What must institutions of higher education disclose according to the Campus Hate Crimes Right to Know Act of 1997, and why was it created (present the findings from the Congressional hearing)? Why would places of higher education not want to disclose all criminal incidents that occur on their campus?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Disclose all criminal incidents that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or disability. Findings from the Congressional hearing—incidence of violence based on bias on college campuses poses a serious national problem; this violence disrupts the tranquility and safety of campuses and results in divisiveness; the existing reporting requirements are inadequate to deal with the problem of hate crimes, since the majority of hate crimes on college campuses do not result in murder, rape, or aggravated assault, and omitting certain hate crimes from official campus crime reports deprives students and their parents of important information needed to protect students and to make informed decisions in choosing a college or university. Colleges or universities may not want to disclose these incidents because students may decide not to go to those schools because they are scared, or parents may not let their sons or daughters attend those schools because they believe them to be unsafe. Also, schools would have to combat the negative stereotypes that accompany some crimes as well as implement new plans to make the campus safer (costly).