Murder University : Crime On Campus

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Recommended: The relationship between crime and poverty

Justin D. Wixom
Professor Chapman
English 1B
29 April 2015
Murder University – Crime on Campus
In a dimly lit bedroom of a fraternity house, a young woman is raped. In a car parked in a campus parking lot, a woman is struck by her boyfriend in a domestic violence assault. In a hallway outside of class two men fight it out over a disagreement turned violent. Crime on American college campuses has been a persistent problem since in recent decades, but came under the national spotlight in 1986 when a Jeanne Clery, a female student at Lehigh University was raped and murdered by another college student on campus. The event captured the media and government’s attention and soon after the Clery Act was signed into law, requiring all college campuses to report crimes which occur on campus or within the direct vicinity of a campus. Prior to that time, while it is assumed that crime still occurred on college campuses, there is no hard data to show a trend one way or another. While there are many different theories as to why violent crime occurs on college campuses, the issue continues to raise questions among those wishing to curb the problem. Typically, areas or neighborhoods with higher education rates tend to see a reduction in criminal activity, particularly violent crime. Yet in the institutions of higher learning, violent crimes continue to increase, and at rates equal to those of poverty-stricken urban ghettos. The Office of Postsecondary Education reports an upswing in crime on college campuses between 2003 and 2005, with sexual offenses in particular rising from 2,621 to 2,722 offenses committed (Office of Postsecondary Education). The steady increase of crime on college campuses can be attributed to evolving student demographics ...

... middle of paper ...

...er methods to obtain success and focuses less on violence and more on the positive aspects of human nature.
Works Cited
Hernstein, Richard J., Murray, Charles. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and class structure in American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. Document.
Kadlec, Dan. ""Only Rich Kids Should Go To College."." Time.com (2014): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 May 2015.
Office of Postsecondary Education. Office of Postesecondary Education. 2015. . 10 May 2015.
Raphelson, Samantha. NPR.org. 06 October 2014. Web. . 11 May 2015.
Schwartz, Kelly D. ""Chronic Violent Video Game Exposure and Desensitization To Violence And Event-Related Brain Potential Data."." Journal of Youth Ministry 5.2 2007: 95-98. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 May 2015.
Teschler, Leland. ""The Wrong School"." Machine Design 22 Feb. 2007: 8. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 May 2015.

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