Patton, Robert C., and Dennis E. Gregory. “Perceptions of Safety by On-Campus Location, Rurality, and Type of Security/Police Force: The Case of the Community College.” Journal of College Student Development, vol. 55, no. 5, 2014, pp. 451–460., doi:10.1353/csd.2014.0049.

This study examined Virginia community college students’ perceptions of campus safety. A survey of 11,161 students revealed the crimes students most feared being a victim of while on the community college campus and the areas in which they felt the most and least safe. The research also demonstrated the effect of certain variables had on students’ overall perception of campus safety. The variables studied included student demographics, the presence and type of security personnel, and the rurality of the campus setting. The campuses with the highest and lowest degrees of perceived safety were then further studied via case studies to gather detailed information, which may assist college administrators and policymakers in improving campus safety on community college campuses.

The article’s topic is perceptions of college campus safety. The research question is how do demographics, location, level of security, etc. affect a community college student’s perception of safety on campus? The type of data needed for this research project shallow and deeply held opinions and attitudes, demographic data, and reports of acts, behavior, and events.

The quantitative portion of the study utilized a non experimental survey research design. This study used electronic surveys to collect data on students’ perceptions of campus safety. After they got the results from the surveys, they collected qualitative data through case studies. They identified the most and the least safe based on student responses to the survey. The purpose of this case study was to identify characteristics, actions, and policies that may have affected students’ perceptions of campus safety.

I think that this source provides a great deal of information on perceptions of campus safety. I think that the data collection methods the researchers used were good and I think that it was good that they did both surveys and case studies. This is a great way to discover a lot, while also keeping the research budget relatively low, in comparison to doing case studies everywhere. I thought that this source was relative to the research topic we chose to do our interview practice with.