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1997-98 Academy Text Supplement

Chapter 21-8

Campus Crime

Crime across all levels of the educational system is increasingly becoming an issue of national importance. While the original NVAA chapter addressed crime at the college-level, it is imperative that crime throughout the educational system be given equal emphasis. The following statistics have been assembled from various sources addressing crime and education:

• Males are only slightly more likely to carry a weapon to school than females: four percent for males, three percent for females in 1994. (Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency. "Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence." Statistics Summary. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• A study funded by the National Institute of Justice found that one in five inner-city high school students surveyed (one in three males) had been shot at, stabbed, or otherwise injured with a weapon at or in transit to or from school in the past few years. (National Institute of Justice. (1995). Weapon-related Victimization in Selected Inner-city High School Samples. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Over two million teenagers are the victims of violent crime annually, and numerous studies have pointed to the increased possession of weapons by adolescents as a major part of the problem. (Ibid.)
• The National Education Association reports that each day in America, 100,000 children carry guns to school, 160,000 children miss class because of the fear of being physically harmed, and 40 students are killed or injured by firearms. (National Education Association. (1993). School Violence. Washington, DC: Author.)
• On average, one out of three high school students is, or has been, in an abusive dating relationship, and only four out of ten of these relationships end when violence and abuse begins. (National Council of Jewish Women. (1993). Description of Teen Violence Intervention and Prevention Project.)
• Eighty-three percent of high school females and 64.9 percent of high school males say another student touched, grabbed, or pinched them in a sexual way. (American Educational Research Association. The Culture of Sexual Harassment in Secondary Schools, 1993.)
• College administrators report increased crime on their campuses. In 1994, crime reports show that: 23 percent more arrests were made for producing, using, or selling illegal drugs; forcible-sex offenses were up 12 percent; and murders on college campuses increased by 27 percent. Underage drinking and other alcohol-related offenses rose six percent. (USA Today, April 22, 1996.)
• Anti-Semitic college and university campus incidents in 1994 increased 17 percent over 1993, including incidents of personal harassment, threat, and assault. (Anti-Defamation League's 1994 Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. New York: Anti-Defamation League.)
• Twenty-three percent of violent juvenile victimizations occurred in school or on school property in 1991. (Snyder, H. & Sickmund, M. (1995, May). "Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A Focus on Violence." Statistics Summary. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.)
• Since 1992, 192 school-associated violent death have occurred. Of these, nearly four times more males than females were killed, and over three-fourths of the youths were killed as a result of shootings. (National School Safety Center. (1997). In-House Report.)

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