What Are College Students' Perceptions About Campus Safety?

Abstract

Crime and violence on college and universitycampuses have found their way into the media spotlight. As a result, criminaland violent acts have become issues that warrant research. We discussliterature focused on the potential contributing factors that may lead toviolent behavior. Additionally, we review legislation intended to protectstudents and employees by keeping them updated on criminal activity. We alsoaddress institutions’ responsibility to promote and ensure a safe learningenvironment. Last, we examine students’ responsibility to self-protect.According to the US Department of Justice (as cited in Flannery &Quinn-Leering, 2000), victimization by a violent crime is increasingly commonand the chance of being victimized today by a violent crime is greater than thechance of being injured in a traffic accident. Therefore, one need notspeculate on why institutions of higher education are experiencing widespreadunlawful activity. Instead, colleges and universities should concentrate onpreventing these acts of violence. To understand college students’ perceptionsregarding campus safety, we surveyed 20 local college students, of whom 55%were female. Respondents ranged in age from 21 to 25. All classes (freshmanthrough