School violence in the United States

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According to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, school violence is a serious problem. [1] [2] In 2007, the latest year for which comprehensive data were available, a nationwide survey, [3] conducted biennially by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and involving representative samples of U.S. high school students, found that 5.9% of students carried a weapon (e.g. gun, knife, etc.) on school property during the 30 days antedating the survey. The rate was three times higher among men than among women. In the twelve months preceding the survey, 7.8% of high school students reported having been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once, with the prevalence rate among male students twice that as among female students. In the twelve months preceding the survey, 12.4% of students had been in a physical fight on school property at least once. The rate among males was twice the rate found among females. In the thirty days preceding the survey, 5.5% of students reported that because they did not feel safe, they did not go to school on at least one day. The rates for males and females were approximately equal.

Contents

The most recent U.S. data [4] on violent crime in which teachers were targeted indicate that 7% (10% in urban schools) of teachers in 2003 were subject to threats of injury by students. According to the data, 5% of teachers in urban schools were physically attacked, with smaller percentages in suburban and rural schools. Other members of school staffs are also at risk for violent attacks, with school bus drivers being particularly vulnerable. [5]

During 2007–2008, teachers’ reports of being threatened or physically attacked by students varied according to the instructional level of their school. Secondary school teachers reported being threatened with injury by a student at slightly greater percentage, at 8%, than elementary school teachers, at 7%, and this pattern held for teachers in suburban schools as well as for teachers in rural schools (figure 5.2 and table 5.1). [6]

Controversies

Lax school authorities

In 2005, on a school bus in Montgomery County, Maryland, an 11-year-old girl was attacked by a group of several older boys, who the girl said grabbed her breasts and feigned sex acts. Also in 2005, on a school bus in Colonial Heights, Virginia, south of Richmond, three boys and two girls aged 8 to 13 held an 11-year-old girl down in the back of the bus and sexually assaulted her. [7] In the Maryland case, the child's mother called the police, not the school, although a school administrator did notify the girl's mother (the students were not charged with sexual assault because the police mishandled the paperwork). In the Virginia case, the girl told her mother and was taken to a police station, prompting coordinated investigations by the police and the school. The bus driver testified that she saw the incident happening, but never stopped the bus. The girl was dropped off at her normal bus stop.

In 2008, the Baltimore School District failed to intervene in an act of violence committed against a teacher. A student had taken a video of a peer beating her art teacher. School officials ignored the problem until the video was posted on MySpace. [8] Some cases of school violence have not been brought to the attention of the authorities because school administrators did not want their schools labeled unsafe under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. [7] With or without NCLB, in the US, there has been a history of underreporting violent incidents occurring in schools. [9] [10] [11]

The media

School shootings are rare and unusual forms of school violence, and account for less than 1% of violent crimes in public schools, with an average of 16.5 deaths per year from 2001–2008. [2] There exists an uneven number of male versus female perpetrators of school shootings, where males outnumber females. [12] Some commentators claim that media coverage encourages school violence. [13] On the other hand, the press would likely have been faulted if it did not cover serious threats to public safety such as the Virginia Tech massacre, Columbine massacre, and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School shooting</span> Event in which gun violence happens at a school

A school shooting is an armed attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of a firearm. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple casualties. The phenomenon is most widespread in the United States, which has the highest number of school-related shootings, although school shootings take place elsewhere in the world. Especially in the United States, school shootings have sparked a political debate over gun violence, zero tolerance policies, gun rights and gun control.

A violent crime, violent felony, crime of violence or crime of a violent nature is a crime in which an offender or perpetrator uses or threatens to use harmful force upon a victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, assault, rape and assassination, as well as crimes in which violence is used as a method of coercion or show of force, such as robbery, extortion and terrorism. Violent crimes may, or may not, be committed with weapons. Depending on the jurisdiction, violent crimes may be regarded with varying severities from homicide to harassment.

Some victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are male. Historically, rape was thought to be, and defined as, a crime committed solely against females. This belief is still held in some parts of the world, but rape of males is now commonly criminalized and has been subject to more discussion than in the past.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance information in the United States. It also conducts international comparisons of education statistics and provides leadership in developing and promoting the use of standardized terminology and definitions for the collection of those statistics. NCES is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System.

School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff and attacks by school staff on students. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons to school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is a widely accepted serious societal problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.

Sex differences in crime are differences between men and women as the perpetrators or victims of crime. Such studies may belong to fields such as criminology, sociobiology, or feminist studies. Despite the difficulty of interpreting them, crime statistics may provide a way to investigate such a relationship from a gender differences perspective. An observable difference in crime rates between men and women might be due to social and cultural factors, crimes going unreported, or to biological factors. The nature or motive of the crime itself may also require consideration as a factor. Gendered profiling might affect the reported crime rates.

Rape by gender classifies types of rape by the sex and gender of both the rapist and the victim. This scope includes both rape and sexual assault more generally. Most research indicates that rape affects women disproportionately, with the majority of people convicted being men; however, since the broadening of the definition of rape in 2012 by the FBI, more attention is being given to male rape, including females raping males.

Statistics on rape and other acts of sexual assault are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in the United States</span>

Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s, giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after. Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data we have, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times. Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021. As of July 1, 2024 violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence in the United States</span> Phenomenon of gun violence in the United States

Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gun violence</span> Method of violence

Gun-related violence is violence against a person committed with the use of a firearm to inflict a gunshot wound. Gun violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide and assault with a deadly weapon. Depending on the jurisdiction, suicide or attempted suicide may also be considered a crime. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death. Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.

Domestic violence occurs across the world, in various cultures, and affects people across society, at all levels of economic status; however, indicators of lower socioeconomic status have been shown to be risk factors for higher levels of domestic violence in several studies. In the United States, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1995, women reported a six times greater rate of intimate partner violence than men. However, studies have found that men are much less likely to report victimization in these situations.

Teen dating violence is the physical, sexual, or psychological / emotional abuse within a dating relationship among adolescents. Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been a well examined and documented phenomenon in adults; however, there has not been nearly as much study on violence in adolescent dating relationships, and it is therefore not as well understood. The research has mainly focused on Caucasian youth, and, as of 2013, there are no studies which focus specifically on IPV in adolescent same-sex relationships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School bullying</span> Type of bullying in an educational setting

School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim and who repeatedly act aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verbal or physical. Bullying, with its ongoing character, is distinct from one-off types of peer conflict. Different types of school bullying include ongoing physical, emotional, and/or verbal aggression. Cyberbullying and sexual bullying are also types of bullying. Bullying even exists in higher education. There are warning signs that suggest that a child is being bullied, a child is acting as a bully, or a child has witnessed bullying at school.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estimates of sexual violence</span>

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Domestic violence against men is violence or other physical abuse towards men in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. As with domestic violence against women, violence against men may constitute a crime, but laws vary between jurisdictions. Intimate partner violence (IPV) against men is generally less recognized by society than intimate partner violence against women, which can act as a further block to men reporting their situation or otherwise seeking help.

Violence against men comprises violent acts that are disproportionately committed against men or boys. Men are overrepresented as both victims and perpetrators of violence. Violence against women is the opposite category, where acts of violence are targeted against the female gender.

Gender equality is the notion that each gender should receive equal treatment in all aspects of life, and that one should not be discriminated based on their sex. Gender equality is a human right, which is recognised under the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Research consistently shows that the majority of rape and other sexual assault victims do not report their attacks to law enforcement. Reasons for not reporting include fear of reprisal, shame, uncertainty about whether a crime was committed, or a belief that an incident was not sufficiently serious enough to report. As a result, researchers generally rely on surveys to measure sexual violence that is not reported to the police. Estimates of campus sexual assault measured on surveys vary across populations and over time, however a recent review concluded that a "reasonable average" of around 1 in 5 (20%) of women were sexually assaulted during their time in college. And although much of the research on sexual assault has focused on college campuses, there is evidence that non-students of the same age are actually at higher risk than college students.

References

  1. ↑ National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). Indicators of school crime and safety. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  2. 1 2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Understanding school violence. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
  3. ↑ Eaton D, Kann L, Kinchen S, Shanklin S, Ross J, Hawkins J, Harris WA, Lowry R, et al. (2008). "Youth risk behavior surveillance—United States, 2007". MMWR. Surveillance Summaries. 57 (4): 1–131. PMID   18528314.
  4. ↑ Dinkes, R., Cataldi, E.F., Lin-Kelly, W., & Snyder, T. D. (2007). Indicators of school violence and safety: 2007. Washington, DC: National Center for Education statistics and Bureau of Justice Statistics.
  5. ↑ Peek-Asa, C.; Howard, J.; Vargas, L.; Kraus, J. F. (1997). "Incidence of non-fatal workplace assault injuries determined from employer's reports in California". Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 39 (1): 44–50. doi:10.1097/00043764-199701000-00009. PMID   9029430.
  6. ↑ Robers, S., Kemp, J., and Truman, J. (2013). Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2012 (NCES 2013-036/NCJ 241446). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC.
  7. 1 2 Williamson, E., & Aratani, L. (June 14, 2005). As school bus sexual assaults rise, danger often overlooked. Washington Post. B01.
  8. ↑ Nuefeld, S. (April 10, 2008). School violence appalls officials]. Baltimore Sun.
  9. ↑ Schonfeld, I.S. (2006). School violence. In E.K. Kelloway, J. Barling, & J.J. Hurrell, Jr. (Eds). Handbook of workplace violence (pp. 169–229). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  10. ↑ Office of the New York State Comptroller. (2006). Reporting of violent and disruptive incidents by public schools (Rep. No. 2005-S-38). Albany: Author.
  11. ↑ California Legislative Analyst Office. (2009). Review of school crime reporting. Sacramento: Author.
  12. ↑ Robertz, F.J. (August 1, 2007). "Deadly Dreams: What Motivates School Shootings?". Scientific American: 54–59.
  13. ↑ Brown, J.; Munn, P. (2008). "School violence as a social problem: Charting the rise of the problem and the emerging specialist field". International Studies in Sociology of Education. 18 (3–4): 219–230. doi:10.1080/09620210802492807. S2CID   143609241.
  14. ↑ Zarembo, A. (June 18, 2016). Are the media complicit in mass shootings? Los Angeles Times.
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