The 2004 UCSB Clery Report, released Tuesday, shows a major decrease in larceny-theft and drug law referrals from last year, but an even greater increase in forcible sex offenses and liquor law referrals.

The Clery Report lists all reported campus community crime statistics in a year as per the federal Clery Act, which applies to all colleges and universities receiving federal funds.

In this year’s report, the number of on-campus larceny-thefts dropped from 359 in 2003 to 226 last year. Meanwhile, UC San Diego had 532 reported larceny-thefts, one of the highest statistics in that category of any of the UCs. UCPD Public Information Officer Mark Signa said most larceny-thefts at UCSB are bicycle-related.

“A lot of the time it is the petty thefts that drop,” Signa said.

Between 2003 and 2004, UCSB experienced an increase in total forcible sexual offenses from nine to 13 reports. Incidents such as rape and sexual battery fall under this classification. In comparison, UC Davis had 17 reports. Eight forcible sexual offenses were reported at UCLA, while UC San Diego had one incident reported.

Liquor law referrals on campus nearly doubled in 2004, increasing from 616 in 2003 to 1,102 last year. Signa said a liquor law referral can be an incident of underage drinking not dealt with by the police but handled by the university.

The UCSB campus has one of the highest rates of on-campus liquor law referrals in the UC system. UCLA had 605 incidents reported while UC Davis had 282 liquor law referrals. UC Irvine had 189 and UC Berkeley had 152 reported referrals.

Aggravated assault rose from one reported incident in 2003 to four incidents in 2004. Despite the increase, UCSB still had one of the lowest amounts of aggravated assaults UC-wide. UC Irvine had five instances of reported aggravated assaults and UC Davis had 11 incidents.

Arrests related to drug offenses at UCSB rose from 43 reported incidents in 2003 to 59 in 2004. However, UC Davis had three and UC Berkeley had 168 incidents. UC Santa Cruz had nine arrests.

Despite the increase in arrests, drug law referrals at UCSB dropped from 102 reports in 2003 to 79 in 2004, making it among one of the highest amounts reported UC-wide. UC Irvine had seven incidents reported while UCLA had 64.

Weapon law referrals also dropped at UCSB from eight reports in 2003 to two reports in 2004.

Signa said the reason crime numbers at UCSB fluctuate is due to unpredictable circumstances.

“You never know when someone’s going to show up on your campus and cause a huge jump in crimes and the next year it’s over,” Signa said. “Some years we have more people report crimes, some years, less people.”

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