Violence on Campus - Essay Example

ming from any number of issues, leads to violence against others, significant steps are required on behalf of university policy-makers to combat the growing problem of violence on campus. This paper will describe campus violence, provide solutions for these problems from a sociological and psychological perspective, and also highlight difficulties with current anti-violence policies on todays campuses. Campus violence occurs when any variety of criminal activities transpire on the grounds of todays colleges and universities and includes, but is not limited to, petty theft, assault, rape, and even murder.

Between 1995 and 2002, nearly 500,000 students between the ages of 18-24 experienced some form of campus violence (Acha.org, 2005). The most common types of violence occurring involved forced sexual intercourse and aggravated assault (Acha.org). The most alarming statistic suggests that only a small fraction of these criminal incidents are actually reported to police, which tends to infer that a much higher volume of students (other than reported statistics) are experiencing campus violence. Though campus violence is largely conducted by the college students themselves, school administrators and faculty, too, have been charged with rape and assault against other students and their peers, suggesting that campus violence is not isolated or linked specifically to student criminal behaviors.

Why, though, does campus violence occur with such alarming frequency? Sociological perspectives on the issue tend to link violence with peer group acceptance. Henslin (2003) offers that college binge drinking, the activity of consuming massive amounts of alcohol over an extended period of time, is the primary catalyst for assault-related behaviors. As the majority of university students, today, maintain housing in local dormitories without parental supervision, student recreation related to constant alcohol consumption is both commonplace and deemed acceptable by a large