Annual Report on School Safety--October 1998

A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

A National Perspective

This section provides a national picture of American schools and the amount of crime experienced by those who work and learn there. It attempts to answer those questions that are at the heart of the school safety issue. How much crime is occurring in our Nation's schools? Are schools more or less safe than in the past? Do students feel safe at school? What kinds of crimes are occurring? How likely is it that students or teachers will become the victims of school crime? What other conditions seem to be associated with an unsafe school environment?

The answers to these questions present a mixed story. We are given hope by data showing declining school crime and a reduction in the number of guns being carried to school. At the same time, there remains a substantial amount of crime, including violent crime, against both students and teachers in too many schools. It is also very important to note that students are more fearful at school today than in the past. These conditions highlight the importance of accurately measuring incidents of school crime so that we can improve our school environments and make them safer places.

Despite recent occurrences, schools should not be singled out as especially dangerous places in the community. Most school crime is theft, not serious violent crime.

While students were victims of about the same number of crimes in and out of school in 1996 (about three million at either location), the nature of crime outside of school is far more serious than in school.

• Students ages 12 through 18 were more likely to be victims of serious violent crime away from school than at school. In 1996, about 26 of every 1,000 students (ages 12 to 18) were victims of serious violent crimes away from school (a total of 671,000 serious violent crimes). In contrast, about 10 of every 1,000 students were victims of serious violent crimes at school or going to and from school (255,000 total).

• In 1996, there were 79 thefts for every 1,000 students (age 12 to 18) at school. Theft accounted for about 62 percent of all crime against students at school that year.

Since 1993, the overall school crime rate for students ages 12 to 18 declined, as did rates of crime outside of school for this group. The percentage of 12th graders reporting intentional injuries with a weapon has not changed significantly during the past 20 years.

• The overall school crime rate between 1993 and 1996 declined slightly, from about 164 school-related crimes for every 1,000 students ages 12 to 18 in 1993 to about 128 such crimes in 1996. Crime victimization outside of school declined from about 140 crimes for every 1,000 students in this age group in 1993 to 117 such crimes in 1996.

• In 1996, 5 percent of all 12^th graders reported that they had been injured on purpose with a weapon such as a knife, gun, or club during the prior 12 months while they were at school, and 12 percent reported that they had been injured on purpose without a weapon. This number has not significantly changed during the past 20 years.

Serious violent crime constitutes a small percentage of the total amount of school crime, and homicide is extremely rare. While the number of multiple homicide events at school has increased, there exists a less than one in a million chance of suffering a school-associated violent death, but even that is too much.

• Fewer than 1 percent of the more than 7,000 children who were murdered in 1992 and 1993 combined were killed at school. In the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years combined, 63 students ages 5 through 19 were murdered at school and 13 committed suicide at school. Nationwide, during roughly the same time-frame, a total of 7,357 children ages 5 to 19 were murdered and 4,366 committed suicide, both in and out of school.
• Preliminary data indicate that school-associated violent deaths have decreased in the past two years.
• The number of multiple-victim homicide events at schools has increased, from two in the 1992-93 school year to six in 1997-98. The number of victims in these events has also increased (from four in 1992-93 to 16 in 1997-98).

A small minority of public schools reported one or more serious violent crimes to the police during the 1996-97 school year. Of crimes reported to police in 1996-97, the most common types of middle and high school crimes were physical attacks and fights without weapons.

• Of crimes reported to police, during the 1996-97 school year, 10 percent of all public schools reported one or more serious violent crimes to the police or other law enforcement representatives. Another 47 percent of public schools reported at least one less serious or nonviolent crime to police (but did not report any serious violent crime). The remaining 43 percent of public schools did not report any of these crimes to the police.

Students in upper grades are more vulnerable to crime, and crime of a more serious nature, than students in lower grades. In addition, students in larger schools experience higher rates of crime at school than students in smaller schools.

• During the 1996-97 school year, about 21 percent of all public high schools and 19 percent of all public middle schools reported at least one and 192,400 thefts from teachers at school. This translates into a rate of 30 violent crimes for every 1,000 teachers and a rate of 46 thefts for every 1,000 teachers.

• One-third of schools with enrollment of 1000 or more reported at least one serious violent crime, compared with less than one-tenth of schools with fewer than 1000 students.
• Schools in cities were at least twice as likely to report serious violent crime as those in towns and in rural locations, although city schools were not significantly different from urban fringe schools. Seventeen percent of city schools and eleven percent of schools in urban fringe areas reported at least one serious violent crime, while 8 percent of rural schools and 5 percent of schools in towns reported any serious violent crime.

As with students, most crime at school against teachers is theft. Teachers in urban schools and high schools are more vulnerable to crime at school than are rural or elementary schools teachers. Although most teachers are female, male teachers had a considerably higher likelihood of being victims of crime.

• On average each year, from 1992 to 1996, as reported by teachers from both public and private schools, there were 123800 violent crimes against teachers at school and 192400 thefts from teachers at school. This translates into a rate of 30 violent crimes for every 1000 teachers and a rate of 46 thefts for every 1000 teachers.

• On average each year, from 1992 to 1996, about four out of every 1,000 elementary, middle, and high school teachers were the victims of serious violent crime at school.
• Teachers in urban schools (39 for every 1,000) were more likely to be victims of violent crime than were teachers in suburban and rural schools (20 for every 1,000 teachers in suburban schools and 22 for every 1,000 teachers in rural schools).

The presence of deadly weapons at school creates an intimidating and threatening atmosphere, making both teaching and learning difficult. Contrary to public perception, the percentages of students who report carrying a weapon or a gun to school has declined in recent years.

• Between 1993 and 1997, there was an overall decline in the percentage of students in grades 9 to 12 who reported carrying a weapon to school at least 1 day in the prior 30 days.
• The percentage of high school seniors who reported carrying a weapon to school on at least 1 day within the previous four weeks declined from 8 percent in 1993 to 6 percent in 1996. The percentage of male students carrying weapons to school fell from 14 percent in 1993 to 9 percent in 1996, but there was little change for female students (on average, about 2 percent of female students took weapons to school during this time period).
• About 3 percent of high school seniors reported carrying a gun to school at least 1 day during the previous 4-week period. This percentage remained fairly stable from 1994 to 1996.

• For the 1996-97 school year, States and territories reported that they had expelled an estimated 6,093 students for bringing a firearm to school.

Crimes involving students and teachers, no matter how infrequent, contribute to a climate of fear that erodes the quality of any school. Although student victimization rates have remained relatively stable over the past few years, more students feel unsafe while they are at school or traveling to and from school.

• In 1989, 6 percent of students ages 12 through 19 feared they were going to be attacked or harmed at school. In 1995, the figure was 9 percent. Looking at the same two time points, the percentage of students fearing they would be attacked while traveling to and from school rose from 4 to 7 percent.

• Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of students ages 12 through 19 who avoided one or more places at school for fear of their own safety increased from 5 to 9 percent.

The presence of street gangs and drugs is related to increased school crime and victimization of students. Gang activity at school has increased sharply. Violent victimization of students often co-exists with reported availability of drugs in school.

• Between 1989 and 1995, the percentage of students who reported that street gangs were present at their schools increased from 15 to 28 percent.
• In 1995, urban students were more likely to report that there were street gangs at their schools (41 percent) than were suburban students (26 percent) or rural students (20 percent). Between 1989 and 1995, reports of gang presence increased across all three residence categories.

• In 1995, students who reported that they had been the victim of a violent crime at school were more likely to report that drugs were available at school than students who reported that they had not been violently victimized at school (73 percent compared with 65 percent).

[Chapter 1: The Nature and Scope of School Violence]

[Public School Policies and Practices Related to School Safety]