Student perceptions of safety at urban, suburban, and rural community colleges

The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate student perceptions of safety at urban, suburban, and rural community colleges using three community colleges in the mid-Atlantic region. The study also examined the demographic variables (gender, race, age group, academic classification, and the geographic location). This quantitative study employed causal comparative methods to analyze data from the survey instrument on campus safety. Participants in this study were from urban, suburban, and rural community colleges in the Mid-Atlantic Region. SPSS was used to conduct the analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic variables. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were employed to test the null hypotheses at an alpha level of .05. The Kruskal Wallis was also conducted to reaffirm any significance the ANOVA test found or find significance where the ANOVA did not. The result of this study indicated that male and female students, freshmen and sophomore, and students of different races and age groups have the same perceptions of fear of crime on campus. Students from urban, suburban, and rural community colleges also perceived fear of crime the similarly. Female students were more likely than their male counterparts to perceive the likelihood of being victimized despite the geographical location. Students’ age group, racial makeup, or academic standing (freshmen and sophomore) did not differ in their perception of likelihood of being victimized. Students who were from different geographic locations had different perceptions when it came to the likelihood of being victimized on campus. Tukey Post hoc comparison suggests that suburban and rural community college students’ perceptions differed from those of urban community college students in terms of likelihood of being victimized but were not significantly different otherwise. The results of this study have contributed to the body of research on community college students’ perceptions of safety