9. Specific crimes reported to the police*

Data on the prevalence of specific types of crimes add detail to the more general discussion of serious violent crimes and less serious violent and nonviolent crimes. Each type of crime affects students and schools differently.

• About one-half (44 to 55 percent) of all public middle and high schools reported incidents of vandalism, theft or larceny, and physical attacks or fights without weapons to the police or other law enforcement representatives in the 1996-97 school year (figure 9.1 and table 9.2). Considerably smaller percentages of public middle and high schools reported the more serious violent crimes of rape or other type of sexual battery (5 and 8 percent, respectively); robbery (5 and 8 percent); or physical attack or fight with a weapon (12 and 13 percent) (table 9.1).
• Elementary schools were much less likely than either middle or high schools to report any of the types of crime described here in 1996-97 (figure 9.1 and tables 9.1 and 9.2). They were much more likely to report vandalism (31 percent) than any other crime (19 percent or less).
• In 1996-97, physical attack or fight without a weapon was generally the most commonly reported crime at the middle and high school levels (9 and 8 per 1,000 public school students, respectively) (figure 9.2 and table 9.8). Theft or larceny was more common at the high school than the middle school level (6 versus 4 per 1,000 students).
• Overall, there was relatively little variation by urbanicity in the crime rates at school discussed here during the 1996-97 school year (as measured by the number of crimes reported per 1,000 public school students) (figure 9.2 and tables 9.7 and 9.8).

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