Despite an urban location, VCU had a lower crime rate per capita in 2008 than several other universities in the state, including Virginia Tech.
A common misconception is that VCU has a higher crime rate than most other Virginia schools because of its location in Richmond. The city has a high crime rate-slightly more than three times the national rate, according to CLRSearch.com. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Data Center reported that the total number of crimes in Richmond went down 11 percent from 2007 to 2008.
However, based on the information from UCrime.com, it is not the school’s location that determines the amount of crime but the campus itself.
UCrime.com states in 2008 VCU had a total of 80 reported crimes, including one shooting, 10 arrests and three robberies. With a student enrollment of nearly 32,000, only 0.25 percent of VCU’s student body was affected by campus crime. Virginia Tech reported 300 crimes last year, and has more than 25,200 students, adding up to 1.2 percent of Tech’s student body being affected by crime.
Several other state universities were listed on UCrime.com as having higher campus crime rates than VCU. George Mason reported 199 crimes, or 0.66 percent of the student body. James Madison University reported 202 crimes, 1.12 percent of the student body, and the University of Virginia, like Virginia Tech, had 300 crimes. Although shootings at all the previously mentioned schools remained at two or fewer, arrests averaged 79.2 and robberies averaged around 1.4. However, Virginia Tech had 122 arrests last year while VCU had only 10. UVA was a close second to Virginia Tech with 120 arrests.
Of all the schools listed here, VCU has by far the largest student population and the lowest per capita crime rate. Old Dominion University reported five fewer crimes than VCU in 2008, however, with a student body of more than 23,000, the per capita average for crime was 0.32 percent.