Overall crime, including liquor law violations, sexual harassment cases, and violent acts towards women, increased at Emerson College’s Boston campus in 2023, according to a recent security report covering crime data at Emerson’s three campuses in the last year. 

The college is federally mandated to release an Annual Clery Compliance Report every October, detailing campus security policies, crime statistics, and a fire safety report. Emerson breaks down the yearly report by campus: Boston, Los Angeles, and Kasteel Well. 

ECPD encourages everyone to voice their concerns about crime and potential safety problems. 

“The college always encourages reporting of crimes, and the Clery crime log is available to view anytime at ECPD, not just during reporting of this information annually,” said Rosemary Lavery, director of External Strategic Communications, in a statement to The Beacon. 

Boston

Crimes at Emerson College’s Boston campus have steadily increased over the past three years, and there has been a drastic increase in referrals related to liquor law in 2023. 

The 2023 calendar year data revealed 23 total reports of crime on the Boston campus both in campus spaces and on public property adjacent to the campus, an increase from 14 reports in 2022 and 18 in 2021. 

The Boston campus report “is not intended to represent all reported incidents that occur,” Robert Casagrande, chief of the Emerson College Police Department, said in the report. The Clery Report includes all crimes reported to ECPD, Campus Security Authority, or other law enforcement. 

Total referrals on the Boston campus were notably higher in 2023 with 366 reported, including liquor law violations, drug law violations, and illegal weapons possession. There were 219 total referrals in 2022 and 145 in 2021, a more than 100% increase in reports over the last two years. 

A large majority of the referrals involve liquor law violations, which include the sale, purchase, transportation, possession, or use of alcoholic beverages. 361 of the 366 reports violate the liquor law, and were reported in residential dormitories. 

There were two arrests in or around campus in 2023—one for a weapons violation and another for drug law violations in a public space. This number did not change from 2021 or 2022, which also had two reported arrests on the Boston campus. 

The number of total sex offenses were about the same as in past years. There were two reported rapes in dorm buildings and three cases of fondling, an increase from one rape in 2022, and two reports of fondling that occurred in a Tucson, Ariz. hotel where Emerson’s baseball team was staying. 

Violence Against Women Act crimes showed an increase in domestic violence on the Boston campus—five in 2023, which is up from one incident in 2022, and two in 2021—but a decrease in stalking. One incident was reported in 2023, lower than the four reported in 2022 and one in 2021. 

The data also revealed one report of arson (including attempted arson) in 150 Boylston Street—the Piano Row dorm building—which was up from no reported arson in any buildings the previous two years. The total monetary damage from the incident was $100.

No hate crimes were reported on the Boston campus in 2021, 2022, or 2023. 

Los Angeles

Emerson College’s second largest campus, Emerson Los Angeles, houses up to 200 students each semester. While it is the second largest Emerson campus, it is significantly less than the approximately 4,000 undergraduates at the Boston campus.

Compared to other Emerson campuses, crime rates are consistently low on the Los Angeles campus. Only one act of arson was reflected in the 2023 Clery Report. The incident occurred on public property around the Los Angeles campus, not an official Emerson building. Public property on the Los Angeles campus includes “thoroughfares, streets, sidewalks, and parking facilities, that is within the campus, or immediately adjacent to and accessible” from the Emerson Los Angeles campus. 

No other crimes were documented from Emerson Los Angeles in 2023. 

Kasteel Well

Emerson College’s third campus, Kasteel Well in the Netherlands, saw an even lower number of students last year, with up to 90 students residing there for three months each semester. 

No crimes were reflected in the 2022 and 2023 Clery Report, and only two liquor law violations were reported in 2021.