Clery said the site still has "lots of problems" because it relies on self-reported statistics. Clery said that some colleges only include in statistics those crimes reported to campus police, although under federal law, colleges are required to survey all campus security authorities, including deans, resident assistants and athletic coaches.

The relevant federal law, the Clery Act, is named after Howard Clery's sister, who died in a campus crime.

This marks the first year that the statistics were published online under strict standards in accordance with the 1998 amendments to the Clery Act.

David A. Bergeron, the chief of policy and budget development of the U.S. Department of Education, said that the website exists "to disclose to students, prospective students, family, faculty, and staff information about crimes that occur on college campuses.

He agreed that differences in reporting systems may be problematic, but said the department "will use [its] authority to do reviews [of institutions that misrepresent themselves]."

Bergeron says he is "very surprised at the level on interest in these data" offered on the site.

"All we did was collect on a website information that [colleges and universities] had already compiled," he said.

The database is online at http://www.ope.ed.gov/security/search.asp.