The Safety of Students and faculty at the University of Maryland

Your University
University of Maryland Student and Faculty Concerns’ Report
Your Name
Subject and Section
Professor’s Name
December 8, 2019
Chapter I
Introduction
School is regarded as a second home for students therefore safety concerns should be the least of their concerns apart from learning. Yet, an increasing number of crimes that happen in school and universities has been a widely familiar issue. According to Brantingham and Brantingham in 1994, a college campus is utilized at any part of the day, even at night (Jennings, et al 193). However, staying inside the campus too late arouse a sense of fear of campus crime victimization (Jennings, et al 193). Campus crimes do not cause fear alone, as Tseng, Duane, and Hadipriono mentioned, campus crimes also “…undermine the quality of the
the learning environment, …also reduce the positive activities of people associated
with the campus” (Jennings, et al 192).
We, the researchers, would like to address concerns about campus safety. For this study, we will be focusing on the University of Maryland, College Park or UMD. This university has an alarming increase in certain campus crimes for the past three years. This is also despite the university’s attempt to solve or lessen campus crimes. Hopefully, at the end of this research, we can come up with solutions to help decrease the rate of campus crimes such as robbery, sexual assault, burglary, violence, and so on.
Chapter II
Review of Related Literature
General Perception
According to Ross and Rasool (18), “[u]niversity campuses are generally perceived to be relatively secure places…” and yet based on their own research and multiple other studies regarding campus crimes, this has been proven unlikely. From recent events, there has been an alarming increase in gun violence including in K-12 schools. According to David Riedman and Desmond O’Neill’s data from 1970 up to this year, 2018 and 2019 hold the highest count of K-12 school shooting incidents which are 116 and 95, respectively. These numbers increased rapidly from 2017’s record of 54 shooting incidents. Before that, the last highest record was in 2006 with 59 said incidents. Moreover, Riedman and O’Neill also recorded the total number of injured and killed victims during school shooting incidents. Still, 2018 and 2019 have the most recorded victims during the incident with 177 and 116, respectively. The scope of Riedman and O’Neill’s research, however, specifically indicated that their data pertains to “each and every instance a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason” irrespective of the time whether it happened during school hours or of the reason if the shooting was a direct attack to the school.
Nonetheless, this issue has sparked an urgency on the citizens of the United States to call for the end of gun violence. For instance, due to the mass shooting that happened in a high school campus at Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed (Chuck, Johnson, and Siemaszko), millions marched to condemn gun violence and to call out the government for action which was led by the organization March for Our Lives (The New York Times; March for Our Lives).
These incidents are not limited to school-age children. Even university or college campuses face this issue. Cannon’s (2) study of gun violence in 142 colleges in America has greatly escalated from 2001to 2016. In the school years 2011-12 to 2015-16, there was a total of 101 recorded shooting incidents “on or near college campuses” which was a 153% increase from 2001-02 to 2005-06 record of 40 (Cannon 2). Casualties were also high too. From 2006-07 to 2010-11, there was a total of 168 victims who were either killed or injured. Some of these people were the victims of Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University mass shooting in the school years 2006-07 and 2007-08, respectively, and most of them are students (Cannon 2, 4). In the University of Maryland, College Park, there was already a record of four victims, one killed, due to a shooting incident on or near this campus from April 2003 to February 2013 (Cannon 9-15). Yet, this is only one of the criminal offenses that happen on college campuses that would make students and faculty of these schools feel unsafe. Other crimes that also deal with great threats are sexual assault, robbery, burglary, and theft.
Jennings, Rover, Pudrzynska’s (200) explored the campus crimes in a “large south-eastern university.” In 2005, they surveyed 564 students of this university who were taking criminology courses. Base on their results, 22 percent of the sample had claimed that they were victims of campus crime – “…robbery, sexual assault, assault, battery, theft, burglary, or fraud,” since they entered the university. The most experienced crime reported on Jennings et. al.’s (200) study was property crime. Meanwhile, 2.5 out of 100 students had reported that they had been sexually assaulted on campus.The authors also had indicated that a connection can be traced between gender and campus crime. For instance, they found out that women experience sexual assault more, while men will highly be a victim of “personal and property crime,” (Jennings et. al. 206).
Additionally, as stated by numerous scholars, 5% to 25% of female college students have been victims of “sexual violence,” (Perkins and Warner 237) which made more women fear their safety when they enter college. In Carrico’s study, assessing the perception of freshmen students of Marshall University about campus safety, he found out that female freshmen feared to be victims of sexual violence more than the male freshmen (51). According to Ross and Rasool’s research, campus crimes are also evident in a large university in South Africa. Based on their sample of 65 undergraduate students, they had discovered that the prevailing crimes these students had experienced were robbery and theft (12). The victims of property crime encountered these incidents off-campus as they mind their own business when suddenly robbers came and intimidated them with a knife or by holding them at gunpoint. Yet, Ross and Rasool have uncovered that theft can still happen even in the assumed to be safe places inside the campus (12). As an example, they had respondents who were victims of property crime inside the campus’ library or outside the student’s exam venue (13). Apart from these crimes, some students had also experienced being kidnapped and hijacked while they were going home or when they were already at their commune (13). As a result, these students’ fear heightened and had adjusted themselves accordingly in order to be more cautious and avoid becoming another victim of these crimes in the future (Ross and Rasool 14). Moreover, some of the students felt disappointment towards the university’s administration, campus police, and local police who, for them, failed to properly assist or protect them which was supposedly part of their duty. One student claimed that the security had only given “excuses” and no solution to the crime that they were victimized (14).
Amoatemaa et. al. (5) have looked into the factors that influenced the perception of 224 college students of the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana on campus safety. The students noted that they felt unsafe in certain parts of the campus which were poorly lighted or on areas that were “bushy.” The campus current condition wherein there was not enough CCTV nor campus security patrolling were some of the major factors that negatively affect the students’ view of their safety as well as the “absence of… emergency phones to call the security… history of crime, isolated areas…” (5-6). Amoatemaa et. al. (6) concluded that universities must keep in mind that “physical arrangement” of the campus’ elements play a major role in regulating a safe campus. Therefore, making necessary arrangements such as adding more CCTVs, clearing the bushy area, and more lighting would likely improve the notion of students towards their safety in their own campus (6).
Target Subject and Solution
For the target subject on this study, we have delved into the crime reports and prevention of the University of Maryland, College Park or UMD based on their annual safety and security report last October 1, 2019. According to the University of Maryland Police Department or UMPD, their main objective is to “…provide crime prevention services to students, faculty, and staff who live and work within our community. UMPD also makes independent efforts to reduce the opportunity for crimes to occur…” (9). One example would be UMPD’s efforts on educating freshman students about safety precautions – such as emergency hotlines, while they are part of the university’s community (2). In line with this, actual crime rates in UMD will be discussed to see how effective were the initiatives of UMPD.
There were 12 types of crimes listed under the “crime reports” category in the date given by UMPD, such as burglary, theft, rape, and murder (41). In 2018, the highest recorded crimes that happened on campus were rape, fondling, and motor vehicle theft. Aggravated assault and burglary came close. Looking more closely, the total number of rape victims in UMD shoots up from 2016 where there were only 5 victims recorded (University of Maryland Police Department 41). While with fondling, the number of reported crimes had already plummeted down from 2016’s 12 to 2017’s 4 total number of victims. However, more fondling cases were reported in 2018 having 15 victims. Although it must be noted that not all rape and fondling incidents were informed directly to UMPD. Some were sent “anonymously” to the CARE office while others were reported to departments inside the university. Also, not every case was “criminally investigated” (University of Maryland Police Department 43). Therefore, there is a probability that these recorded tallies can be higher than the current. UMPD (2) did mention that the 4 out of 15 incidents were reported to them directly and two of these cases were “closed with arrest.”
Cost-Effective Measures of Deterrence
Accordingly, the deterrence of rape cases in campuses could be done with the help of increased patrols frequency and campus safety education course CITATION Mit17 \l 1033 (Mitchell).
Increased Patrol Frequency and Hiring of Student Peace Patrol Services
On the one hand, efforts conducted by the University of Illinois, which augmented and increased the mobility of their peace-keeping forces have been shown to decrease the crimes rates in their campus significantly. Specifically, UI have allocated an additional 24% funding only for hiring new officers as well as equipping them with motorcycles that would allow them to increase the frequency of their daily rounds. As for UMPD, this policy could become more effective when coupled with cost-efficient solutions such as the installation of additional cameras in secure places as well as hiring of additional student peace patrol services.
On the other hand, a study conducted by Linder, Myers and Riggle, that rape cases could be deterred with the help of social media activism. While social media activism does not emanate from the campus’ security measures, these institutions’ safety education course should integrate how to use social media on reporting rape cases as well as increase awareness about the penalties and sanctions of the crime. As could be seen
See Something, Say Something
Additionally, another study showed that social media activism could help in preventing the crime of rape by “deobjectifying women”. Since women are the most vulnerable sectors inside the campus, then deterrence by encouraging the community to ‘speak up’ as a part of the community education lesson would be one of the best ways to deal with the problem. As could be gleaned from the interview conducted with Burke as well as the realization that the number of reports against sexual assaults, an increase in the power of students to ‘speak up’ against these kinds of crimes could serve as one of the most cost-effective measures in deterring crimes. Perhaps one of the best examples of this would be the #MeToo Movement, where victims of sexual assaults have been given the voice to speak up with the use of Twitter.
However, educators of the use of social media in deterring crimes (especially for sexual assault) should also know how to educate students about the limits of social media usage. For example, a news report written by Martin, about the risks of using social media is that its improper usage could complicate the prosecution of sexual assaults, especially when the victim’s posts in social media is different from her testimonies in the court.
Use of Socio-ecological and Technological Models
Another frequent crime that happened at the University of Maryland was motor vehicle theft. In 2016, there was a total of 18 incidents of this crime which decreased in the following year into 7 cases (University of Maryland Police Department 41). However, by 2018, the total number of motor vehicle theft has increased significantly to 25 cases. Most of the stolen vehicles were motor-scooters (43). UMPD (2) had only investigated 21 incidents wherein eight of these cases were closed with one arrest, while two of these were issued with a warrant of arrest. Despite these numbers, the University of Maryland Police Department (2) said that they will keep on educating the community of UMD regarding “crime and victimization.”
Accordingly, motor vehicle theft was addressed by using both socioecological models in order to predict behaviors of robbers. A study conducted Rice and Csmith, showed that one effective way of preventing motor vehicle theft is the integration of both technological and sociological ways such as the installation of GPS Systems and the utilization of behaviors that would serve as a deterrence to the robbers’ behaviors. Such method is een advertised by the Brown University Administration as a solution to the increasing number of reported thefts inside their campus CITATION Brond \l 1033 (Brown.edu). A perusal of the solutions that they have used would show that they have helped decrease the number of related accidents by installation of additional CCTVs and their encouragement to install GPS systems in the vehicles of owners (technological) as well as the reiteration of behavioral models, such as an increase in awareness in one’s surrounding or avoidance of dark places.
In terms of lowering or ending crime on the campus, numerous studies focused on the solutions to better campus safety. On Katarzyna Kijanczuk’s study, she discovered that there is a behavioral connection towards fear of crime and crime prevention which is bridged by the student’s level of awareness (92). Kijanczuk concluded that students’ fear to become a victim of crime – theft, for instance, makes them more heightened on their surroundings and cautious on their belongings, possibly will decrease...