This headline is a parody of JG-TC editorial board's recent (we really aren't sure what to call it, but it read like a bad letter to the editor to us, with an obvious bias and agenda that isn't a surprise with this "news"paper) posting. It isn't meant to imply that EIU students are responsible for all the crime or even a majority of the crime in Charleston. However, the data does appear to show that crime in Charleston tends to follow EIU enrollment more than the population of Charleston.
Instead of shaming people for assuming an incident in an area of 4th Street that has been student housing for quite some time involved a student, or using the rankings from listicle factory and security system affiliate partner as some sort of gospel, we pulled the data ourselves to see what it said. The results weren't that surprising, one would assume every smaller college town's crime rate is going to be somewhat influenced by the rise and fall of enrollment the same way. While crime does look to be trending up in recent years, in the long haul it is way down. This leads to the inevitable clash between 2 sides that are both right, yes crime is low and overall going down and yes there is more crime going on. We are currently looking at this closer for an upcoming article.
Instead of shaming people for assuming an incident in an area of 4th Street that has been student housing for quite some time involved a student, or using the rankings from listicle factory and security system affiliate partner as some sort of gospel, we pulled the data ourselves to see what it said. The results weren't that surprising, one would assume every smaller college town's crime rate is going to be somewhat influenced by the rise and fall of enrollment the same way. While crime does look to be trending up in recent years, in the long haul it is way down. This leads to the inevitable clash between 2 sides that are both right, yes crime is low and overall going down and yes there is more crime going on. We are currently looking at this closer for an upcoming article.
The combined graph is not to compare values but trends, for values see the other graphs in the series.
This data shows the crime rate appears be tied to EIU enrollment, but not necessarily the students. The data is for total reported crimes and doesn't break down by suspect info.
This data shows the crime rate appears be tied to EIU enrollment, but not necessarily the students. The data is for total reported crimes and doesn't break down by suspect info.
- 1998-2001: enrollment and crime trended down while town population trended up
- 2001-2005: enrollment and crime trended up while town population trended down
- 2005-2009: enrollment and crime trended down while town population trended up
- 2009-2013: enrollment and crime trended down while town population trended slightly up
- 2013-2015: enrollment and town population trended down while crime trended up
- 1998-2015: enrollment and crime trended down while town population trended up
