By raw count, Texas A&M University reported the most campus crime of any large U.S. university in 2024: 733 offenses. But Texas A&M also enrolls more than 78,000 students. Adjust for enrollment and the ranking flips completely. The most dangerous large campus by crimes per 1,000 students is the University of California, Berkeley, at 15.3.
All figures on this page come from calendar-year 2024 crime data that colleges reported to the U.S. Department of Education under the Clery Act, the most recent full year available as of July 2026. This report ranks 20 large U.S. universities by total reported crime, re-ranks the same data by student population, breaks down offenses by category and by state, and explains how to read these numbers without being misled by them.
Key Takeaways
- Texas A&M University reported the most total campus crime in 2024 with 733 offenses, but it also enrolls more than 78,000 students, one of the largest student bodies in the country.
- Adjusted for size, the University of California, Berkeley ranks first at 15.3 crimes per 1,000 students. Grand Canyon University, ranked 8th by raw count, falls to last once its 113,000-student enrollment is factored in.
- The University of California system dominates both lists. Five UC campuses appear in the top 20 by raw count, and three of the four highest per-student rates belong to UC schools.
- A higher crime count often means better reporting, not more danger. Clery Act figures count crimes that were reported, and schools that encourage victims to come forward record more of them.
- Most campus crime is property crime, drug, and alcohol offenses, not violent crime. Motor vehicle theft and burglary lead the national totals.
The 20 Most Dangerous College Campuses in 2026 (Ranked by Total Reported Crime)
Texas A&M University reported the most total campus crime among large U.S. universities in 2024, with 733 offenses. This ranking covers 20 large four-year universities (public and private, 30,000-plus students, with on-campus housing), measured by total criminal offenses, violence-against-women offenses, and hate crimes reported to the U.S. Department of Education for calendar year 2024.
| Rank | University | 2024 enrollment | Total reported crimes (2024) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M University, College Station | 78,321 | 733 |
| 2 | University of California, Berkeley | 45,882 | 701 |
| 3 | University of California, San Diego | 44,256 | 601 |
| 4 | University of Utah | 38,694 | 586 |
| 5 | University of California, Davis | 40,065 | 572 |
| 6 | University of California, Los Angeles | 47,335 | 474 |
| 7 | University of Southern California | 46,566 | 435 |
| 8 | Grand Canyon University | 113,257 | 425 |
| 9 | University of Florida | 56,311 | 414 |
| 10 | The Ohio State University, Columbus | 61,443 | 385 |
| 11 | University of Maryland | 41,725 | 369 |
| 12 | University of California, Irvine | 37,297 | 359 |
| 13 | University of Washington | 56,997 | 356 |
| 14 | Arizona State University | 79,818 | 339 |
| 15 | Indiana University, Bloomington | 48,424 | 330 |
| 16 | Louisiana State University | 41,705 | 320 |
| 17 | University of Iowa | 30,779 | 317 |
| 18 | Texas State University | 40,067 | 308 |
| 19 | Michigan State University | 52,089 | 295 |
| 20 | University of Colorado, Boulder | 38,799 | 287 |
Three patterns stand out. California is heavily represented, with five University of California campuses in the top 20. Large public flagships fill most of the list, which is expected because these are the biggest schools in the country. And the top of the list is tightly bunched: only 32 crimes separate the first and second schools, so raw rank order shifts easily from year to year.
These counts reflect crimes that occurred on campus, in on-campus housing, and on public property directly bordering campus, as defined by federal Clery geography. They do not measure how safe a student feels or the odds any one student is a victim. For that, the numbers have to be scaled to enrollment.
The List Flips When You Adjust for School Size
The same 2024 data ranked by crimes per 1,000 students produces a different leader. By that measure, the University of California, Berkeley ranks first at 15.3, and Texas A&M, the raw-count leader, drops to 8th. We calculated each rate by dividing a school’s total 2024 reported crimes by its 2024 enrollment, then multiplying by 1,000. These per-student rates are our own computation from Department of Education enrollment and crime figures.
| Rank by rate | University | Total crimes | Enrollment | Crimes per 1,000 students |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of California, Berkeley | 701 | 45,882 | 15.3 |
| 2 | University of Utah | 586 | 38,694 | 15.1 |
| 3 | University of California, Davis | 572 | 40,065 | 14.3 |
| 4 | University of California, San Diego | 601 | 44,256 | 13.6 |
| 5 | University of Iowa | 317 | 30,779 | 10.3 |
| 6 | University of California, Los Angeles | 474 | 47,335 | 10.0 |
| 7 | University of California, Irvine | 359 | 37,297 | 9.6 |
| 8 | Texas A&M University | 733 | 78,321 | 9.4 |
| 9 | University of Southern California | 435 | 46,566 | 9.3 |
| 10 | University of Maryland | 369 | 41,725 | 8.8 |
| 11 | Louisiana State University | 320 | 41,705 | 7.7 |
| 12 | Texas State University | 308 | 40,067 | 7.7 |
| 13 | University of Florida | 414 | 56,311 | 7.4 |
| 14 | University of Colorado, Boulder | 287 | 38,799 | 7.4 |
| 15 | Indiana University, Bloomington | 330 | 48,424 | 6.8 |
| 16 | The Ohio State University, Columbus | 385 | 61,443 | 6.3 |
| 17 | University of Washington | 356 | 56,997 | 6.2 |
| 18 | Michigan State University | 295 | 52,089 | 5.7 |
| 19 | Arizona State University | 339 | 79,818 | 4.2 |
| 20 | Grand Canyon University | 425 | 113,257 | 3.8 |
The reversal is sharpest at the extremes. Grand Canyon University sits 8th by raw count but last by rate, because its 425 offenses are spread across 113,000 students. Arizona State makes a similar drop, from 14th to 19th. Texas A&M moves from 1st to 8th. Berkeley, meanwhile, climbs from 2nd to 1st, because its 701 offenses land on a much smaller student body.
This is why a raw “most dangerous” ranking is a poor safety guide on its own. It rewards being large. A school with twice the students and twice the crime looks worse on a raw list, even though a given student faces the same odds. The per-student rate is the number a prospective student or parent should actually weigh, and even that carries the reporting caveats covered in the methodology section.
The Most Dangerous Campuses by Crime Type
Total crime hides the mix. A school can rank high on property crime and low on violence, or the reverse. The breakdowns that follow separate the 2024 Clery data into criminal offenses, hate crimes, and offenses covered by the Violence Against Women Act, so the numbers can be read by type.
Most Criminal Offenses (2024)
The University of California, Berkeley reported the most criminal offenses of any large university in 2024, with 530. Criminal offenses under Clery include murder, rape, fondling, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
| Rank | University | Criminal offenses (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of California, Berkeley | 530 |
| 2 | University of California, San Diego | 528 |
| 3 | University of California, Davis | 486 |
| 4 | Grand Canyon University | 410 |
| 5 | University of California, Los Angeles | 363 |
| 6 | University of Southern California | 359 |
| 7 | Texas A&M University | 328 |
| 8 | Arizona State University | 321 |
| 9 | University of Maryland | 321 |
| 10 | University of Florida | 309 |
Most Hate Crimes (2024)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported the most hate crimes of any large university in 2024, with 52. A hate crime under Clery is a criminal offense motivated by bias against a protected characteristic such as race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, or disability.
| Rank | University | Hate crimes (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill | 52 |
| 2 | University of California, Berkeley | 50 |
| 3 | University of Washington | 42 |
| 4 | University of Colorado, Boulder | 36 |
| 5 | University of Utah | 32 |
| 6 | Texas A&M University | 30 |
| 7 | University of California, Los Angeles | 30 |
| 8 | Auburn University | 24 |
| 9 | University of Iowa | 22 |
| 10 | Oregon State University | 22 |
Hate crimes remain rare relative to other categories. Many campuses reported zero hate crimes in 2024, and the most common bias motivations reported were race, sexual orientation, and religion.
Most VAWA Offenses: Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, and Stalking (2024)
Texas A&M University reported the most Violence Against Women Act offenses of any large university in 2024, with 375. VAWA offenses under Clery cover domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, and are reported separately from the criminal-offense category.
| Rank | University | VAWA offenses (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M University | 375 |
| 2 | University of Utah | 266 |
| 3 | Texas State University | 147 |
| 4 | University of Iowa | 139 |
| 5 | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | 133 |
| 6 | Indiana University, Bloomington | 132 |
| 7 | The Ohio State University, Columbus | 122 |
| 8 | University of California, Berkeley | 121 |
| 9 | Michigan State University | 117 |
| 10 | University of Florida | 101 |
Stalking is the most frequently reported VAWA offense in the federal data, followed by domestic violence and then dating violence. Because these offenses depend heavily on victims coming forward, a high VAWA count can reflect a campus that has invested in reporting support, not only one with more incidents.
The Most Dangerous College Campuses in Texas
Texas A&M University reported the most campus crime of any Texas university in 2024, with 733 total offenses, more than double the next-highest Texas school. Texas draws attention on national lists because it has several very large public universities, which produces high raw counts.
| Rank | Texas university | Total reported crimes (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas A&M University, College Station | 733 |
| 2 | Texas State University | 308 |
| 3 | University of Houston | 264 |
| 4 | University of North Texas | 162 |
| 5 | Texas Tech University | 158 |
| 6 | University of Texas, Arlington | 105 |
| 7 | University of Texas, Austin | 104 |
| 8 | University of Texas, San Antonio | 82 |
| 9 | University of Texas, Dallas | 36 |
| 10 | University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley | 21 |
Texas A&M’s total breaks down into 328 criminal offenses, 375 VAWA offenses, and 30 hate crimes, an unusually high share of VAWA offenses driven largely by stalking and dating-violence reports. The gap between the top Texas schools and the bottom is wide: UT Rio Grande Valley, a large university itself, reported just 21 total offenses, which points to real differences in campus setting and reporting practice rather than a 35-fold difference in actual danger.
What the Clery Act Actually Measures
The Clery Act is a federal law that requires every college and university receiving federal student aid to publish its campus crime statistics each year. Schools report those figures to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education, which maintains the public Campus Safety and Security database that every ranking on this page draws from.
Clery data counts reported crimes in defined geography: on-campus buildings and grounds, on-campus student housing, non-campus buildings the school owns or controls, and public property immediately bordering campus. It groups incidents into criminal offenses, hate crimes, VAWA offenses, and arrests and disciplinary referrals for weapons, drug, and liquor law violations. It does not count crimes that were never reported, and it does not weigh incidents by severity.
For national year-over-year trends and the full breakdown of which crime types are rising or falling, see our companion report on campus crime statistics. This page stays focused on the school-by-school ranking.
Why the “Most Dangerous” Label Can Mislead
A high ranking on a campus crime list often reflects size and honest reporting rather than danger. The single most important thing to understand about this data is that it counts crimes reported, not crimes committed, and the two can diverge sharply from one school to the next.
Four factors distort raw rankings:
- Size punishes big schools. A university with 78,000 students will almost always out-count one with 30,000, even if a student at each faces identical odds. This is why the per-1,000 rate matters more than the raw total.
- Better reporting looks worse on paper. Schools that fund survivor advocates, run visible reporting campaigns, and encourage victims to come forward record more incidents. As the advocacy group Center for Changing Our Campus Culture warns, ranking schools by reported crime alone can punish the institutions doing the most to surface it. The schools that do the most to support victims often end up with higher counts, not lower.
- A single case can distort a single year. When a major investigation or a backlog of previously unreported incidents surfaces, one year’s count can spike for reasons that have nothing to do with current campus conditions. One high year in the data is not the same as one dangerous year on the ground.
- Reporting infrastructure varies. A campus with its own sworn police department logs and classifies crime differently than one that relies on an internal safety office, which changes the counts before any comparison begins.
One correction worth stating plainly: the U.S. Department of Education does not publish a “most dangerous campuses” ranking. It publishes the raw Clery data. Every ranked list, including this one, is a third-party analysis of that public data, so the filters and methods behind each list matter.
The Red Zone: When Campus Risk Peaks
More than 50 percent of college sexual assaults happen between the start of the fall semester and Thanksgiving, a window advocates call the Red Zone. Risk is highest in the first six weeks of a new student’s first year.
Sexual assault is also the most underreported campus crime, which shapes every ranking built on Clery data. About 13 percent of all college students experience sexual assault or misconduct, according to the Association of American Universities campus climate survey, yet many campuses report very few incidents, a gap that points to unreported cases rather than their absence. For the fuller picture, see our report on campus sexual assault statistics.
Campus Crime vs. College-Town Crime
Campus crime and college-town crime are two different measurements, and they often disagree. Clery data covers the campus itself. FBI data covers the surrounding city, which can rank very differently. National lists of dangerous college towns, built from FBI city crime rates, put places like Gainesville, Tuscaloosa, and Tempe near the top, which does not mean the universities in those cities top the campus lists.
Urban campuses feel this gap most. Schools in dense cities often inherit property crime, such as car break-ins and theft, that spills in from surrounding neighborhoods and is recorded in Clery geography. A student weighing safety should look at both the campus figures and the host city’s crime data, because a safe campus can sit inside a higher-crime city, and the reverse is also true.
What Actually Reduces Campus Crime
The measures that move campus crime numbers are the ones that deter, detect, and respond faster: visible cameras with analytics, controlled access to buildings, and fast mass notification. These are the same systems we install for colleges, school districts, and public institutions across the country.
For facilities and security directors, the highest-impact layers are consistent across campuses:
- Video surveillance with analytics on entrances, parking structures, and residence halls, where most property crime happens. Cloud cameras let a small campus team review footage and flag incidents across many buildings at once. See our work on campus security technology and security camera installation.
- Access control on residence halls, labs, and administrative buildings, so a lost or stolen credential can be shut off instantly and every door reports who entered and when. Access control systems are the backbone of after-hours protection.
- Mass notification and panic alerts, including wearable panic badges that meet emerging state safety mandates, to cut the time between an incident and a coordinated response.
- Lighting, blue-light emergency phones, and clear sightlines, the low-technology basics that reduce opportunity across parking lots and walkways.
In our work with colleges, school districts, and public institutions, the campuses that lower their numbers treat security as one integrated system rather than a stack of disconnected devices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which college campus has the highest crime rate?
It depends on how you measure. By total reported crime in 2024, Texas A&M University ranked first among large universities with 733 offenses. By crimes per 1,000 students, the University of California, Berkeley ranked first at 15.3, because it reports a similar number of crimes across a much smaller student body. The per-student rate is the better safety comparison.
What is the safest college campus?
No single campus is definitively “the safest,” because Clery data measures reported crime, not the odds of being victimized. Some large universities report very low totals, and a group of smaller schools report zero crimes in a given year, but very low numbers can also reflect underreporting. The most reliable read is a school with a low per-student crime rate and a strong, well-funded reporting system, not simply the lowest raw count.
What is the most common crime on college campuses?
Property crime is the most common category on college campuses, led by motor vehicle theft and burglary, followed by sexual offenses and drug and alcohol violations. Violent crime makes up a much smaller share of the national total. Our campus crime statistics report covers the full national crime mix and how it has shifted year over year.
What is the “Red Zone” on college campuses?
The Red Zone is the period from the start of the fall semester through Thanksgiving, when more than half of college sexual assaults occur. First-year students face the highest risk during their first six weeks on campus. The term is used by campus safety advocates to focus prevention efforts on that window.
Did the Department of Education name the most dangerous campuses?
No. The U.S. Department of Education collects and publishes raw campus crime data under the Clery Act, but it does not rank schools or label any campus “most dangerous.” Every ranked list, including this one, is an independent analysis of that public data, so the filters and methods behind each list determine the results.
The Bottom Line
The largest universities report the highest raw campus crime totals almost by definition, and Texas A&M leads that raw list for 2024. But the moment you adjust for enrollment, the order changes and the University of California, Berkeley moves to the front. Read these lists by rate and by reporting context, not by raw count, and remember that the schools that “look” worst are frequently the biggest and the most transparent about surfacing crime.
For campuses working to bring those numbers down, Safe and Sound Security installs the cameras, access control, and mass-notification systems that colleges and public institutions nationwide use to deter, detect, and respond to incidents faster. We have protected more than 20,000 locations over 19-plus years of commercial and government security work. If your campus is planning a security upgrade or a multi-building rollout, talk to our team about where to start.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, Campus Safety and Security Data
- Clery Center: The Clery Act
- Center for Changing Our Campus Culture: Why the Most Dangerous College Campuses List Is Misleading
- CAASE: The Red Zone
- Association of American Universities: Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct
