The dark figure of crime : University students’ perspective

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on why crimes go unreported at University of Malta campus. This research study reviews peer reviewed books and journals in order to establish the extent of the dark figure of crime particularly at university campuses and the perspective of students mostly why it goes unreported. University campuses are relatively safe places where crime rate is low and lethal violence is a rare occurrence. Nevertheless, they still experience a large percentage of hidden crime. Amongst the crime on campuses, sexual violence mainly sexual harassment, sexual assaults, stalking and rape are getting to the attention of campus administrators and policy makers. This is because such occurrences are on the increase however are greatly underreported. Campus and crime victimisation surveys were also analysed which together with the reviewed theories helped the researcher in carrying out the methodology. The quantitative approach was chosen where online questionnaires were carried out to University of Malta students. Results were then analysed and discussed with regards to the reviewed literature. What was evident from this research is that crime on campus does go unreported by University of Malta students. As a conclusion, further studies are recommended regarding sexual violence amongst university and higher educational institutions as according to literature such offences are rising but still heavily not reported. Policy makers and campus administrators can also carry out questionnaires annually or biannually to have a better understanding of their true extent. It was concluded that there must be more awareness on the importance of reporting.