University reports rise in liquor-law violations

By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
   Princeton University saw a six-fold increase in the number of liquor-law violations in 2007 compared to 2006, and other crime categories such as sex offenses, burglaries and drug abuse violations saw modest increases, according to the university’s 2008 Annual Security Report.
   University officials attributed the spike in alcohol crimes, from 20 in 2006 to 120 in 2007, to a stepped-up response to high-risk drinking on campus, rather than a change in the drinking habits of the student population.
   ”We are looking through different lenses to try and develop additional strategies to deal with the issue,” said Public Safety Director Steven J. Healy. “The purpose is to intervene in dangerous or potentially dangerous situations.”
   New initiatives to fight high-risk drinking began last year, amid a spike in alcohol-related incidents at the university and an alcohol-related death at Rider University in Lawrence Township.
   In practice, the policies meant an increased police presence on campus and additional police on foot patrols in residence halls. The Annual Security Report, released last week, demonstrated the new measures had a significant impact on the reporting of alcohol-related crimes at the university, officials said.
   An example of the high-risk drinking situations that have now garnered additional attention from campus police includes students playing drinking games, said Mr. Healy, who noted high-risk drinking have always been a concern of the university.
   ”We’re not knocking down doors trying to catch a kid with a Budweiser,” he said.
   Mr. Healy said the real indicator of any trend in alcohol-related reports will be next year’s security report, which will detail the first year in which the stepped-up response to high-risk drinking will have been consistent throughout the entire year.
   ”It will be interesting to see the statistics next year,” said Mr. Healy. “It will tell you if the one ingredient that you have changed has created the increase.”
   Regarding the other crimes, Mr. Healy said the increase in reports of sex crimes was significant — from five in 2005, to 12 in 2006, and finally 14 in 2007.
   It could actually be a positive sign, said Mr. Healy, considering that national studies on sex crimes show that such crimes frequently go unreported.
   ”This is an environment where victims are more willing to come forward,” said Mr. Healy. “If survivors feel comfortable reporting the crimes, than that’s a good sign.”
   University officials said that single-year spikes in reported crimes are less meaningful than the overall trends.
   Except for the aforementioned increase in alcohol-related crimes, other reported crime categories remained relatively stable from 2006 to 2007.
   The report, which is required to be released annually under the federal Campus Safety Act, recorded alcohol-related crime for the entire year, but the university’s increased focus on those incidents only began in September of 2007, according to university officials.
   Among other statistics, reported drug abuse violations increased from 22 to 32, and burglaries went up as well, from 37 in 2006 to 57 in 2007.