Crime Reporting

In order to create an industry standard and requirement for communicating campus safety and campus crime, Congress enacted The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act in 1990. Every institution must collect, classify and count crime statistics based on the federal regulatory requirements. The categories of crime and statistics reported below are those required by federal law and are recorded in the calendar year in which the incident was reported. These crime statistics are collected from the Dean of Students, Director of Housing Operations, Director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department and Goshen Police Department by the director Campus Safety. These statistics reflect all reported allegations of criminal activity, regardless of the outcome of any criminal proceeding.¹ Goshen College provides information relating to crime statistics and security measures to current students and employees, and to any prospective student or employee upon request.² In addition to a Crime Report released annually, Goshen College maintains a Daily Crime Log. The purpose of the Daily Crime Log is to record criminal incidents and alleged criminal incidents that are reported to the campus police or Campus Safety department.

The Crime Log and Crime report are organized by location: on-campus, on-campus student housing and public property.

• On-campus includes any building or property owned or controlled by Goshen College within the same reasonably contiguous geographic area and used by the institution in direct support of Goshen College’s educational purposes.
• As a subset, on-campus student housing includes any student housing facility that is owned or controlled by Goshen College, (e.g. Howell House on 8th Street).
• Public property includes thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities, that is within the campus, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from the campus. For example, if a restaurant were located across the street from the college, it would not be included in the on-campus geography even if many students eat there daily, because the college did not own or control it.

All crimes should be reported to the Director of Student Life Operations & Campus Safety regardless of the location in which (or where) it occurs. Students will be directed to options for reporting crimes (e.g. Goshen Police Department). If helpful, students will also be directed to on- and off-campus support services in response to experiencing a crime. Crime statistics are one part of the safety plan and resources. Keeping informed about crime and safety continues to be an important aspect of community life on campus. Please read the Annual Safety Report (linked below) for additional information about emergency notification as well as crime and fire prevention.

¹ As cautioned by the U.S. Department of Education, these crime statistics “…represent alleged criminal offenses reported to Campus Safety authorities and/or local law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the data collected do not necessarily reflect prosecutions or convictions for crimes. Because some statistics are provided by non-police authorities, the data are not directly comparable to data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting System, which only collects statistics from police authorities.”

² The Daily Crime and Fire Log for the previous 60 days is available to the public for review in the Director of Studen Life Operations & Campus Safety Office, Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. – 5 p.m (RFC 101D). Older files can be made available within 48 hours).