Measuring the Impact of Background Checks on Reducing Crime in Higher Education

Abstract

Responding to a variety of constituent pressures in recent years, a number of states in the U.S. have enacted legal requirements that their public universities conduct background checks on prospective new employees. The assumption behind these mandates is that background checks reduce crime on campus. This study will attempt to test that assumption by utilizing data gathered under the reporting requirements of the Clery Act, from four states which have passed legislation requiring background checks: Arizona, Kentucky, Utah, and Wisconsin. The results of this preliminary study suggest that states that have either legislated or mandated the use of criminal background checks on new hires in university environments have not experienced a reduction in Clery Act incidents on their campus when comparing their pre-background check activity with their post-background check implementation. When the quality of the background check being utilized is included in the analysis, the results continue to show that there is no change in the Clery Act incident levels when comparing their pre-background check activity with their post-background check implementation.It is important to note that, prior to the launch of this study, we did not find any specific references to suggest that Clery Act reports were primarily capturing student level criminal data so we were surprised to find that background checks had no impact at all on campus crime levels.So, the results of this study may inadvertently provide support to the recognition that the Clery data tend to reflect only student-level criminal activity whereas the background checks analyzed in this report were applied only to new hires or transfers to new positions.While student employees were often covered in these policies, the general student population was not, setting the stage for a necessary follow-up study that looks at Clery Act data in universities that are utilizing background checks in their admissions practices to see if there is a measureable impact on their Clery campus crime statistics.

Measuring the Impact of Student Background Checks on Reducing Crime in Higher Education

“…having a positive impact at reducing the rate of Clery Act reports per 1,000 students based on a pre-and post-background check assessment (Hughes et al, 2014). Further, when the quality of the background check being utilized is also included in the analysis, the results continue to show that there is no change in the Clery Act incident levels when comparing their pre-background check activity with their post-background check implementation.…”

“…A multi-factor, repeated-measures, partially-nested analysis of variance (ANOVA) model is utilized in this research effort because we are interested in whether there are changes in the Clery Act rates over time due to a pre-treatment, post-treatment design when accounting for the use of background checks. This is the same analysis utilized in our prior research effort that tested whether the implementation of background checks on employees helped to reduce campus crime (Hughes et. al., 2014).…”

“…This legislation required any college campus, that received federal student aid, to annually collect and publish campus crime statistics, so that prospective students and their parents could make educated decisions about whether a particular school was the right fit for the student (www.securityoncampus.org). Overall, while the rate of crime on U.S. college campuses from 2007-2010 has dropped a dramatic 22% (see Table 1) this decline may reflect the broader national trend towards lower crime rates: violent crime (defined by FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program as "composed of four offenses: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault") is down 15%, and property crime has decreased by 11% in the same time frame (Hughes et al, 2014).…”

“…This study of the impact of criminal background checks on pre-matriculated students and campus crime follows the Hughes et al, (2014) methodology in their study of criminal background checks, by using "Clery" data to evaluate pre-and post-implementation of various institutional and legal mandates surrounding background checks and the overall level of crime reported at colleges and universities. These data are available from the U.S. Department of Education's Campus Crime Statistics tool mandated by the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, known as the Clery Act, which tabulates "on-campus" crime for all postsecondary institutions that receive Title IV funding (i.e., those that participate in federal student aid programs).…”

“…Using the Clery data as described above, and following the methodology used in an earlier study on criminal background checks for prospective employees (Hughes et al, 2014), this analysis attempts to measure the effectiveness of student background checks at reducing the rate of criminal activity on college campuses. Clery Act statistics for all four-year public institutions were collected in North Carolina for the three years before and, at a minimum, three years after implementation of student background check requirements.…”