Month/Year of Graduation

5-2026

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Criminology and Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Dr. Samantha S. Clinkinbeard

Abstract

Institutions of higher education play a critical role in regulating student behavior; however, existing research has given limited attention to how students themselves interpret conduct addressed through campus disciplinary systems. The present study examined how college students differentiate institutional misconduct from crime in university settings and whether those judgments are associated with perceptions of institutional legitimacy. Data was collected through an online Qualtrics survey administered to 146 students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Participants were presented with six vignette-based scenarios depicting campus-relevant behaviors and asked to classify each as criminal or non-criminal, rate its perceived severity, and identify the authority they believed should respond. Students who reported prior contact with university authorities also completed a procedural justice measure assessing perceptions of fairness in disciplinary processes. Results revealed considerable variability in classification across scenarios, indicating that distinctions between misconduct and crime were not applied consistently or solely based on formal legal criteria. Across most scenarios, seriousness ratings were higher among participants who classified the behaviors as criminal than among those who did not, suggesting a close relationship between classification and perceived severity. Among participants with prior authority contact, perceptions of procedural justice were significantly above the scale midpoint, reflecting generally favorable evaluations of institutional processes. Taken together, the findings indicate that university disciplinary systems play a meaningful role in shaping how emerging adults interpret wrongdoing and authority, particularly in contexts where institutional and criminal classifications overlap.

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