The Impact of School Shootings and Violent Crimes on Campus on Undergraduate Students

     School shootings attract a great deal of media attention, despite being statistically rare occurrences (Paradice, 2017). Due to the amount of media attention garnered, much of the information pertaining to school shootings and violent crimes on campuses delivered to the public is derived from the media. Research has shown how viewing media about traumatizing events may promote fear within the public (Fallahi et al., 2009). Further, misrepresentation of risk of these events has aided in fostering a moral panic (Muschert & Ragnedda, 2010). Additionally, this fear can be felt with students as an increase in fear and avoidance behaviors has been shown after a school shooting event (Kaminski, et al., 2010; Addington, 2003). The purpose of this dissertation is to examine undergraduate students’ perceptions of violent crime and school shootings with regard to fear of crime, and avoidance behaviors in a hypothetical situation, using knowledge of school shootings as a moderator of these relationships. Results showed a non-statically significant relationship between participant’s hypothetical avoidance behaviors and fear of crime, and level of knowledge. Results also found no relationship between hypothetical fear of crime and avoidance behaviors, and group condition. Regarding the second hypothesis, the current study found a non-statistically significant relationship between group, knowledge level and hypothetical fear of crime and avoidance behaviors. This research further demonstrates the need for future research on the impact of school shootings and violent crime on undergraduate students.