The Legacy of Claimsmakers

Abstract

We want to briefly discuss a central presumption of the Clery Act – that students have a right to know about crime on campuses because [institutions of higher education] are potentially dangerous places. To a degree, it is difficult to argue against students having more knowledge about the safety risks of the [schools] that they are attending or may choose to attend. However, using the law to address social problems…is not cost free. It is burdensome on the [schools] to have to implement an unfunded mandate that requires them to collect crime statistics…and to publish and distribute annual security reports. In this regard, it seems reasonable to place the Clery Act in an appropriate social context about whether college and university campuses are, in fact, sufficiently dangerous places to warrant legislatively mandated oversight. The social construction of campus crime as a new American social problem began during the late 1980s and into the 1990s with claims made by four groups: Security On Campus, Inc. (SOC); campus feminists; student crime victims and their families; and public health researchers. Collectively, their claims created a damning picture of the “new reality” of the dark side of the ivory tower. Each group claimed ownership of a particular aspect of the campus crime problem and legitimatized ownership of that component. With the help of electronic and print media, each group spread its message to the public about the problem it had identified. Eventually, each group had its claims institutionalized, and through individual and collective efforts, the legislative and judicial branches of government established new mandates and rulings designed to attack the problems of violence, vice, and victimization on college campuses. Administrators at postsecondary institutions responded, in turn, by implementing new campus-based policies or programs aimed at complying with the mandates. Claims about crime occurring on American college and university campuses and the spread of these claims occurred despite historical evidence showing that violence, vice, and victimization had existed on American college and university campuses for nearly 300 years. Yet, within two decades, four activist groups had convinced not only the parents of college-age children but the American public as well that campus crime was a “new and dangerous threat” to the health, safety, and well-being of millions of American college-age students. As the public demanded action, state legislatures and then Congress became involved and created new policy mandates concerning how higher education would respond to the “new” problem of campus crime.