I-Team: FSU and FIU reported most crimes in Florida for 2009

TAMPA - Florida International University in Miami-Dade County and Florida State University in Tallahassee are experiencing a bit of a crime wave.

At least that is what data from the U.S. Department of Education analyzed by the ABC Action News I-Team show. The figures were for 2009, the latest year for which the federal government has collected reports of criminal offenses committed on Florida college campuses with an enrollment of 1,000 students or more.

Rape appears to be a problem at FSU. The university reported 10 forcible sex offenses in 2009. That is twice the number reported at each of the two campuses with the next highest rape counts: FSU's neighbor in the state capital, Florida A&M University, and Rolllins College in Winter Park.

The federal crime statistics represent alleged offenses reported to campus security, local law enforcement or both. Over the years, some institutions have proven to be better --- or perhaps, more honest --- about reporting campus crime than others.

FSU police have been trying to do something about the assaults against women on their campus. Since 1996, police have offered self-defense classes to any interested female student, faculty, staff or community member. The classes, part of a program known as "rape aggression defense," have been taught to more than 1,500 women. Police say the classes have only gotten more popular with each semester.

In south Florida, FIU seems to be plagued by property crime. The university reported 98 burglaries and 52 motor vehicle thefts on the Modesto A. Maidique campus in southwest Miami. FIU was, by far, the leader among Florida institutions in both categories.

As for the Tampa Bay area, a spate of burglaries at Eckerd College placed the St. Petersburg private college in the top five most crime-prone institutions among Florida's 279 biggest colleges and universities. There were 70 burglaries reported on Eckerd's main campus in 2009. That was more than at the University of Central Florida's Orlando campus (38) or at the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida (40), even though both of those public universities have thousands more students than Eckerd's enrollment of 2,520.

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