Abstract/Details

Undergraduate admission application as a campus crime mitigation measure: Disclosure of applicants' disciplinary background information and its relation to campus crime

The number of institutions of higher education reviewing their applicants' disciplinary background at the time of admission is increasing due to the pressure to provide a safe learning environment for college students. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is a difference in the rate of campus crime between institutions that inquire about undergraduate applicants' disciplinary background during the admission process and those that do not. The primary independent variable was the practice of gathering disciplinary background information; the secondary independent variables were control of the institution, ratio of students living on-campus, gender distribution of the undergraduate student population, and size of the city in which the institution was located; and the dependent variable was the rate of campus crime.

The study utilized a cross-sectional design and collected retrospective data from a web-based survey administered to undergraduate admission directors at 227 subject institutions as well as from secondary sources, such as the Clery Act. Descriptive statistics were generated to examine the demographic characteristics of subject institutions and two-way ANOVAs were performed to test the null hypotheses of no difference in the rate of campus crime between institutions that inquire into applicants' disciplinary background and those that do not. No statistically significant differences were detected.

The results of this study suggest that the practice of inquiring into applicants' criminal background, school judicial background, and military discharge information may not be an effective measure of mitigating campus crime. This area of higher education research is vastly unexplored in the literature. Further examination of the practice of reviewing disciplinary background information at the time of admission and replication of this exploratory study using other variables is recommended. Additional research data may aid institutions of higher education in devising innovative means of advancing campus safety.