53101.80
Arrests for Possession07150.00180.35
Violence Against Women81400.3653.89
Disciplinary Actions2182,5079.714,029.94

Northwestern Residence Hall Crime by Category

The percentage breakdown of Northwestern crime and safety incidents by category in residence halls is shown in the following chart.

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72 Total Number of Incidents
3.21 Incidents per 1000 Students
Northwestern University reported 72 incidents related to crime and safety in 2019. These student-involved incidents took place on Evanston public property in areas surrounding the campus. Since the number of students at the school that year was 22,448, that's 3.21 incidents per 1,000 students.

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.

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 Crimes54672.41666.67
Arrests for Possession32450.131,294.12
Violence Against Women11240.49555.56
Disciplinary Actions41370.18137.93

The percentage breakdown of Northwestern student-related crime and safety incidents by category in the surrounding Evanston neighborhood is shown in the following chart.

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References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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