Theories Of General Crime Theory And Sexual Harassment In A College Campus

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Sexual harassment in college campuses across the country is something that has become progressively more and more concerning. As a result, students have become increasingly susceptible to the dangers that come along with campus delinquency. Furthermore, in this article the author seeks to explore just that, the life of a college student and how their routine activities make them more or less vulnerable to being sexually harassed. In this analysis, I intend to outline the theories of General Crime theory and Routine Activities Theory in accordance to sexual harassment and how they apply to victimization on a college campus. Moreover, I will chronicle the interviewing process and recount how many of the students who claim to have been victimized actually followed through with reporting these delinquent acts to campus authorities.
This article focuses on testing the following two theories, The Theory of Routine Activities and The Theory of General Theory of Crime. According to Cohen and Felson (1979), The Theory of Routines contends that, “… the convergence in time and space of a motivated offender, suitable target, and lack of capable guardian-ship is conducive to criminal offending” (p. 460). The premise of this theory in other words, states that an individual is more at risk of being the subject of opportunity when they are in a situation where there is less guardianship and thus making them substantially more vulnerable to being the victim of an attack. Accordingly, The Theory of General Theory of Crime argues that, “…individuals with low self-control (LSC) will be at an increased risk for involvement in criminal and analogous behavior” (Gottfredson & Hirschi, 2003, p. 461) This theory maintains that individuals with low self c...

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...online survey questionnaire. The study sample included significantly more seniors and juniors, as well as more females than males, and more whites (Clodfelter, Turner, Hartman, Kuhns, 2010, p. 464).
The author is looking to test the factors that make students more at risk of being victimized. Accordingly, the author followed up with the students who claimed that they had been harassed in some way while on campus. Routine Activities Theory was a theory put to the test in this article. This means that students’ normal routines were tested to investigate how likely they were of being victimized in comparison to those students who do not follow the same routine patterns. Some of the factors they tested were: frequenting a particular location where alcohol was being served, living alone, being involved in dating relationships and being involved in prior victimization.

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