Serious Violent Crime Rate
in U.S. Schools |
Rate Per 1,000 Students Ages 12-18 |
Contrary to public perception, violent crime in schools has declined dramatically since 1994.
The annual rate of serious violent crime in 2005 (5 per 1,000 students)
These data are victim reports collected as part of the National Crime Victimization Survey and are not derived from school records.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime
Victimization Survey (NCVS), 2005. Cited in Table 2.2 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/)
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Homicides in U.S. Schools: 1992-93 to 2005-06 |
Homicides on school grounds during school day
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The rate of homicides in U.S. schools has declined substantially since the early 1990s. There was an apparent interruption in the downward trend during a period of highly publicized shootings that may have generated some copycat shootings.
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Source: These are cases identified from records of the National School Safety Center. http://www.schoolsafety.us/. Each case in this chart represents an incident with one or more fatalities that was perpetrated by a student on school grounds. Cases not involving student perpetrators or occurring off school grounds (i.e., near a school) are not included.
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Juvenile violence is not increasing |
Juvenile Arrests for Homocide: 1993 to 2006
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The dramatic decline in juvenile homicides (and other juvenile violent crime) in the 1990s demonstrates that the observed decline in school violence is part of a larger national trend. This decline cannot be attributed to a decline in the juvenile population because the juvenile population increased. There are likely multiple factors responsible for the drop, including declining violence associated with drug gangs, effective community-oriented law enforcement efforts, as well as numerous school and community-based efforts to prevent violence.
was less than half of the rate in 1994. |
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Source: Arrest statistics from the annual FBI Uniform Crime Reports. http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm. These trends show that the downward trend in school violence is part of a larger downward trend in violent juvenile crime during the 1990s that has appeared to level off in recent years.
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Students Threatened or Injured with a Weapon at School |
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The overall percentage of students who report being threatened or injured with a weapon at school has remained relatively stable since 1993. Boys experience almost twice as many incidents as girls.
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Source: Cited in Table 4.1 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/) .Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
(YRBSS), various years, 1993–2005.
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School Bullying |
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The percentage of students bullied at least once a week seems to have increased since 1999, although it is not clear if the increase reflects more incidents of bullying at school or perhaps greater awareness of bullying as a problem.
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Source: Cited in Table 11.3 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/). U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime
Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 2005.
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Rates of Bullying and other School
Discipline Problems |
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Student bullying is one of the most frequently reported discipline problems at school: 21% of elementary schools, 43% of middle schools, and 22% of high schools reported problems with bullying in 2005-06. This data was provided by the principal or the person most knowledgable of crime in the school.
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Source: Cited in Table 7.2 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/) . U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2005–06 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), 2006.
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Expulsions for Firearms Violations at School, 2003-04 school year
(http://www.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/gfsa/index.html) on the Implementation of the Gun-Free Schools Act In the States and Outlying Areas; 2007)
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This table presents numbers of students expelled from school for firearms violations under the federal Gun-Free Schools Act. The most recent data in the 2007 report are for the 2003-04 school year. State-by-state differences in the numbers of students caught with firearms at school may be attributable to many factors, including differing practices in enforcement, detection, record keeping, and official reporting. For example, it seems doubtful that in the 02-03 school year that a state the size of Virginia really has more students bringing firearms to school than states the size of California, New York, or Texas. Virginia ranked highest of all states for number of students expelled for firearms violations in the 2002-03 school year and second highest in
2003-04.
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Percentage of Students Who Carried a Weapon to School, By Gender |
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The percentage of students who report carrying a weapon to school during the previous 30 days has been gradually decreasing since 1993.
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Source: Cited in Table 14.1 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/) . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System
(YRBSS), various years, 1993–2005.
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Percentage of Students Who Feel Afraid at School or on the Way to School, By Ethnicity |
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In general, ethnic minority students report more fear at school. However, reports of feeling afraid have declined in all groups.
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Source: Cited in Table 18.2 in Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2007; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov/) . U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, School Crime
Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey, various years,
1995–2005.
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