Drug, alcohol violations top list of campus crime

By John Ferro

"The most frequently reported statistics in a federal college crime database are not burglaries, sexual offenses or other crimes. Rather, they are infractions - liquor and drug law violations - that often lead to those crimes."

"Liquor and drug law violations rarely result in arrests or convictions. Typically, they are referred to college and university disciplinary systems. But their frequency makes them a high-priority target of education, prevention and enforcement."

"That is one reason Vassar College has had one of the highest rates of drug and liquor law referrals in the country. According to a Poughkeepsie Journal analysis of federal campus crime data, Vassar averaged 49.9 drug referrals per 1,000 students in 2006. That ranked the Poughkeepsie liberal arts college 12th out of more than 2,700 post-secondary institutions with at least 1,000 students. ..."

Full text available at http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090906/NEWS02/909060358