AMHERST — The number of on-campus criminal offenses at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has declined from 51 in 2021, to 43 in 2022. 

UMass Amherst published their Annual Security Report for 2022 Thursday afternoon. The 73-page report was issued on the “UMass Police Department” section of the school’s website. It includes information about timely warnings, campus facilities, security awareness and crime prevention programs, sexual assault prevention and response, statistics and a fire safety report. 

There are 14 criminal offenses listed, including muder/non-negligent manslaughter, negligent manslaughter, rape, fondling, incest, statutory rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. 

Out of the 14 potential offenses, six of them occurred on the UMass Amherst campus in 2022: rape, fondling, aggravated assault, burglary, domestic violence and stalking. 

Page 62 of the report is titled “Criminal Offenses and Crime Statistics,” where the school provides a chart with a number next to each specific offense listed. According to page 61 of the report, “Specific Information about Classifying Crime Statistics,” that statistic could account for either the number of incidents or the number of victims, depending on the case. 

“For example, if an aggravated assault occurs and there are three victims, this would be counted as three aggravated assaults in the crime statistics chart,” the report states. 

The crime statistics chart also arranges the information based on location: on-campus, non-campus or public property. 

As opposed to 2021, arson, robbery and motor vehicle theft supposedly didn’t occur or weren’t reported on campus in 2022. 

With the exception of one, the number of every single reported on-campus criminal offense has decreased from 2021 to 2022. That exception being burglary, where the number of reports has increased from two to 11.  

Consistent with the 2021 crime statistics, rape was the highest reported criminal offense on campus in 2022.

Page 64 of the report, “Liquor, Drug, Weapons Arrest and Disciplinary Referrals,” covers “the number of people who are referred to the Dean of Students Office and Residence Education for Code of Student Conduct and/or Community Living Standards violations.” 

On campus in 2022, there were 59 liquor law arrests, 47 less than 2021’s 106 arrests. As for liquor law referrals, 2022 saw another 47 less referrals than in 2021. 

There was one drug law arrest and no weapons law arrests in 2022, according to the statistics. 

Page 64 discusses hate crimes on-campus, which the report defines as “…only those incidents where, through investigation, it is learned that a criminal act has occurred and that the perpetrator(s) committed the crime because of their bias against certain protected groups.” 

“In 2022, UMass-Amherst had one on-campus assault characterized by racial bias,” the report states. 

On the UMass Amherst campus, the number of criminal offenses have decreased by eight from 2021 to 2022, and the number of liquor law arrests and refferals have decreased by a total of 94.