Many colleges and universities may be portraying themselves as having less crime than actually takes place, according to this article. Under a1990 federal law, colleges and universities must report statistics on burglaries - but not larcenies - to the U.S. Education Department, students and staff. Northeastern University is used as an example of how some crimes are under-reported by colleges. The school reported only five burglaries on campus in 2004. But it also had 345 instances of larceny, which didn't involve unlawful entry and were not reported to the campus community. Federal regulators feel that many such larcenies at universities should be reported in order to give interested persons a true picture of crime on campus. But there is disagreement by some campus law enforcement officers and the FBI over the definitions of larceny and burglary. The result is that some incidents that are most likely burglaries are classified by campus police as larcenies, and therefore not included in reports to federal officials.