Students' experiences of crime at Loughborough University

Far from being safe "ivory towers", recent evidence (mainly from the USA) suggests that there is a high level of crime experienced by students on university campuses. This research comprises a victim survey of all full-time second year students at Loughborough University. Using a questionnaire based closely on that used by the British Crime Survey (BCS), phase I of the survey took place between January and March 1994 and recorded crimes which had occurred during the previous 13 month period. A total of 1735 questionnaires were distributed during lectures and 1239 were returned giving a response rate of71.4%. Phase 2 of the survey took place in May and June 1994 and consisted of follow-up interviews with a sample of respondents who had indicated in phase 1 that they had suffered some form of crime victimisation. In all 79 victims were interviewed, representing approximately 12% of the victim population. In addition to obtaining data on the nature and scale of crime victimisation, the research also obtained information about patterns of drug use, fear of crime, repeat (multiple) victimisation, crime reporting, satisfaction with police service and racially and sexually motivated crimes, as well as comparing the results with that for similar (non-student) age groups. The results showed a victimisation rate in excess of 56%, confirming the earlier USA based studies. The prevalence rate for males and females was very similar. The most common form of crime victimisation, both on and off campus was assault, followed closely by burglary. Multiple victimisation data also confirmed earlier research and showed that a very small proportion of victims (in this case 4%) suffered a disproportionately high rate of victimisation (nearly 18% of all incidents). A substantial amount of under-reporting of crime was also noted, with only 39.4% of victims reporting their incident(s).