An analysis of a decade of crime at UCSB

The Daily Nexus compiled and analyzed crime data from 2016 to 2024 obtained via Clery reports at UC Santa Barbara in order to observe trends over the last decade in sex offenses, hate crimes and drug and alcohol related crimes, among others. Additionally, UCSB crime rates have been compared to other UC campuses — excluding UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco.

Observed increases in crime

Sex offenses

Over the past decade, reports of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) offenses, which includes domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, at UCSB have been steadily increasing — excluding a general crime dip during 2020 and 2021 that coincided with  the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Despite the pandemic decrease, as of 2024, incidents of dating violence offenses have surpassed pre-pandemic rates. While 2018 and 2019 saw the peak of stalking reports — with 65 incidents each — rates have been trending upward, with 60 cases reported in 2024. Alternatively, the pandemic dip has remained for reports of domestic violence, with rates remaining below pre-pandemic levels.  

Reported incidents of rape have significantly increased at UCSB, surpassing pre-pandemic rates with 43 reports in 2024. Other rates of sex offenses such as fondling, statutory rape and incest have remained consistent over the past decade, except for a significant deviation of four cases of statutory rape in 2020, which has otherwise remained at zero cases every other year. 

Additionally, attendance for Sexual Assault Prevention for UCSB undergraduate students dropped from the 90% range in previous years to 60% in the 2024-25 school year. 

The Nexus remains committed to reporting on cases of sexual violence on and around the UCSB campus. In light of several recent incidents, the Nexus compiled a guide of local and university resources available to students and community members who are survivors of sexual violence.

UCSB violent and property crimes

In general, cases of violence and property crimes have increased over the past 10 years, including motor vehicle theft, burglary, aggravated assault and arson — incidents of robbery seem to remain consistently low prepandemic and postpandemic. 

While the nation saw a surge of motor vehicle theft following the pandemic, with its peak in 2023 and a subsequent decline, UCSB saw the rise continue with 63 reports in 2023 and 71 in 2024. In 2023, the definition of motor vehicles was expanded to include electric scooters and bikes. However, this increase seems to signal a plateau compared to the spike between 2022 and 2023 which had a 40 incident difference. Additionally, burglary, aggravated assault and arson all saw their peak in 2024.

Hate crime

Reported hate crimes have significantly increased at UCSB in the last decade, with 0 cases reported in 2016 compared to 27 in 2024. 

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer, hate crimes have been on the rise nationally since 2016, with 7,485 reported in 2016 compared to 13,950 reported in 2024.

Observed decreases in crime

Drug and alcohol related crime

Overall, there was a 59% decrease in alcohol and drug related crimes at UCSB from 2016 to 2024 despite a 7% increase in enrollment.

Liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action have fallen dramatically in the last decade. There were 26 in 2024, compared to 417 in 2016, which represents a nearly 94% decrease. Similarly, drug law violations referred for disciplinary action have fallen over 91%, from 120 in 2016 to 10 in 2024.

Drug and liquor law violations resulting in arrests saw a similar dip around the pandemic, falling about 71% and 89% respectively from 2019 to 2021. It seems too early to tell if the number of these arrests will return to prepandemic levels, but they have both begun trending upward since 2022.

2024 also the first year since at least 2016 that there were more liquor law violations resulting in arrests than referred for disciplinary action.

Weapons law violations resulting in arrests have greatly fluctuated over the last decade, peaking at 27 in 2018 while sinking to three in 2023.  

The decline in alcohol and drug related violations aligns with larger trends of youth abstaining from drug use. 

The 2025 Monitoring the Future Study Annual Report conducted by the University of Michigan, which has monitored drug use among American 12th graders since 1975, found that 42% of 12th graders surveyed in 2024 used alcohol in the past 12 months, compared to 75% in 1997 and nearly 56% in 2016.

The study also suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on drug and alcohol consumption among youth, with a sharp drop from 55.3% of 12th graders consuming alcohol in the last 12 months in 2020 to 46.5% in 2021.

Homicide

There have been two murders reported since 2016, with one in 2021 and one in 2022.

How UCSB compares to other UC campuses

Editor’s Note: The Nexus was unable to obtain data for UC Santa Cruz, and UC San Francisco data was excluded because the university does not have an undergraduate program.

Drug and alcohol related crime

Compared to other UCs that the Nexus was able to obtain data for, UCSB has seen the sharpest dip in liquor law violations resulting in arrests. This trend can’t be fully accounted for by the pandemic, as UCSB’s number of  liquor law arrests was similar to other campuses in 2021 and 2022, but was 975% higher than UC Berkeley in 2019, the UC campus with the next most arrests. 

Drug and liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action at UCSB have fallen relative to other UCs since 2016. While drug arrests appear to be trending towards prepandemic levels, liquor arrests don’t seem to be. 

It should be noted that in 2020, the United States Department of Education fined UC Berkeley $2.35 million for Clery Act violations, including misclassifying 1,125 crimes, mostly liquor, drug and weapons violations. Since the audit that uncovered the violations concluded in 2019 until 2024, reported liquor and drug law violations have fallen 58%.

Also of note, UC San Diego has a much higher number of drug and liquor law violations referred for disciplinary action than resulting in arrest.

Additionally, UC Merced’s student population of about 9,000 is markedly lower than other UCs and likely explains the inflated trends when the data is normalized per 10,000 students.

Sex offenses

Across the UCs — except for UCSF and UCSC — reported sex offense crimes have increased by 156% from 2016 to 2024, alongside a nearly 14% increase in student enrollment. In the same timeframe, UCSB saw a 119% increase in sex offenses.

Reported incidents of rape have increased 59% at UCSB, while the systemwide increase is 48%. From 2016 to 2024, UCSB had the highest rates of rape per 10,000 students for five separate years. 

While domestic violence rates have decreased at UCSB postpandemic, after normalizing for the student population, UCSB did see the highest rates of domestic violence prepandemic. Since 2020, UC Los Angeles has seen the steepest rise in domestic violence reports. 

Across the UC system, UCSB consistently has some of the highest rates of dating violence, on par with UC Riverside. Dating violence saw its highest rates in 2024 at both UCSB and UCR, exceeding prepandemic rates. The other UC campuses do not seem to have the same increase in recent years. 

UCSB stands out in terms of stalking reports prepandemic, not just with more cases per 10,000 students, but a significantly higher amount than the other UC campuses. 

Overall, when each sex offense is accounted for and normalized for campus population, UCSB consistently ranks the highest among UC campuses in the amount of  incidents reported, except for 2020, 2021 and 2023. 

Malia Guy and Krithi Saravanan contributed data collection/visualization.

A version of this article appeared on p. 4 and p. 5 of the Aug. 27 print edition of the Daily Nexus.