Students’ Violence at the University of Jordan

This study investigates the attitudes of undergraduate students at the University of Jordan towards the causes and consequences of violence, culture and violence, and the proposed solutions to curb this phenomenon. Data were gathered from a proportional stratified sample of 629 male and female students through a questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using the SPSS software. Descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, and means were used to characterize the sample. Quantitative statistics were also employed, including one-way ANOVA and Cornobach’s Alpha. For all analysis, the level of significance was set at alpha = 0.05. The findings show that the most common causes of students’ violence in campus from the respondents’ perspective included tribal fanaticism, masculinity, lack of fear from punishment, inadequate socialization, and poor investing of free time. Furthermore, the main consequences of violence included creating a bad reputation about campus, destroying university property, creating a negative image about campus among foreign students, and a feeling of insecurity inside campus. Moreover, the proposed solutions to reduce violence included launching awareness campaigns among students, publicizing the identity of violent students, increasing extra-curricular activities, encouraging students to respect the concept of national unity, creating more informal interactions between students, administrators, and teaching staff. Finally, the respondents viewed violence as unethical, contradictory with the teachings of Islamic and Christian religions, human values, and societal expectations from students. Upon the findings of the study, many recommendations were made.