What's actually up with crime at Harvard University
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
One of several reasons President Trump cited for denying Harvard-bound international students entry into the country was "rising crime, including violent crime."
Why it matters: Harvard doesn't have a crime problem, unless you count the scores of electric scooter thefts the Harvard Crimson reported last year, experts say.
What's happening: The Department of Homeland Security cited dramatic percentage increases of crime at Harvard, using data disclosed under the Clery Act.
- But the raw numbers tell a different story.
The percentages: Aggravated assaults rose 195%, robberies increased 460% and bias crimes doubled between 2022 and 2023, the latest year of university crime data publicly available under the Clery Act.
By the numbers: On a campus of 45,000, Harvard reported 59 aggravated assaults, 28 robberies and 10 bias crimes in 2023.
- Altogether, crime increased from 208 in 2022 to 323 in 2023, with more than 144 crimes involving "motor vehicle thefts."
- A Harvard University Police Department spokesperson confirmed all but one of those were electric scooter thefts.
Criminal justice experts say the numbers are so low at Harvard that any increase could look deceptively high — a bias known as "the law of small numbers."
What they're saying: "When you look at the crime statistics and compare them to jurisdictions around the country, it's clear that Harvard is a low-violent crime campus, in a low-violent crime city, in a low-violent crime state," says Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for Study and Practice of Violence Reduction and a former Harvard Kennedy School fellow.
- "There's simply no public safety basis for targeting Harvard University in this way."
Neither Harvard nor the White House commented on the crime trends when asked by Axios.
Reality check: Harvard reported 659 crimes in 2024, up from 613 crimes in 2023, per the uniform crime reporting system required by the FBI.
- That's roughly 15 for every 1,000 Harvard affiliates.
The UCR numbers tend to look higher as the Clery Act data doesn't show larcenies or fights that aren't bias-related.
Yes, but: The UCR data doesn't distinguish between crimes on campus involving Harvard affiliates and crimes on nearby public property involving non-affiliates.
- The Clery Act data, which the Trump administration cites, shows that nearly one-third of criminal offenses in 2023 occurred in public parks, streets and other areas near campus that aren't Harvard affiliated.
What we're watching: Harvard typically releases its security reports with annual crime data in the fall.
- Harvard declined to offer any preliminary estimates for how 2024 or the first half of 2025 look.