Almost 40 Percent of Crime at Schools is Violent, According to FBI

While school violence has been associated with gun toting vigilantes that open fire on their fellow students, the FBI has analyzed data from four years to get an accurate depiction of crime in schools. The data, which was collected from 2000-2004, shows that almost 40 percent of crime on a school campus is violent, but overall school crime consists of only 3.3 percent of all crime reported according to the press release.

For the purpose of this analysis, school crime was considered anything that police were notified of that occurred at a school, college, or university. During the four years of the study, there were almost 17 million crimes reported in the United States. Only 558,219 of those reports occurred at a school. As a result of those reports, there were 688,612 offenders, identified or not yet identified. There were also 181,468 people arrested as a result of these crimes.

According to the press release, the FBI found that most arrests (96.1 percent) were due to simple assault, aggravated assault, and intimidation. Strangely enough, the age group that had the most offenders (38 percent) were 13 to 15 years old. White people made up 71.1 percent of all crimes where the offender was identified. Males were responsible for 76.7 percent of crimes where the sex of the offender was known.

For over half of the people who reported crimes, they listed the offender as being an "acquaintance" according to the FBI press release. And a weapon other an fists or feet were used in only 25.9 percent of reported violence in schools.

The FBI believes by identifying the trends in school violence, school administrators and law enforcement officers will be more able to address this trend with appropriate measures. However, in the press release they reminded people in positions of authority against making assumptions about violent school crime based on a profile of those characteristics that make someone most likely to offend.

The FBI also cautioned that only one third of the nation's police and other law enforcement agencies participated in the study, making the results a good indicator, but perhaps not completely indicative of the school crime as a whole.

For a full listing of the findings of the FBI, a copy of the complete study can be obtained under the title of "Crime in Schools and Colleges: A Study of Offenders and Arrestees Reported via National Incident-Based Reporting System Data".

SOURCES:

FBI National Press Office, "FBI Studies Crime in Schools" Federal Bureau of Investigation