The fear of crime is analyzed on six college and university campuses that make up the Atlanta University Center (AUC). The study utilizes interview questionnaire data on 325 students attending AUC institutions which were collected during the spring semester of 1993. The analytical procedures used include the reliability analysis, frequency distributions, cross tabulations and chi-square tests. The data analysis did not reveal any significant relationships between fear of crime and demographic characteristics except for gender of the students. Also, there was no significant relationship between fear of crime and prior victimization. However, the relationship between fear of crime and constrained behavior was significant. On the whole, it was evident that fear of crime increases the probability of constrained behavior, which in turn reduces victimization.

Few would argue that college campus crime is a serious problem across the United States. Debate arises, however, regarding why the problem is so pervasive and how best to address it. This dissertation addresses that gap by exploring the nature and magnitude of the college campus crime problem followed by a rationale for studying student perceptions regarding knowledge about and use of victim services resources offered on the University of Central Florida (UCF) campus. Doing so is particularly important in light of the fact that five years have now passed since UCF launched the "Let's Be Clear" campaign designed to raise awareness about the nature and scope of campus crime and victim services resources offered. Participants completed a survey that contained both Likert-type scale items and open-ended questions regarding their awareness of and experiences with UCF victim services resources. A mixed methods analysis revealed four primary conclusions. First, when educated about the resources offered, students demonstrate high levels of self-efficacy regarding the use of victim services resources offered on campus for themselves and others. Second, students perceive high levels of internalization and affective learning regarding the relevance of victim services resources. Third, students report a desire to seek information regarding victim services resources from multiple sources. Fourth, this analysis revealed how communication campaigns that do not adequately address each of the IDEA model elements may fail to achieve affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning among target populations. Ultimately, these conclusions reveal how UCF ought to revisit and revise the "Let's Be Clear" communication campaign to improve achievement of its strategic learning outcome goals among college students.

This research utilizes feminist social control theory to explore college women's fear of crime, specifically rape. Elements within this analysis include: comparisons of males and females on their relative fear of crime in both stranger and acquaintance situations, an assessment of behavioral/social self-restrictions, and an examination of the relative impact of previous victimization on women's fear. Data are derived from a self-administered questionnaire from a non-probability sample of 217 male and female Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University undergraduates in the fall of 1994. Consistent with the hypothesis, women report significantly higher rates of fear in both acquaintance and stranger situations, and also report employing significantly more crime preventative measures than men. However, regression analyses reveal that while gender, acquaintance and stranger fear all have a statistically significant impact on precautionary use, neither fear of rape, nor previous rape victimization are significant. Policy implications and areas for future research are explored. / Master of Science

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the residential college system to determine if there was any association between campus crime and the residential house system. The specific problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the residential college system in mitigating campus violence. The intent of this study was to analyze the statistical relationship between crime reports from colleges and universities where on-campus housing was structured into residential colleges or house systems and crime reports from comparable colleges and universities without the residential design. Data collection consisted of a Web-based nationwide survey conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Education. Data collected for this study were for 2006. The 2 groups of institutions that made up the population for this study were 27 colleges that incorporated some variation of the residential college system or house system matched with 27 comparable institutions without the residential system. The results indicated there were significant differences between institutions with residential college systems and those without such systems for the on-campus aggravated assault offenses and the on campus residence halls aggravated assault offenses. Findings showed fewer aggravated assaults in the group of institutions with residential college systems. A 3rd statistically significant difference was found in the category of arrests for the on-campus residence halls liquor law violations, with the group of nonresidential institutions showing fewer arrests than those without the residential college housing design.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of social structure and community organization factors on campus crime on California community college campuses. The study utilized social disorganization theory to examine those relationships by aggregating data from the 113 campuses that are required to submit data on an annual basis to state and federal agencies. Crime data from the 2011 Clery report was separated into personal crimes and property crimes as reported by the California community college campuses. Correlation analysis was used for the non-categorical social structure and community organization factors. Those factors which demonstrated a statistical relationship with personal or property crimes were then regressed to further analyze the data. The relationships of categorical social structure and community organization factors with personal and property crimes were studied using analysis of variance. The results demonstrated that most of the social structure and community organization variables did not have a statistically significant relationship with personal or property crimes. However, the percentage of students receiving general financial aid in the form of Pell Grants demonstrated a strong relationship with an increase in both personal and property crimes. Additionally, an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty members demonstrated an increase in property crime on campus. The findings indicate that students on campuses with a high percentage of Pell Grant recipients are likely to be impacted by crime in some manner and that campuses with a large percentage of Pell Grant recipients need to consider additional supports and interventions to protect students from crime on campus. The findings also demonstrate that hiring a large percentage of part-time instructors may be counterproductive to preventing campus crime.

No description available.

The problem this study addressed is the relationship between Clery Act crime data and student recruitment at private colleges and universities. For this quantitative study, I used secondary data from the Department of Education and the Delta Cost Project (2013) to conduct ordinary least squares regression analyses to determine the predictive ability of institutional characteristics, specifically the total number of crime incidents reported in compliance with the Clery Act, on the variance in number of applications and applicant yield rate at private four-year institutions in the United States. Findings showed that the total number of reported incidents was a significant positive predictor of the total number of applications. Conversely, findings also showed that the total number of incidents had a significant negative impact on institutional yield rates. An implication of this study is that although crime statistics required by the Clery Act may not serve as variables used in the student application process, they are part of numerous variables used in the student's decision to enroll at a particular school. The findings highlight the importance of prioritizing and investing in safety and security measures designed to reduce rates of crime; especially for private, enrollment-driven institutions of higher education.