Along with English composition and an overview of world history, here’s another course that colleges might consider offering to incoming freshmen and their parents: Campus crime 101.

While the deadly violence that erupted at Catawba College last weekend is a horrifying aberration for any college, large or small, campus crime in itself isn’t. In the year 2000, according to reports compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, there were 20 murders and eight cases of negligent manslaughter at colleges and universities around the country. College students were the victims of 1,858 forcible sexual offenses, 3,644 aggravated assaults and 1,933 robberies. There were 1,091 arrests for illegal weapons possession.

If you want a stark indication of substance abuse on college campuses, peruse the statistics for alcohol and drug violations. In 2000, campuses reported 26,091 liquor-law violations (up from 25,037 the previous year) and 11,276 drug-law violations (also an increase from the 10,231 in 1999).

Even those statistics don’t give a true picture, because they’re limited to incidents that occur on the immediate campus. If you include non-campus buildings, such as fraternity or sorority houses and remote classrooms, or streets and public areas adjacent to campuses, the numbers are higher.

It would be a mistake to view the statistics as evidence of an epidemic of collegiate crime. If you compare the numbers to the hundreds of thousands of students on college campuses, any individual student faces a miniscule likelihood of being the victim of a crime, especially a violent assault. Campuses are not simply relatively safe, they’re usually safer than the community surrounding them. But it would also be a mistake to view college campuses as sheltered enclaves that are impervious to the forces of the culture at large.

Until recent years, college crime has been a murky subtext of academia. Too often, colleges were able to minimize the problems of sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse and other problems because reporting laws were lax, and institutions were trusted to police themselves, to a great degree. That began to change in 1988, with passage of the Jeanne Clery Act, named for the student who was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Lehigh University in 1986. Now, colleges and universities are required to keep accurate statistics on campus crime and compile annual reports that show statistics for the previous three years. Schools are required to make the reports available to students or prospective students, their parents and campus employees. They’re also required to keep security logs that are open for public inspection.

When they’re getting those glossy college brochures touting academic programs, prospective students and parents should also get a copy of the campus crime report and ask questions about security policies and how drinking, drug and weapons laws are enforced. Colleges usually aren’t eager to talk about crime. A top-notch security force and vigorous campus policing aren’t selling points, like high-tech labs, a research-level library or a great sports program. But maybe they should be.