Social disorganization theory and crime rates on California community college campuses

• Main Author: Ravalin, Tamara M.
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2014
• Subjects: Community college education; School administration; Criminology; Public policy; Social structure; Social sciences; Education; Campus crime; Community college; Part-time faculty; Pell grant; Social disorganization theory; Educational Administration and Supervision; Educational Leadership
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/68; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1067&context=uop_etds

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of social structure and community organization factors on campus crime on California community college campuses. The study utilized social disorganization theory to examine those relationships by aggregating data from the 113 campuses that are required to submit data on an annual basis to state and federal agencies. Crime data from the 2011 Clery report was separated into personal crimes and property crimes as reported by the California community college campuses. Correlation analysis was used for the non-categorical social structure and community organization factors. Those factors which demonstrated a statistical relationship with personal or property crimes were then regressed to further analyze the data. The relationships of categorical social structure and community organization factors with personal and property crimes were studied using analysis of variance. The results demonstrated that most of the social structure and community organization variables did not have a statistically significant relationship with personal or property crimes. However, the percentage of students receiving general financial aid in the form of Pell Grants demonstrated a strong relationship with an increase in both personal and property crimes. Additionally, an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty members demonstrated an increase in property crime on campus. The findings indicate that students on campuses with a high percentage of Pell Grant recipients are likely to be impacted by crime in some manner and that campuses with a large percentage of Pell Grant recipients need to consider additional supports and interventions to protect students from crime on campus. The findings also demonstrate that hiring a large percentage of part-time instructors may be counterproductive to preventing campus crime.