NCES Quarterly, Winter 2001: Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2001

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Vol 3, Issue 4, Topic: Elementary and Secondary Education

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2001

By: Phillip Kaufman, Xianglei Chen, Susan P. Choy, Katharin Peter, Sally A. Ruddy, Amanda K. Miller, Jill K. Fleury, Kathryn A. Chandler, Michael G. Planty, and Michael R. Rand

This article was originally published as the Executive Summary of the report of the same name. The report is a joint effort of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The numerous data sources are listed at the end of this article.

Overview
Report Organization
Key Findings

Overview

Schools should be safe and secure places for all students, teachers, and staff members. Without a safe learning environment, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn. Student safety is of concern outside of school as well. In fact, as the data in this report show, more serious victimizations happen away from school than at school.¹ In 1999, students were more than two times as likely to be victims of serious violent crime away from school as at school.²

In 1999, students ages 12 through 18 were victims of about 2.5 million total crimes at school. In that same year, these students were victims of about 186,000 serious violent crimes at school (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault). There were also 47 school-associated violent deaths in the United States between July 1, 1998, and June 30, 1999—including 38 homicides, 33 of which involved school-age children.

The total nonfatal victimization rate for young people generally declined between 1992 and 1999. The percentage of students being victimized at school also declined over the last few years. Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students ages 12 through 18 who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent to 8 percent. This decline was due in large part to the decrease in percentages of students in grades 7 through 9 who reported being victimized. Between 1995 and 1999, the prevalence of reported victimization dropped from 11 percent to 8 percent for 7th-graders, from 11 percent to 8 percent for 8th-graders, and from 12 percent to 9 percent for 9th-graders.

However, the prevalence rates of some types of crimes at school have not changed. For example, between 1993 and 1999, the percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 who were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property in the past 12 months remained constant—at about 7 to 8 percent.

As the rate of victimization in schools has declined or remained constant, students also seem to feel more secure at school now than just a few years ago. The percentage of students ages 12 through 18 who reported avoiding one or more places at school for their own safety decreased between 1995 and 1999—from 9 to 5 percent. Furthermore, the percentage of students who reported that street gangs were present at their schools decreased from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, 17 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported that they had street gangs at their schools, compared with 29 percent in 1995.

There was an increase in the use of marijuana among students in grades 9 through 12 between 1993 and 1995, but percentages of students in these grades reporting marijuana use were similar in 1995, 1997, and 1999. In 1999, about 27 percent of these students had used marijuana in the last 30 days. Furthermore, in 1995, 1997, and 1999, about one-third of these students (between 30 and 32 percent) reported that someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property—an increase from 24 percent in 1993.

Therefore, the data shown in this report present a mixed picture of school safety. While overall school crime rates have declined, violence, gangs, and drugs are still present, indicating that more work needs to be done.

Report Organization

This report, the fourth 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 many indicators from the 2000 report but also provides updated data on fatal and nonfatal student victimization, nonfatal teacher victimization, students being threatened or injured with a weapon at school, fights at school, students carrying weapons to school, students’ use of alcohol and marijuana, and student reports of 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 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 Principal/Disciplinarian 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 BJS, NCES, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each data source has an independent sample design, data collection method, and questionnaire design, all of which may be influenced by the unique perspective of the primary funding agency. By combining multiple and independent sources of data, it is hoped that this report will present a more complete portrait of school crime and safety than would be possible with any single source of information.

However, because the report relies on so many different data sets, the age groups, the time periods, and the types of respondents analyzed can vary from indicator to indicator. Readers should keep this in mind as they compare data from different indicators. Furthermore, while every effort has been made to keep key definitions consistent across indicators, different surveys sometimes use different definitions, such as those for specific crimes and “at school.” Therefore, caution should be used in making comparisons between results from different data sets.

Key Findings

Some of the key findings from the various sections of this report are as follows:

Violent Deaths at School

From July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999, there were 47 school-associated violent deaths in the United States. Thirty-eight of these violent deaths were homicides, six were suicides, two involved suspects killed by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty, and one was unintentional. Thirty-three of the 38 school-associated homicides were of school-age children. By comparison, a total of 2,407 children ages 5 through 19 were victims of homicide in the United States from July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999. Four of the six school-associated suicides occurring from July 1, 1998, through June 30, 1999, were of school-age children. A total of 1,854 children ages 5 through 19 committed suicide that year.

Nonfatal Student Victimization — Student Reports

Students ages 12 through 18 were more likely to be victims of nonfatal serious violent crime—including rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault—away from school than when they were at school. In 1999, students in this age range were victims of about 476,000 serious violent crimes away from school, compared with about 186,000 at school.

The percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 who have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property³ has not changed significantly in recent years. In 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999, about 7 to 8 percent of students in these grades reported being threatened or injured with a weapon such as a gun, knife, or club on school property in the past 12 months.
In 1999, 12- through 18-year-old students living in urban and suburban locales were equally vulnerable to serious violent crime at school (figure A). Away from school, however, urban students were more vulnerable to serious violent crime than were suburban students, and suburban students were more likely to experience serious violent victimization than were rural students (figure B). Yet, student vulnerability to theft at school and away from school in 1999 was similar in urban, suburban, and rural areas.
In 1999, younger students (ages 12 through 14) were more likely than older students (ages 15 through 18) to be victims of crime at school (figure A). However, older students were more likely than younger students to be victimized away from school (figure B).

Figure A.—Number of nonfatal crimes against students ages 12 through 18 occurring at school or going to or from school per 1,000 students, by type of crime and selected student characteristics: 1999
Figure A.- Number of nonfatal crimes against students ages 12 through 18 occurring at school or going to or from school per 1,000 students, by type of crime and selected student characteristics: 1999

NOTE: Serious violent crimes include rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes include serious violent crimes and simple assault. Total crimes include violent crimes and theft. “At school” includes inside the school building, on school property, or on the way to or from school. Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 1999. (Taken from figure 2.2 on p. 6 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Violence and Crime at School — Public School Principal/Disciplinarian Reports

In 1996–97, 10 percent of all public schools reported at least one serious violent crime to the police or a law enforcement representative. Principals’ reports of serious violent crimes included murder, rape or other type of sexual battery, suicide, physical attack or fight with a weapon, or robbery. Another 47 percent of public schools reported at least one less serious violent or nonviolent crime (but not a serious violent one). Crimes in this category include physical attack or fight without a weapon, theft/larceny, and vandalism. The remaining 43 percent of public schools did not report any of these crimes to the police.

Elementary schools were much less likely than either middle or high schools to report any type of crime in 1996–97. Elementary schools were much more likely to report vandalism (31 percent) than any other crime (19 percent or less).
At the middle and high school levels, physical attack or fight without a weapon was generally the most commonly reported crime in 1996–97 (9 incidents per 1,000 middle school students and 8 incidents per 1,000 high school students). Theft or larceny was more common at the high school than at the middle school level (6 vs. 4 incidents per 1,000 students).

Figure B.—Number of nonfatal crimes against students ages 12 through 18 occurring away from school per 1,000 students, by type of crime and selected student characteristics: 1999
Figure B.- Number of nonfatal crimes against students ages 12 through 18 occurring away from school per 1,000 students, by type of crime and selected student characteristics: 1999

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 1999. (Taken from figure 2.3 on p. 7 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

Nonfatal Teacher Victimization at School — Teacher Reports

Over the 5-year period from 1995 through 1999, teachers were victims of approximately 1,708,000 nonfatal crimes at school, including 1,073,000 thefts and 635,000 violent crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated and simple assault). On average, this translates into 79 crimes per 1,000 teachers per year.

During the 1995 through 1999 period, senior high school and middle/junior high school teachers were more likely than elementary school teachers to be victims of violent crimes (most of which were simple assaults) (38 and 54 crimes per 1,000 senior and middle/junior high school teachers, respectively, vs. 16 crimes per 1,000 elementary school teachers) (figure C).
Teachers were differentially victimized by violent crimes at school according to where they taught. Over the 5-year period from 1995 through 1999, urban teachers were more likely to be victims of violent crimes than suburban and rural teachers (39 crimes per 1,000 urban teachers vs. 22 and 20 crimes per 1,000 suburban and rural teachers, respectively) (figure C).

Figure C.—Average annual number of nonfatal crimes against teachers at school per 1,000 teachers, by type of crime and selected characteristics: Aggregated from 1995 to 1999
Figure C.- Average annual number of nonfatal crimes against teachers at school per 1,000 teachers, by type of crime and selected characteristics: Aggregated from 1995 to 1999

NOTE: Serious violent crimes include rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crimes include serious violent crimes and simple assault. Total crimes include violent crimes and theft. The data were aggregated from 1995 to 1999 due to the small number of teachers in each year’s sample. Detail may not add to totals because of rounding. “At school” includes inside the school building, on school property, at work site, or while working. For thefts, “while working” was not considered since theft of teachers’ property kept at school can occur when teachers are not present.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 1995 to 1999. (Taken from figure 9.1 on p. 23 of the complete report from which this article is excerpted.)

In the 1993–94 school year, 12 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 341,000 teachers who were victims of threats of injury by students that year and 119,000 teachers who were victims of attacks by students.

School Environment

Between 1995 and 1999, the percentages of students who felt unsafe while they were at school and while they were going to and from school decreased. In 1995, 9 percent of students ages 12 through 18 sometimes or most of the time feared they were going to be attacked or harmed at school. In 1999, this percentage had fallen to 5 percent. During the same period, the percentage of students ages 12 through 18 fearing they would be attacked while traveling to and from school fell from 7 percent to 4 percent.

Between 1993 and 1999, the percentage of students in grades 9 through 12 who reported carrying a weapon on school property within the previous 30 days fell from 12 percent to 7 percent (about a 42 percent reduction).
Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students ages 12 through 18 who avoided one or more places at school out of fear for their own safety decreased, from 9 to 5 percent.
In 1999, about 13 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported that someone at school had used hate-related words against them. That is, in the prior 6 months someone at school called them a derogatory word having to do with race/ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation. In addition, about 36 percent of students saw hate-related graffiti at school.
Between 1995 and 1999, the percentage of students who reported that street gangs were present at their schools decreased. In 1995, 29 percent of students ages 12 through 18 reported gangs being present at their schools. By 1999, this percentage had fallen to 17 percent.
In 1999, about 5 percent of students in grades 9 through 12 had at least one drink of alcohol on school property in the previous 30 days. Half of students in these grades (about 50 percent) had at least one drink anywhere during the same period.
There was an increase in the use of marijuana among students in grades 9 through 12 anywhere and on school property between 1993 and 1995, but no change between 1995, 1997, and 1999. About one-quarter (27 percent) of students in these grades reported using marijuana anywhere in the last 30 days in 1999, and 7 percent reported using marijuana on school property.
In 1995, 1997, and 1999, about one-third of all students in grades 9 through 12 (between 30 and 32 percent) reported that someone had offered, sold, or given them an illegal drug on school property. This was an increase from 1993, when 24 percent of such students reported that illegal drugs were available to them on school property.

Footnotes

¹These data do not take into account the number of hours that students spend on school property and the number of hours they spend elsewhere.

²In comparisons between victimization at and away from school, “students” refers to persons 12 through 18 years of age who have attended any grade equal to or less than high school. An uncertain percentage of these persons may not have attended school during the survey reference period.

³Definitions for “on school property” and “at school” may differ.

Data sources:
NCES: Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 1993–94, “Public School Teacher Questionnaire,” “Private School Teacher Questionnaire,” “Public School Questionnaire,” and “Private School Questionnaire”; Fast Response Survey System, “Principal/School Disciplinarian Survey on School Violence,” FRSS 63, 1997.

Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1992–99 (annual).

Joint NCES and BJS: School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 1989, 1995, and 1999.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): The National School-Based Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999; School-Associated Violent Death Study (SAVD), 1998–99; and Vital Statistics of the United States, 1998 and 1999.

Other: The FBI’s 1998 and 1999 Supplementary Homicide Reports and the following article:

Kachur, S.P., et al. (1996). School-Associated Violent Deaths in the United States, 1992 to 1994. Journal of the American Medical Association 275 (22): 1729–1733.

For technical information, see the complete report:

Kaufman, P., Chen, X., Choy, S.P., Peter, K., Ruddy, S.A., Miller, A.K., Fleury, J.K., Chandler, K.A., Planty, M.G., and Rand, M.R. (2001). Indicators ofSchool Crime and Safety: 2001 (NCES 2002–113 or NCJ-190075).

Author affiliations: P. Kaufman, X. Chen, S.P. Choy, and K. Peter, MPR Associates, Inc.; S.A. Ruddy, A.K. Miller, and J.K. Fleury, ESSI; K.A. Chandler, NCES; and M.G. Planty and M.R. Rand, BJS.

For questions about content, contact either Kathryn A. Chandler at NCES (kathryn.chandler@ed.gov) or Michael R. Rand at BJS (randm@ojp.usdoj.gov).

To obtain the complete report (NCES 2002-113 or NCJ-190075), call the toll-free ED Pubs number (877-433-7827), visit the NCES Web Site (http://nces.ed.gov) or the BJS Home Page (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/), or contact the BJS Clearinghouse at 1-800-732-3277.