An online visualization tool for exploring crime patterns around U.S. counties and postsecondary institutions

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Criminology
• Higher Education Administration

Background:

• Campus safety is a critical concern for students, parents, and institutions.
• Existing crime data is often siloed, making comprehensive safety analysis challenging.
• Understanding the relationship between campus crime and surrounding community crime is vital for effective safety strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a web-based tool that integrates campus- and county-level crime data.
• To facilitate safety exploration around U.S. postsecondary institutions.
• To support informed institutional comparison and risk communication.

Main Methods:

• Data integration from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Campus Safety and Security (CSS) survey, and Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data.
• Development of an open-access application for visualizing institution-specific offenses alongside county-level crime.
• Implementation of user-friendly features for filtering data by institutional characteristics and offense types, comparing state patterns, and downloading summaries.

Main Results:

• Significantly higher offense rates were found in counties with educational institutions for 29 out of 49 crime categories.
• Observed correlations between campus and county-level offenses, notably for murder, simple assault related to sexual orientation, and weapon-related crimes (Spearman's ρ = 0.41–0.64, p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• The developed platform enhances accessibility to integrated safety data.
• It supports more informed institutional comparisons, risk communication, and research endeavors.
• This tool empowers stakeholders to better understand and address safety concerns within and around educational institutions.