BYU reports an exceptionally low number of campus crimes every year, in a federally mandated campus safety report, and was most recently ranked the safest campus in the U.S. by Business Insider.

But the picture is incomplete because BYU and many other universities only report crimes committed on campus and at on-campus housing sites. Crimes involving students off campus or in off-campus student housing are not included.

The federal Clery Act, named after Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her college dorm at Lehigh University in 1986, mandates the annual report, overseen by the U.S. Department of Education.

The act requires colleges to report murder, manslaughter, sex offenses, robbery, assault, burglary, vehicle theft, larceny and arson committed in locations schools control.

Crimes included in this annual report are a combination of offenses reported to each college police department and other on-campus services, such as counseling and women’s services. Anything that goes unreported also goes unrecorded.

Cleary-reportable “index” crimes include murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny (theft) and motor vehicle theft.

According to the national Crime in Utah Report, more than 2,900 forcible sex offenses were reported in 2013. Their most recent 2014 report indicates almost 88,000 index crimes were reported, which was a 5 percent decrease. However, rape increased by almost eight percent. Utah isn’t the only state to see such an increase.

BYU’s most recent security report lists 21 forcible sex offenses between 2013 and 2014, including one rape.

The Department of Education’s Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting defines reporting requirements and says colleges must include crimes that occur “on campus, public property within or immediately adjacent to the campus, and in or on non-campus buildings or property that your institution owns or controls.”

Third-party contracted housing can be considered a “non-campus” location the school controls, if its owners have a written agreement with an institution to provide student housing, according to the handbook.

The Daily Universe sent a copy of a BYU student housing contract to the U.S. Department of Education and asked whether contract language gives BYU “control” over off-campus housing.

“The contract that you attached to your email appears to establish a written agreement between BYU and a third party to provide student housing, thereby giving BYU control of the space specified in the agreement,” states the response from the Department of Education help desk.

However, BYU and many other schools interpret Clery reporting language differently.

“In determining whether to include crime statistics from certain properties in an annual security report, schools maintain some discretion, and two important considerations are ownership of property and control of the physical space,” said BYU attorney Sarah Campbell.

Campbell said “control” was not defined in the law, and one must analyze BYU’s “extent of control, reservation of space and right of access.”