The topic of this dissertation is college and university safety. This national quantitative study utilized resource dependency theory to examine relationships between the incidence of reported campus crimes and the structure, function, and resources of campus security offices. This study uncovered a difference in reported total crime rates, violent crime rates, and non-violent crime rates for colleges with police officers, internal security, contract security, hybrid departments, and no security office. This study examined the combination of institutional characteristics which best explain the occurrence of total campus crime, violent crime, and non-violent crime on campus. Two forms of data collection were used. Data collection includes the use of a web based survey to determine the structure, function, and resources of selected campus security offices. Additionally, secondary data was extracted from the publicly accessible annual campus security reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Education. Analysis of variance tests found differences between campus security offices, and multivariate linear regression examined the influence of structure, function, and resources of the campus security office on campus crime rates. This study analyzed the statistical relationships between reported crime statistics and the structure, function, and resources available to colleges with campus police departments, internal security, contract security departments, hybrid security office, and no formal security office.
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