As the month of October hits the calendars, it is time for universities to release annual campus crime reports.

In accordance with the Clery Act, all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs have to maintain a crime log and disclose the crime statistics by Oct.1 every year.

UC Davis and Princeton University have released their annual record in within a gap of one day.

According to the Ivy League University's report analysed and published in the student newspaper The Daily Princetonian early Tuesday,

"Drug violations and forcible sex offenses have increased during the 2011 calendar year despite overall reports of crime on campus decreasing for the third year in a row."

Apparently, the aggregate crime levels are also the lowest in more than a decade.

The overall number of reported criminal offenses decreased from 53 in 2010 to 47 in 2011. Burglary, with 30 incidents, and aggravated assault, with one, remained constant. There were no instances of murder, negligent manslaughter, non-forcible sex offenses or robbery.

Forcible sex offenses increased from 13 in 2010 to 16 in 2011 but have not yet reached the 18 offenses registered in 2008, the highest in the past 11 years.

Meanwhile, UC Davis report shows little change from previous year.

Among major crimes, UC Davis experienced 96 burglaries, five robberies and four aggravated assaults in 2011, compared to 88, two and 11 in 2010. There were 24 forcible sexual offenses, compared to 21 the previous year. No instance of homicide was reported.

Drug arrests remained steady at 24 while liquor arrests went up slightly from 44 to 54.

Drug disciplinary actions, where students are referred for internal university discipline rather than arrest declined from 87 to 67 and disciplinary actions for liquor use increased from 208 to 258.

One case of hate crime graffiti with a homophobic slur was reported.

The Clery Act was signed into a law in 1990 and is named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old Lehigh University freshman who was raped and murdered in her campus residence hall in 1986.

Universities more often than not conveniently fail to report crimes on and near campus, so that the 'reputation' of the university won't be marred. Hence, Clery act is meant to keep a check on such attitudes of universities and to place students' safety above everything else.