Journal of Law and Criminal Justice

Crime on Campus: Policy Implications and Procedures for Securing Safe Schools in the 21st Century.
Ferris Roger Byxbe, Ph.D.; Martin Guevara Urbina, Ph.D.

Abstract
There is little doubt that drugs and gangs are national threats in contemporary society and interact to serve as contributing factors to crime on campus. Parents, teachers, and students expect schools to be a safe environment, which correlates with learning, as acts of violence disrupt the learning process, not to mention having a profoundly negative emotional impact on those affected by experiencing or viewing violence. According to a recent report on crime and school safety, students age 12 through 18 are the victims of more than 2.7 million crimes on campus each year, with 28 percent of all public school students report being involved in criminal activities on school property (Neiman, 2011). The primary source of tension specifically related to public schools in contemporary society is the proliferation of criminal activities furthered fused by globalization, as illustrated by the emerging symbolic relationship between drugs, gangs, and guns in America’s schools. In the new millennium, criminal organizations have expanded to increase their profit and control, having long-term longevity (embedded), facilitate criminal activities, use violence at every level of their trade, and engage in mass corruption, thereby, degrading the learning environment, the characteristics of pedagogy within schools, and contribute to the ethical and moral decline of children. This article, then, explores the concept of In Loco Parentis as a venue to preserve the sanctity of the educational process, while seeking to address Constitutional issues of the Fourth Amendment as they relate to the security of schools within a global society in the twenty-first century.

Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jlcj.v3n2a1