Violence in campuses has aggravated over the last decade and the beginning of school may indicate students going back to seriously dangerous environments. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2008) published that 17 percent of the US public schools reported one or more severe violence cases in 2005-06. According to a college violence report which conducted a survey between 1995 to 2002, college students within the age group of 18-24 years were victims of approximately 479,000 crimes of violence annually (Baum & Klaus, 2005). These crimes included instances of rape/sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. News accounts of violent incidences on school campuses include assaults, arson, kidnapping, use or possession of weapons, intimidation, harassment, bullying, mugging, threatening, theft, sexual offenses, bomb threats, disruptive incidences, use, sale or possession of drugs or alcohol, attacks on teachers, and murder (NCES, 2008). Recent incidents of campus violence include the occurrence of an ex-student shooting a teacher and others in North Illinois University campus, a woman shooting two classmates on the Baton Rouge campus of Louisiana Technical College, and another incident where 33 people were shot dead at Virginia Tech and has been dubbed as the biggest case of mass shooting in modern American history (Sander & Ashburn, 2008).
Campus violence impacts teacher and student turnover as well as initiate serious psychological problems for the victims. Victims of such acts of violence are compelled to leave school by dropping out or by taking a leave of absence. To recover from the shock of the event, they may even have to move back home to “regroup, or transfer to a school closer to home” (Carr, 2005, p. 3). If the victims remain in school, they face severe psychological problems including problems of concentrating, studying, and attending classes. They become psychological distorts and panicky. As reported by Carr (2005), these victims always fear running into the perpetrator and so avoid social activities and ultimately becoming introverts. This causes stressful college life which leads to development of clinical symptoms of trauma or anxiety that affect their mental and physical health. Even though there are such serious consequences of violence on campus, the reporting of such violence is very low. According to NCES Report (2008) shows that there were more than 77 percent schools in 2005-06 who experienced one or more violent incidents and less than 38 percent of these were reported. This essay tries to as certain why there has been an increase in campus violence acts even with preventive regulations and increased awareness and how these can be reduced in future.
To find the solution to the problems of campus violence it is necessary to understand what the root causes of such problems are. Violence takes different forms and the underlying reasons to such violent acts are different. For instance, let us consider the case of sexual harassment. As defined by American College Health Association (ACHA) sexual harassment may be defined as, “unwelcome sexual conduct which is related to any condition of employment or evaluation of student performance. It includes unwarranted sex-related comments, sexually explicit comments or graphics, unwelcome touching, etc.” (Carr, 2005, p. 3) different cross-cultural studies of campuses all over the US has shown that the main reasons for such violence are sex “role socialization, rape myths, lack of sanctions for woman abuse, male peer group support, pornography, and all-male membership groups such as fraternities and sports teams as contributors to sexual violence” (Carr & VanDeusen, 2004; Carr, 2005, p. 7). Stalking is an imminent problem which is a result of emotional or psychological injury, physical harm, or sexual assault on a person who then shows his/her violence induced aggression by following others. According to a report by Fisher et al. (2000) respondents who participated in the study showed that 10.3 percent of stalking incidents resulted in forced or attempted sexual contact. The report also showed that stacking had a psychological impact on victims which, according to the report, was the most common harm caused. The study revealed that 30 percent of victims in their sample reported being injured emotionally or psychologically (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). Further, campus dating violence is very common in the colleges in the US. This can be defined as the actual or threatened physical or sexual violence or psychological and emotional abuse towards the perpetrator’s present or former partner whom he was or is dating (Carr, 2005). The primary reason behind such incidents of violence (especially against women) is the lack certain a social skill in the perpetrator, such as communication skills, which has led to problematic situations with their intimate partners, induces such violence (Holtzworth-Monroe, Bates, & Smutzler, 1997). Intoxication and drugs of the victims or the perpetrators causes such violence (Carr, 2005). Ethnic, racial, and gender-based hate violence have become very common in campuses today. Such crimes are termed as bias crimes are defined by Federal Hate Crime Statistics Act (1990) as crimes “motivated, in whole or in part, by hatred against a victim based on his or her race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin or disability” (Carr, 2005, p. 5). Statistical data from the FBI for the year 1998 shows that 57 percent of hate crimes on campus were motivated by race, 18 percent by anti-Semitism, and 16 percent were induces by sexual orientation of the perpetrator or the victim (Wessler & Moss, 2001).
Evidences of campus violence are extensive and the reasons are attached to psychological or socio-psychological problems in the perpetrators. Mostly violence is against minority group viz. women, racial, color, etc. A school of believers suggest that proper administration can bring about a solution and end to these violent acts (Carr, 2005). One way for the administration to control violence in campuses is by creating awareness that there are cells and help groups in campuses to whom instances of aggression can be reported. These acts of aggression can then be dealt with by the administration than waiting for the act of violence to actually occur. Another school believes that too many campuses administrations trivialize, meddle, and ignore such acts of violence (Dekeseredy & Schwartz, 2000). The latter school suggests that as the cause of violence (especially against women) is caused due to male aggression, one important factor that can induce this to stop is male abusiveness (Dekeseredy & Schwartz, 2000).
Campus violence is a problem pertaining to the larger societal and not only pertains to the educational institutions. Hence, elimination of this problem requires a conjoint effort of students, parents, faculty, and the community alike. Education institutions are the forerunner of economic prosperity as they are the creators of the drivers of the economy. But such act of violence in the campuses cripples the life in campus and the education system and consequently the economy as a whole.
Works Cited
Baum, K., & Klaus, P. (2005). Violent victimization of college students, 1995-2002. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics: NCJ Publication No. 206836.
Carr, J. L. (2005). Campus Violence White Paper. Baltimore, MD: American College Health Association.
Carr, J. L., & VanDeusen, K. (2004). Risk factors for male sexual aggression on college campuses. Journal of Family Violence 19(5) , 279-289.
Dekeseredy, W. S., & Schwartz, M. D. (2000). The Role of Profeminist Men in Dealing with Women Abuse on the Canadian College Campus. Violence Against Women 6(9) , 918-935.
Fisher, B. S., Cullen, F. T., & Turner, M. G. (2000). The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Criminal Justice Reference Service: NCJRS Publication No. 182369.
Holtzworth-Monroe, A., Bates, L., & Smutzler, &. S. (1997). A brief review of the research on husband violence: Part 1:Maritally violent vs. nonviolent men. Aggression and Violent Behavior 2(1) , 65-99.
NCES. (2008). School Violence, from NAtional School for Education Statistics. Web.
Sander, L., & Ashburn, E. (2008). At Northern Illinois U., All the Preparation in the World Couldn’t Prevent a Tragedy. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Wessler, S., & Moss, M. (2001). Hate Crimes On Campus: The Problem and Efforts to Confront It. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance: NCJ Publication No. 187249.