Award Date

5-1-2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Committee Member

Vicki Rosser

Second Committee Member

Gerald C. Kops

Third Committee Member

Gloria B. Melton

Fourth Committee Member

Gwen C. Marchand

Number of Pages

158

Abstract

The topic of this dissertation is college and university safety. This national quantitative study utilized resource dependency theory to examine relationships between the incidence of reported campus crimes and the structure, function, and resources of campus security offices. This study uncovered a difference in reported total crime rates, violent crime rates, and non-violent crime rates for colleges with police officers, internal security, contract security, hybrid departments, and no security office. This study examined the combination of institutional characteristics which best explain the occurrence of total campus crime, violent crime, and non-violent crime on campus. Two forms of data collection were used. Data collection includes the use of a web based survey to determine the structure, function, and resources of selected campus security offices. Additionally, secondary data was extracted from the publicly accessible annual campus security reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. Analysis of variance tests found differences between campus security offices, and multivariate linear regression examined the influence of structure, function, and resources of the campus security office on campus crime rates. This study analyzed the statistical relationships between reported crime statistics and the structure, function, and resources available to colleges with campus police departments, internal security, contract security departments, hybrid security office, and no formal security office.

Keywords

Campus crime; Campus police; Campus safety; College students – Crimes against; Crime; Universities and colleges –Employees – Crimes against; Universities and colleges – Safety measures; Violent crimes

Disciplines

Criminology and Criminal Justice | Education | Educational Leadership | Higher Education Administration

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS