The Problem of Campus Crime

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There are many myths and improper public perceptions about campus crime. There reality is that everyday common property crimes far outnumber violent crimes on campus (Bromley, 2007, pg. 280). This misperception is largely because of many factors. Campus policing has gone through several eras of policing. Unique to campus policing is that there are several influential and interested parties, such as the legislative, and judicial branches of government. As a result of this, campus crime has been a part of, and influenced to participate in newer forms of policing such as community oriented policing. In addition to community oriented policing there are several things that can be done to try and reduce campus crime. Also, campus crime has the unique aspect of being valuable and working in coordination with many researchers in the field of Criminal Justice that provide valuable insight into campus crime.

Campus Police and policing.

While there were types of official intervention that existed since the beginning of American colleges and university, it was only in 1894 that Yale University unveiled the first “official” campus police force (Bromley, 2007, pg. 281). This particular unveiling was regarded as being so successful that at Yale this police force became a permanent fixture of their institution and began to spread elsewhere (Bromley, 2007, pg. 281). While spreading, campus police experienced three major eras. The first spans from 1900 through the 1960’s and the policing emphasis was on control student misconduct and protecting property (Bromley, 2007, pg. 281). Next, due primarily to major protests and civil disturbances in the 1960’s and 1970’s, this led to police to move towards making dramatic changes, knows as the pro...

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...calls for the disclosure of offences reported to the police and authorities (Sloan and Fisher, 2011, pg. 196). However, college students, similar to the general population, for whatever reason, often do not report their victimization of crime to the authorities (Sloan and Fisher, 2011, pg. 196-197). Thus researches know that even vast sweeping laws like the Jeanne Clery act likely underreport the true level of crime on campus (Sloan and Fisher, 2011, pg. 197). Perhaps more importantly, these reporting laws do not include all offenses committed on campus, for example simple larceny or theft, are left off of the list, despite that it has been shown that larceny and theft are the most commonly occurring crime on campus (Sloan and Fisher, 2011, pg. 197). Therefore what can be concluded is that researches do not know nearly enough and more work in this area is needed.

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