CAMPUS CRIME

“For years, college campuses had an image of being safe, bucolic havens, academic groves where the pursuit of knowledge and the cultivation of fellowship shut out many of the threats and fears of everyday life” (Purdum, 1988). For some students, this is the experience they have at their universities, but for many, it is not. Crime rates on campuses have been growing and it seems that no one is immune. In a Daily Collegian article from 2018 written by Maddie Aiken, she describes how Penn State University has fallen victim to the increase of sexual assaults on college campuses (Aiken, 2018). Though the number of sexual assault reports fluctuate from year to year, Aiken posits that it is difficult to identify how many sexual assaults actually happen yearly because 85% go unreported. This statistic, while shocking in sheer value, is not surprising given the college environment.

Dr. Caren Bloom-Steidle cites that much of the sexual assault that occurs on campuses can be attributed to the pressure society puts on men to project masculinity and power through sexual acts (Aiken, 2018). When men feel this pressure, they may act in ways that are inappropriate or even illegal, in the case of assault. The actions that men may take to prove their masculinity can be explained through a criminal’s rationale. In class, we discussed how criminals act rationally and weight the costs and benefits of their actions. In the case of sexual assault, some of the costs may be getting reported by the victim and receiving a punishment while some benefits may include proving one’s masculinity and engaging in sexual acts. Seeing as only 15% of sexual assaults are reported, the certainty of getting caught is low, and most criminals, male and female, see committing sexual assault as a low risk, high reward action. The benefits outweigh the costs, and thus, they act accordingly and rationally.

If the certainty of getting caught for acts of sexual assault on college campuses were to go up, then they would happen less frequently. Unfortunately, as Aiken mentions, there are a variety of reasons only 15% of sexual assaults get reported, including fear of judgement, blame, and further victimization (Aiken, 2018). Due to these reasons and others, sexual assault continues to occur on campuses. When looking at data from the five largest 4-year institutions in Texas, this rise and continuation of sexual misconduct can be seen. In four of these five institutions, there has been an overall increase in the number of sexual assaults reported from 2014 to 2018 per 100,000 students. The most shocking statistic coming from Texas A&M which has had a constant upward trend of sexual misconduct crimes from 2014 when the average reports per 100,000 students was 13.0 to 2018 where the average reports per 100,000 students was 260.6 (U.S. Department of Education). That is an over 1900% increase over four years.

Todd Purdam brings up an interesting point in his 1988 New York Times article about campus crime which is how much of this criminal behavior can we expect colleges to prevent (Purdam, 1988). Bloom-Steidle believes that we need to do a better job of educating students and faculty on what sexual assault is so they can identify it and try to stop it, but often times they are too late to intervene (Aiken, 2018). As was discussed in class, they severity of the crime could be increased, but if the certainty of getting caught is still incredibly low, will this actually be a strong deterrent? Purdam mentions that, at the time, students wanted administrators to take a more active role in student life, but how can 100 administrators maintain the safety of 40,000 students, especially when many crimes happen off campus? There does not seem to be a clear-cut solution of how to reduce crime on campuses or at least encourage more people to report it when it happens. One concern for college administration that parallels the government in many ways is how much money they need to spend to try to help reduce campus crime. As discussed in class, economists posit that some crime is ideal government efficiency. Colleges are constantly considering the financials of an endeavor they pursue and if students are not reporting crimes, administration probably will not see it as an issue they need to invest in because it seems insignificant.

Additionally, as Dr. Bernice Sandler mentions, colleges are worried about their image (Purdam, 1988). No college wants to advertise themselves as the college with the highest crime rate in the country. It can be hard to come back from bad press. Penn State is no stranger to that considering the anti-hazing law in Pennsylvania is named after a student that was killed at a Penn State fraternity. The members of that fraternity are another prime example of criminals weighing the costs and benefits of a crime. The worst part is that they were right. The repercussions for many of them were not as bad as they deserved to be. Aiken mentions how toxic Greek life culture can be and how it is a large contributor to sexual assault statistics on college campuses (Aiken, 2018). Texas A&M has 58 Greek-letter organizations which could be a large contributor to their continuously rising sexual misconduct cases (Texas A&M University, 2021). While there are many ways to go about trying to reduce crime on campuses, I think a good way to start would be with regulations of Greek life on campuses.

Crime on college campuses is a reality faculty and students live in every day. In such a large environment that breeds vulnerability, it is important to take some action to reduce the fear that many individuals live in because of campus crime. While there may not be a simple solution to this issue, academic institutions must find a way to put the safety of their students and faculty first, before their crime rate is higher than their enrollment rate.

References

Aiken, M. (2018, April 26). Penn state is no exception to the national sexual assault statistic. https://www.collegian.psu.edu/news/crime_courts/article_c472d106-48ff-11e8-ad51-7be6cc98d357.html.

Purdum, T. S. (1988, April 10). The reality of crime on campus. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/10/education/the-reality-of-crime-on-campus.html.

Texas A&M University. (2021). Student Activities Division of Student Affairs. https://studentactivities.tamu.edu/about-us/office-of-fraternity-and-sorority-life/#:~:text=Fraternities%20and%20sororities%20are%20a,multi-faceted%20community%20on%20campus.

U.S. Department of Education. Campus Safety and Security. https://ope.ed.gov/campussafety/#/.