Date Awarded

1992

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

James M. Yankovich

Abstract

Recent instances of campus crime, government intervention, increased media attention, and significant public concern has caused widespread institutional reaction to the issue of campus crime. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of two types of educational, proactive, crime prevention programs implemented in the residential setting. The two programs evaluated were crime prevention seminars conducted by campus safety and residential life personnel and the periodic distribution of crime prevention literature within the residential environment. The author hoped to concentrate on filling the research deficiency in the area of actual effectiveness of the preventive, educational crime prevention programs.;Six single-sex residence hall environments were studied at the University of Richmond in Virginia. One residence hall in each of the gender categories served as a control residence area. The residents of the remaining four residence halls were either distributed crime prevention literature or exposed to a crime prevention seminar. Prior to and following the implementation of the educational programs, students living in the six experimental residence halls completed a survey which assessed personal crime prevention behaviors and personal attitudes toward crime prevention. Also, prior to and following the implementation of the educational treatments, student residence life staff and computer equipment measured the number of unlocked room doors in the six experimental halls and the number of propped exterior doors in the three female residence halls. Statistical procedures permitted a comparison of the data prior to and following the experimental treatment in order to assess the effectiveness of the programs in improving survey responses, increasing the number of locked room doors, and decreasing the number of propped exterior doors.;The general hypothesis of the study was that these educational interventions within the residential environment would influence positive changes in the degree of safety conscious behaviors observed. The hypothesis was partially supported. Statistical tests were conducted to test four subsidiary research questions which produced the following results. First, no evidence was found to suggest a difference between new students and upper-class students in regard to improving personal perceptions of crime prevention behaviors and attitudes as measured by the survey instrument. Secondly, the presence of an educational crime prevention treatment produced a lower overall unlocked room door mean in the female residence halls studied. The female residence hall populations receiving the literature and seminar treatments had lower overall means in terms of the number of times room doors were left unlocked in comparison to the female control residence hall. Thirdly, tests on the locked door data and propped exterior door data revealed that the seminar intervention was most influential in decreasing the mean score of the number of unlocked rooms.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-tmta-pj34

Rights

© The Author

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