Despite significant cultural attention on the phenomenon of school shootings, one of the most predictive dimensions of these tragedies is under-analyzed: gender. Men commit 98% of mass shootings, but robust discussion and research on this relationship is lacking. This dissertation investigates the relationship between masculinity and gun violence…

Our nation's postsecondary institutions are entrusted to provide a safe and healthy learning environment for the students, faculty, and staff who live, work, and study on campus. Planning for emergencies may be challenging for institutions of higher education (IHEs) because of geography, environment, governance, around-the clock-operations, and…

Douglas Kellner's "Re-Visioning Education: Cultural Studies, Critical Media and Digital Literacies, and Democracy" provides a comprehensive account of his critical theory of education that combines his work in philosophy of education, cultural studies, and media and digital literacies aimed at a critical theory of education and radical…

The goal of this qualitative case study was to determine what institutional processes and practices have been developed in relationship to mass shootings and gun violence, as well as how mass shootings in educational settings impact the way a campus responds and prepares a safety plan. Through speaking with threat assessment team members, student…

This dissertation adds to the economic study of gun and marijuana laws. Chapter 1 studies the impact of stand your ground laws (SYGs) on traffic fatalities. Chapter 2 investigates the effects of campus concealed carry laws (CCCs) on higher education outcomes. Chapter 3 looks at the impact of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on youth crimes. The first…

Using a data set that captures the introduction and enactment of "campus carry" bills between 2004 and 2016, we examined how the state policy adoption and diffusion framework explains the policy process related to allowing concealed weapons on the campuses of U.S. colleges and universities. Panel data logistic regression analyses…

This report examines findings from the 2020 PACE/USC Rossier poll of California voters. The poll represents the views of 2,000 registered California voters across a range of topics from early childhood education to higher education. Based on these results, the authors have identified five key findings: (1) There is growing pessimism about the…

At the end of the 84th Legislative session, Texas joined seven other states in giving individuals the right to carry a concealed handgun on campuses of higher education. With guns being allowed on higher education campuses, little is known about the perceptions of the students whom attend these higher education institutions. Politicians are making…

The 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech is one part of a decades-long increase in the frequency of gun violence on U.S. college and university campuses (Drysdale, Modzeleski, & Simons, 2010; Ferraro, 2015). The events at Virginia Tech also served as a catalyst for the spread of so-called "campus-carry" laws, or acts of state policy…

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of crime and discipline on graduation rates in higher education. Using national data on more than 1250 public and private non-profit institutions that were drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the results reveal that more violence on and around campus is associated with…

On April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Tech University, known to be mentally ill, went on a rampage shooting 49 people on campus before taking his own life. When it was over, 32 people were dead, and the concept of a safe campus was forever changed. The incident revealed the inherent conflicts between campus safety concerns and students' civil…

"Guns on Campus: The Architecture and Momentum of State Policy Action" offers a detailed summary of state legislative action and higher education system policy decisions that have occurred in two specific categories: (1) States that have permitted or are seeking to permit guns on campus; and (2) States that have prohibited or are seeking…

NASPA--Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and Education Commission of the States (ECS) have partnered to address legislative developments and offer considerations for leaders in higher education and policy on two top-level safety issues facing the higher education community: campus sexual violence and guns on campus. The first in a…

"The Structure of Schooling: Readings in the Sociology of Education" exposes students to examples of sociological research on schools, with a focus on the school as community. Now in its Third Edition, this engaging reader has broadened its scope even more, presenting additional readings in particular related to the sociology of higher…

One of the numerous responses to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007 has been the call for higher education institutions in the United States to take an increased role in identifying troubled students. This has had widely felt effects, with educational institutions across the United States developing mechanisms such as Threat…