The Dark Side of the Ivory Tower
Campus Crime as a Social Problem

Chronicles how four groups of activists convinced the public that campus crime posed a new danger to college students.

John J. Sloan III (Author), Bonnie S. Fisher (Author)

9780521195171, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2010

228 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.7 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

"John Sloan and Bonnie Fisher provide a succinct historic perspective on crime and violence on college campuses and an engaging and thought-provoking assessment on the social construction of 'campus crime'.... [T]his book is a valuable addition to a crime policy class and can be integrated into many other classes—including Victimology. It is easily comprehendible for students and serves as a jumping off point for further discussions of campus crime." - Crime, Law, and Social Change

A cursory reading of the history of US colleges and universities reveals that campus crime has been part of collegiate life since the Colonial Era, yet it was not until the late 1980s that it suddenly became an issue on the public stage. Drawing from numerous mass media and scholarly sources and using a theoretical framework grounded in social constructionism, this text chronicles how four groups of activists - college student advocates, feminists, victims and their families, and public health experts - used a variety of tactics and strategies to convince the public that campus crime posed a new danger to the safety and security of college students and the ivory tower itself, while simultaneously convincing policymakers to take action against the problem. Readers from a range of disciplinary interests will find the book both compelling and valuable to understanding campus crime as a newly constructed social reality.

1. Violence, vice, and victimization on American college and university campuses: a brief history lesson
2. Constructing campus crime as a new social problem
3. Constructing unsafe and violent college campuses
4. Constructing the sexual victimization of college women on campus
5. Constructing postsecondary institutional liability for campus crime
6. Constructing binge drinking on college campuses
7. The legacy of claimsmakers: institutionalizing the dark side of the ivory tower.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV], Sociology [JHB]