Victimization and fear of crime on campuses. Findings and prospects
Résumé
Most research on school (Cacouault-Bitaud &Œuvrard, 2009) reminds us of the current situation of "violence", relayed by the media, but also of how emotionally charged this issueis. In addition, the public data processing provided to institutions shows thecurrentinstruments’ imperfection in counting victims and perpetrators. While researchers are interested in victimization in Secondary Education (Debarbieux, 2004), we have very little evidence of victimization of studentsin Higher Education. In France and Europe, the public debate is fueledby a single statistical source: police statistics. However, researchers have developed general populationsurveysin the United States (Fleury DeVoe & Bauer, 2011; Barrett &al.,2012; Sloan & al.,1997) and more particularly in France (Robert&Zauberman, 2011; 2017). Thus, we focus onpositioningoneself from the victim's point of view. Based on victimization surveys conducted on 3 university campuses in France, the results of my research presented reveal the nature of the acts of delinquency and incivility among students by showing that they differ according to the location of these particular social spaces. This research, which is unprecedented inFrance, highlights the prevalence of victimization, the victimprofilesand attempts to measure the feeling of insecurity (with statistic data: 1250 questionnaires) in an institution that welcomes a growing proportion of young people. This inventory constitutes essential scientific knowledge at a time when issues of securing public places, in the context of the Bologna Process at work, are the subject of much debate across Europe.