Clery Act Timely Warning Emails and Perceptions of Campus Safety

• In Event: The Impact of Legislation on Crime Prevention and Public Safety

Abstract

Per the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (20 U.S.C. 1092[f]) universities must disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. The Clery Act also asserts “Timely Warnings” must be issued for incidents which pose a serious or ongoing threat to university students and employees. However, the language of the Clery Act concerning the geographic region and timeline for which Timely Warnings must be issued is quite vague and subjective (Kiss, 2013). Important to this discussion is not only compliance by the university, but the impact the Clery Act has on perceptions of safety by students and staff. This paper will explore how the Clery Act, through Timely Warning emails, influences perceptions of safety on- and off-campus. Descriptive data will be presented from a population of college students and employees concerning attitudes around safety on- and off-campus. This paper will evaluate situational crime prevention strategies undertaken by the University of Cincinnati to reduce crime as well as fear of crime around campus. Finally, this paper will explore how safety perceptions may diverge from actual risk of victimization through the dissemination of Timely Warnings described by the Clery Act.

Authors

• Gabrielle Isaza, University of Cincinnati

• Robin Engel, University of Cincinnati

• Murat Ozer, University of Cincinnati