In February, a 16-year-old white male was arrested for two stabbings near the Quad. The victims were not affiliated with the University, but the incidents occurred on Harvard property.

These two series of violent crimes were unrelated, HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano says.

The crimes raised the visibility of juvenile crime on campus—and caused localized spikes in the crime rate—but police say that these incidents are not part of any-long term crime wave, nor have they significantly impacted Harvard’s yearly crime statistics.

But Catalano says that Harvard took the crimes seriously because they threatened the safety of passers-by in the Yard, and according to him the University has worked closely with Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) officials to prevent future crimes.

Frank D. Pasquarello, a spokesperson for the Cambridge Police Department (CPD), says that the handful of incidents at Harvard are not comparable to rising crime in Cambridge—which he says might be more serious—but he says CPD felt the Yard assaults were still a problem.

“[Because of] the large amount of stabbings in short period of time, we knew we had a problem,” Pasquarello says.

Catalano points out that one of the victims in the November robberies was a CRLS student, who was reportedly mugged by four high school-age students in the Yard during broad daylight.

“HUPD did not want to be in the position to paint all of CRLS students with a broad brush. We don’t generalize the behavior of all students by just a few,” he says.

According to Catalano, HUPD worked with school officials to restore order and prevent further violence without blocking the community’s access to the Yard.

“[School officials] sent a message to the whole student body and to particular individuals and warned them to be respectful of Harvard’s property,” he says.

John G. Silva, the director of safety and security for Cambridge public schools, says CPD, HUPD, MIT police, District Attorney officials and others meet on a regular basis to review juvenile crime in the area—fostering a relationship which he says has been successful in stopping young people from committing crimes.

November’s spike was not out of the ordinary, according to Silva.

“Street crime is streaky. They’ll be a spike here and a spike there, but we don’t have a problem with it regularly,” he says. “To tell the truth I have to say I believe the crime rate has gone down.”

Pasquarello says the incidence of juvenile crime in Cambridge this year isn’t out of the ordinary—but that the manner in which the crimes occurred was unusual.

“In most juvenile crimes we see, the people know each other and there’s some rivalry between them,” he says. “The ones that occurred on Harvard property were strictly random acts of violence.”