• Organization of This Report
• Key Findings

Ensuring safer schools requires establishing good indicators of the current state of school crime and safety across the nation and periodically monitoring and updating these indicators. Indicators of School Crime and Safety is designed to provide an annual snapshot of specific crime and safety indicators, covering topics such as victimization, fights, bullying, disorder, teacher injury, weapons, student perceptions of school safety, and others. In addition to covering a wide range of topics, the indicators are based on information drawn from surveys of students, teachers, and principals, and data collections by federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Students ages 12–18 were victims of about 2 million nonfatal crimes of violence or theft at school in 2001, with the majority (62 percent) of all victimizations at school being thefts. However, this report is not only concerned with the safety of students in schools. Where comparable data are available for crimes that occur outside of school grounds, these data are offered as a point of comparison. In fact, as the data in this report show, a larger number of serious violent victimizations (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault) take place away from school than at school.¹

Data on homicides and suicides at school show there were 32 school-associated violent deaths in the United States between July 1, 1999, and June 30, 2000, including 24 homicides, 16 of which involved school-age children. In each school year from 1992 to 2000, youth ages 5–19 were at least 70 times more likely to be murdered away from school than at school.

Trends in school crime over time are also of interest to researchers, educators, and families. Data show that the percentage of students being victimized at school has declined over recent years. Between 1995 and 2001, the percentage of students who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 6 percent. This included a decrease in theft (from 7 percent to 4 percent) and a decrease in violent victimization (from 3 percent to 2 percent) over the same time period.

For some other types of crime at school, the frequency of these behaviors has shown no detectable pattern of increase or decrease over time. These include the percentage of suicides of school-age youth between 1992 and 1999; the percentage of students being threatened or injured with a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property between 1993 and 2001; and the percentage of teachers being physically attacked by a student between 1993–94 and 1999–2000. Hate-related graffiti between 1999 and 2001, and measures of marijuana use, alcohol use, and drug distribution at school between 1993 and 2001 have also shown no detectable pattern of change over their respective survey periods.

The prevalence of one problem behavior at school has increased. In 2001, 8 percent of students reported that they had been bullied at school in the last 6 months, up from 5 percent in 1999.

This report, the sixth in a series of annual reports on school crime and safety from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), presents the latest available data on school crime and student safety. The report repeats some indicators from the 2002 report and also provides updated data on nonfatal student victimization; nonfatal victimization of teachers; principal reports of select crimes; and principal reports of disciplinary problems and actions at school. This year's report also includes data from last year's Indicators on fatal student victimization and students' reports of being threatened or injured with a weapon, being in fights, being bullied, avoiding places, being called hate-related words, and seeing hate-related graffiti. Data are also included on students' perceptions of personal safety, gangs, carrying weapons at school, using alcohol and marijuana, and drug availability on school property.

The report is organized as a series of indicators, with each indicator presenting data on a different aspect of school crime and safety. It starts with a description of the most serious violence. There are five sections to the report: Violent Deaths at School; Nonfatal Student Victimization—Student Reports; Violence and Crime at School—Public School Reports; Nonfatal Teacher Victimization at School—Teacher Reports; and School Environment. Each section contains a set of indicators that, taken together, describe a distinct aspect of school crime and safety.

Rather than relying on data from a large omnibus survey of school crime and safety, this report uses a variety of independent data sources from federal departments and agencies, including the BJS, NCES, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each data source has an independent sample design, data collection method, and questionnaire design. By combining multiple and independent sources of data, this report aims to present a more complete portrait of school crime and safety than would be possible using any single source of information.

However, because the report relies on so many data sets, the age groups, time periods, and types of respondents analyzed can vary from indicator to indicator. Readers should keep these variations in mind when they compare data from different indicators. Readers should also note that trends in the data are discussed when possible. Where trends are not discussed, either the data are not available in earlier surveys or survey question wording changed from year to year, eliminating the ability to discuss any trend. Furthermore, while every effort has been made to keep key definitions consistent across indicators, readers should always use caution in making comparisons between results from different data sets for several reasons: the data sets may contain definitional differences, such as those used for specific crimes and crimes that occur "at school," and respondent differences, such as examining student reports of victimization (at the individual level) and a school reporting one or more victimizations schoolwide. Appendix A of the full report contains descriptions of all the data sets used in the report.

The following section presents the key findings of the report:

From July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000, 32 school-associated violent deaths occurred in the United States. Twenty-four of these violent deaths were homicides and 8 were suicides. Sixteen of the 24 school-associated homicides involved school-age children. These 16 homicides are relatively few (1 percent of all homicides of youth) when comparing them with a total of 2,124 children ages 5–19 who were victims of homicide in the United States over the same period. Six of the 8 school-associated suicides from July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000, involved school-age children. Away from school, there were a total of 1,922 suicides of children ages 5–19 during the 2000 calendar year.

Students ages 12–18 were more likely to be victims of nonfatal serious violent crime—including rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault—when they were away from school than at school. In 2001, students in this age range were victims of about 290,000 serious violent crimes away from school, compared with about 161,000 at school.

• Between 1992 and 2001, the violent crime victimization rates (i.e., serious violent crime plus simple assault) for students ages 12–18 both at school and away from school decreased from 48 violent crimes per 1,000 students in 1992 to 28 violent crimes per 1,000 students in 2001. While this trend indicates an overall decline during this time frame, no difference was detected between 2000 and 2001 in the number of violent victimizations.
• In 2001, younger students (ages 12–14) were more likely to be victimized at school than older students (ages 15–18) (figure A); however, away from school, older students were more likely to be victimized than their younger counterparts.
• The percentages of students in grades 9–12 who have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property² have shown no measurable differences in recent years. In 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2001, between 7 and 9 percent of students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property in the preceding 12 months.
• The percentage of students who reported being in a fight anywhere declined between 1993 and 2001, from 42 percent to 33 percent. Similarly, the percentage of students who reported fighting on school property also declined over this period, from 16 percent to 13 percent.
• In 2001, 8 percent of 12- through 18-year-old students reported being bullied at school in the last 6 months, up from 5 percent in 1999.
• Both males and females were more likely to report being bullied in 2001 than in 1999 (figure B). In 2001, males were more likely than females to report being bullied (9 and 7 percent, respectively); however, in 1999, no such difference could be detected (5 percent each).

In 1999–2000, 20 percent of all public schools experienced one or more serious violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Seventy-one percent of schools reported at least one violent incident. Forty-six percent of public schools reported property crimes, or thefts. This report also provides the number of disciplinary actions taken by school principals for reasons not related to academics. About 54 percent of public schools reported taking a serious disciplinary action in the 1999–2000 school year. Of those disciplinary actions, 83 percent were suspensions lasting 5 days or more, 11 percent were removals with no services (i.e., expulsions), and 7 percent were transfers to specialized schools.

• Secondary schools were more likely than other schools to experience a violent incident during the 1999–2000 school year (92 vs. 61–87 percent for elementary, middle, and combined schools). Likewise, larger schools were more likely to experience a violent incident than smaller schools. About 89 percent of schools with 1,000 or more students experienced a violent incident, compared with 61 percent of schools with less than 300 students.
• Two percent of public schools took a serious disciplinary action for the use of a firearm or explosive device, and 4 percent did so for the possession of such a weapon.

Over the 5-year period from 1997 through 2001, teachers were victims of approximately 1.3 million nonfatal crimes at school, including 817,000 thefts and 473,000 violent crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault).

• From 1997 through 2001, senior high school and middle/junior high school teachers were more likely to be victims of violent crimes (most of which were simple assaults) than elementary school teachers (figure C).
• Teachers were differentially victimized by violent crimes at school according to where they taught. From 1997 through 2001, urban teachers were more likely to be victims of violent crimes than suburban and rural teachers (figure C).
• In the 1999–2000 school year, 9 percent of all elementary and secondary school teachers were threatened with injury by a student, and 4 percent were physically attacked by a student. This represented about 305,000 teachers who were victims of threats of injury by students that year and 135,000 teachers who were victims of attacks by students.

Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students ages 12–18 who felt unsafe while they were at school or on the way to and from school decreased. However, between 1999 and 2001, no change was found in the percentage of students who felt unsafe. In both 1999 and 2001, students were more likely to be afraid of being attacked when they were at school than away from school.

• Between 1993 and 2001, the percentage of students in grades 9–12 who reported carrying a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property within the previous 30 days declined from 12 percent to 6 percent.
• Between 1999 and 2001, no differences were detected in the percentage of students ages 12–18 who avoided one or more places at school (about 5 percent in each year). These estimates represented a decrease from 1995, when 9 percent of students avoided places at school.
• In 2001, 12 percent of students ages 12–18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them. That is, in the previous 6 months, someone at school had called them a derogatory word related to race, religion, ethnicity, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. During the same period, about 36 percent of students saw hate-related graffiti at school.
• In 2001, 20 percent of students reported that street gangs were present at their schools. Students in urban schools were more likely to report the presence of street gangs at their schools (29 percent) than were suburban and rural students (18 and 13 percent, respectively).
• In 1999-2000, public school principals were asked to report how often certain disciplinary problems occurred at their schools. Twenty-nine percent of public schools reported that student bullying occurred on a daily or weekly basis and 19 percent reported student acts of disrespect for teachers occurred at the same frequency. Additionally, 13 percent reported student verbal abuse of teachers and 3 percent reported occurrences of student racial tensions and widespread disorder in the classrooms with the same frequency.
• Between 1993 and 2001, no consistent patterns of increase or decrease were found in the percentage of students who had consumed alcohol, both anywhere and on school property. In 2001, 5 percent of students in grades 9–12 had at least one drink of alcohol on school property in the 30 days prior to the survey. Forty-seven percent of students had at least one drink anywhere during the same period.
• Between 1993 and 2001, no consistent patterns of increase or decrease were found in the percentage of students who had used marijuana—both anywhere and on school property. In 2001, 24 percent of students reported using marijuana anywhere during the previous 30 days, and 5 percent reported using marijuana on school property.
• In 2001, 29 percent of students in grades 9–12 reported that someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Figure A. Rate of nonfatal crimes against students ages 12–18 occurring at school or going to or from school, and away from school, per 1,000 students, by type of crime and age of student: 2001

Figure B. Percentage of students ages 12–18 who reported being bullied at school during the previous 6 months, by sex: 1999 and 2001

Figure C. Average annual rate of nonfatal crimes against teachers at school per 1,000 teachers, by type of crime and selected teacher and school characteristics: 1997–2001

¹These data are not adjusted by the number of hours that students spend on school property and the number of hours they spend elsewhere.

²Definitions for "on school property" and "at school" may differ. See appendix B of the full report for specific definitions.