Bulletin Reports

Indicators of School Crime and Safety 2012

Detailed statistical information on the nature of crime in schools is presented in this annual report, a joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. This report is from the perspectives of students, teachers, and school principals and contains 21 indicators of crime at school from a number of sources, including the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the School Crime Supplement to the NCVS, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the School Survey on Crime and Safety, and the School and Staffing Survey. Topics discussed include victimization, teacher injury, bullying and cyber-bullying, school conditions, fights, weapons, availability and use of drugs and alcohol, and student perceptions of personal safety at school.

Between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, 31 school-associated violent deaths occurred. Of those, 25 were homicides and 6 were suicides. Eleven homicides and 3 suicides involved school-age children between 5- and 18-years-old and occurred on school property. In 2011 students between the ages of 12 and 18 endured 1,246,000 nonfatal victimizations at school, including 648,600 thefts and 597,500 violent crimes.

During the 2009 to 2010 school year, 85 percent of public schools recorded one or more incidents, totaling 1.9 million crimes, or 40 offenses per 1,000 students. During the same year, 60 percent of public schools reported a crime occurrence to the police, amounting to 689,000 crimes, or 15 offenses per 1,000 students enrolled. In the 2009 to 2010 school year, 32,300 schools, equating to 39 percent of all public schools, took at least one serious disciplinary action against a student, amounting to 433,800 actions.  

Additional information may be found at the Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4677, June 26, 2013, NCJ 241446.