The Ohio State Police Department responds to crimes on campus. The 2022 Clery Act showed rape and stalking among the top crimes reported on Ohio State’s Columbus Campus. Credit: Lantern File Photo
Rape, fondling, stalking and burglary were among the most reported crimes on Ohio State’s Columbus campus last year according to the 2022 annual safety report.
The Clery Act, initially passed in 1990, requires public colleges and universities to release annual security reports with campus crime statistics including criminal offenses, hate crimes, Violence Against Women Act offenses and arrests and referrals for disciplinary action. The report for 2022 included 357 crime reports across the Columbus campus, over a 7 percent decrease from 2021.
One of the most reported crimes, rape, had 86 reports in 2022, which is down from 94 in 2021, not including reports from the Richard Strauss case. Strauss was a varsity team sports doctor and physician at the Student Health Center from 1978-1998 who abused at least 177 students.
Reports of fondling, excluding data from the Strauss case, was one of the most reported crimes in 2022. There were 53 reports compared with 79 the previous year.
There were 62 burglary reports, up nearly 20 since 2021, while reports of stalking increased by two, with 70 reports in the last year.
Hate crimes on campus also decreased with five reported in 2022, down from seven and 11 in the two prior years. This year’s reports included fondling by gender identity, intimidation based on race and religion, and destruction based on sexual orientation, race and religion.
Robbery reports increased from eight the previous year to 11 in 2022. Aggravated assault reports rose as well, with 14 in 2022 and 11 the year prior.
Motor vehicle theft was also down in 2022 by three reports.
There were 57 arrests on campus for alcohol violations and 22 for drugs, both increased from the previous year. In addition, 638 and 139 disciplinary referrals were made for alcohol and drug law violations, respectively.
Arrests for both categories were up from the prior year while disciplinary referrals decreased.
There were 22 reports of dating violence and nine counts of domestic violence, both decreased from 2021.
Motor vehicle theft was the top crime off campus with 32 counts, followed by rape and fondling at 15 and 12, respectively.
The headline of this article was updated at 2:34 p.m. Friday to relay a more accurate depiction of the most common crimes reported on campus.
The lede and photo caption of this article were updated at 4:51 p.m. Friday to more accurately reflect the 2022 annual safety report and to recognize the police car in the photo as the Ohio State Police Department .
