Crime Rates in Colleges and Universities
The article focuses on the crime rates in universities and colleges, and also provides information and data on the chronology of events involving crime in colleges and campuses. The article has relied more on the data provided by the published research. The news article has therefore provided the crimes rates, number of shootings, location where the events took place, which was basically areas in or around the college or learning institutions vicinity. In addition, it has also provided data on the number of students who were shot, and those who were wounded, and the ones who also died. The media article aims at determining the safety of students at institutions of higher learning, through the provision of information relating to crimes involving students either directly or indirectly within the learning institutions. Through providing the data, it becomes clear based on the number of shootings which have taken places in universities and colleges in the US that crime rates as still high. However, judging from the statics provided in the article, the data shows a decline in the number of incidents across campuses in the US. For instance, in the year 2006 and 2016, the total number of report crimes in institutions of higher learning decreased by 32% (Cannon, 2016). In addition, the article also provided the efforts put in place by campuses in ensuring the safety of its students. In 4 year educational institutions which have more than 2,500 students and above, campuses employed 75% armed officers, which is an increase by 10% from the last decade. Lastly, the use of data is to back up the information provided by the article (McGrath, 2019).
The article has only focused on information concerning the security of learning institutions, henceforth it has not included all the data from the published research. This is so because, the research has emphasised on shooting in learning institutions, those who took part in shooting, and the source of the guns (Cannon, 2016). Moreover, it has consequently picked on the information which is relevant to its audience, thus living out the source of the guns. The published research has talked about the source of the gun, which it has however not provided the exact place where shooters acquired the guns from. Similarly, the article did not also talk about the victims of the incident, nonetheless, the published research talked about the victims, some of whom were campus students while others were not. The main reason why the article did not touch on this area was for the reason that the writer wanted to be precise, hence only focused on areas of much importance without delving deeper into the matter. Finally, the author does not provide any justification for omitting these information, but the author’s intentions become clear since, the article is only concerned with the number of incidents, and how the learning institutions have prepared themselves in combatting this issue.
The article has provided adequate insights into the research, through providing detailed explanation on the data provided. Moreover, the author of the article has used the data as a means of providing evidence to what the article is talking about. In so doing, the information provided by the article becomes reliable and easy to understand without having to do more research on the issue. In as much as the article has provided adequate insights to the published research, in some cases, the article has failed to provide additional information regarding the data (Gilgun, 2014). For instance, the article has only presented the data in the same the data has been presented in the research, without offering additional information on the data.
The researcher method used case study research which was significant in compiling the results, however, the author focused on sources such as news reports, some of which cannot be relied upon. In as much as the information might seem correct, in some cases news reports may contain altered information, which may eventually lead into false interpretation of results. In addition, the author has also provided a clear research question, which makes it possible to understand the main aim of the research (Burnett, 2009). On the contrary, the research has answered most parts of the research question provided, thus making the research significant. For example, the question has been on the significance of ensuring security in learning institution, the research has provided the necessary data on the reasons as to why the incidents occurred, where they took place, who was involved, and the areas prone to such incidences. On the other hand, the research has also gone ahead to provide a detailed explanation on how states can ensure the security of students in campuses, which is though enacting serious gun laws. The research also focused on one side of the research question, whereby it only provided the ways through which shooting can be controlled in or around campuses, but it did not provide alternatives of ensuring campus students to not indulge in evil acts. If strict laws are put in place to prevent the use of a gun carelessly, then learning institutions should also come up with ways of reducing crime through encouraging students not to participate in crime.
The methodology used in the inclusion of source of information into the research was not suitable. This is so because, the research focused on sources which had at least a single person being shot by a civilian in the campus or around the campus. The main issue is on the shooter, the research was only concerned with civilian shooters in campus area. The research was not consequently convinced that students could also participate in such acts, where a student becomes the actual shooter in the learning institution (Hancock & Algozzine, 2017). In so doing, the research tends to be one sided, thus it provides alternatives based on intrusion of a shooter into the campus, whereas students can also be the actual perpetrators of shootings in learning institutions.
The research provided good results and alternatives to crimes in learning institutions, which makes it significant. In addition, the results showed the incidents were majorly caused by access to guns by the victims, and in areas with a huge number of registered gun owners, the prevalence of shootings in campuses was higher. Lastly, the article did not address the strengths and weaknesses of the research, as it only acquired necessary data from the research which was relevant to the information it was presenting (Gilgun, 2014). As a matter of fact, the article did not focus so much on the research, but it only focused on the provided data, which was significant in explaining the extent of crime in campuses across the US.
References
McGrath, K., M. (2019). Top Campus Safety You Should Know: Rave Mobile Safety. Retrieved from: https://www.ravemobilesafety.com/blog/top-campus-safety-statistics-you-should-know
Cannon, A., (2016). Aiming At Students the College Gin Violence Epidemic: Citizens Crime Commission of New York City. Retrieved from: http://www.nycrimecommission.org/pdfs/CCC-Aiming-At-Students-College-Shootings-Oct2016.pdf
Gilgun, J. F. (2014). Chicago school traditions: Deductive qualitative analysis and grounded theory ; a reader. Createspace.
Burnett, J. (2009). Doing your social science dissertation. London: SAGE.
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Hancock, D. R., & Algozzine, R. (2017). Doing case study research: A practical guide for beginning researchers.
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