MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- WMOT News continues to look at the results of the 2011 “Crime on Campus” report released this week.
Compiled by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the report shows a more than 4 percent increase in crime on the state’s college campuses last year. One of the more dramatic findings was the sharp increase in the number of sex oriented crimes.
Sexual offenses reported on campuses in Tennessee jumped by 47 percent. Thirteen such incidents were recorded by Vanderbilt University, the largest number in the state, including three rapes and 3 cases of forced sodomy.
Surprisingly, some of Tennessee’s smallest institutions of higher learning had the highest ratios of sexual assault when adjusted for the number of students. For instance, tiny 1800 student Rhodes College in Memphis recorded three rapes in 2011, meaning a student there was 14 times more likely to be assaulted sexually than a student at he states’ largest university, University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
In addition to Vanderbilt, Middle Tennessee State and the University of the South in Sewanee also recorded cases of rape in 2011.