Chapter 10
The Educational Community
Schools and universities today face serious crime and victimization
problems. For too many students, teachers, and administrators, school is no
longer a safe haven. Daily threats to the safety of students and staff,
including violent assaults, are commonplace in many communities. Each time
students are threatened or injured in school, they are doubly victimizedby
the crime itself and then by the disruption of their ability to concentrate
and learn.
Crime in Schools
Several studies have documented the pervasiveness of crime and violence in
our nations schools. In a 1991 report entitled School Crime: A National
Crime Victimization Survey Report, the U.S. Department of Justice found
that more than 400,000 students nationwide were estimated to have been
victims of violent crimes at school during an 8-month period.1 Equally
alarming, the study found that during the same period, 430,000 students had
taken guns, knives, brass knuckles, razor blades, spiked jewelry, and other
objects to school to protect themselves from attack or harm. In 1993, a
survey found that half of students in grades 6 through 12 had witnessed
some type of crime or victimization at school, and about one of every eight
students reported being personally victimized at school.2
School violence plagues teachers as well. The National Institute of
Education found in 1993 that nearly 5,200 secondary school teachers are
physically attacked at school each month, with 1,000 suffering injuries
serious enough to require medical care.3 The same study found that at least
130,000 teachers each month are victims of theft.4 After examining more
than 1,000 teachers working in what they themselves described as combat
zones, Alfred Bloch, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the
University of California, Los Angeles, observed: What we are seeing is very
much akin to the kind of stress that soldiers in World War II and the
Korean War had experienced. Teachers in the study described symptoms of
fatigue, headaches, gastrointestinal problems, cardiovascular problems, and
hypertension.5
Crimes committed most on school grounds include assaults, robbery and
extortion,6 but even what is often characterized as harmless schoolyard
bullying can have a serious adverse impact on students, teachers, and
parents. One in ten students is victimized by a bully, often leaving
permanent emotional scars that children carry into adulthood. Institutional
tolerance can be equally damaging for the bully as well. Research indicates
that a child who bullies others has a one in four chance of having a
criminal record before age 30, compared with a one in 20 chance for
children who do not bully their peers.7
The issue of weapons, especially guns, in schools has also received
national attention. In one tragic incident in January 1989, a man carried
an AK-47 semi-automatic assault rifle onto an elementary school campus in
Stockton, California and opened fire, killing five children and injuring 29
students and a teacher. In May 1992, four students were slain and 11
injured when an ex-student entered a high school in Olivehurst, California,
and opened fire.8 On October 1, 1997, a 16-year-old boy in Pearl,
Mississippi stabbed his mother to death, drove to his high school with a
rifle hidden under his trench coat, killed his former girlfriend and
another girl, then wounded seven other students.9 Reports of such
terrifying incidents are all too common today, and they have a dramatic
impact not only on students where the crisis occurred but also on parents,
teachers, and the community at large.
The alarming rise of gang activity among students is well-documented as
well. From the 1920s on, gang violence has increased and intensified in
American schools, and today, it is characterized by notorious
senselessness.10 A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice found
that there were approximately 1,000 known gangs with a combined membership
of 50,000 operating in the United States by the end of the 1970s.11 By the
late 1980s these numbers increased to approximately 5,000 gangs with an
estimated membership of 250,000.12 While some school administrators have
been reticent to acknowledge the presence of gang activity in their
schools, students provide a much different picture. In a nationwide study
of school violence in 1991, 15 percent of students surveyed reported that
gangs were active on their campus, and 16 percent indicated that they had
witnessed gang members engaging in threatening acts against a teacher.13 In
the 79 U.S. cities with populations over 200,000, 91 percent reported
having a gang problem that had spread from the streets into areas
traditionally considered safe havens, such as schools.14 The mere presence
of gangs in a school increases tensions among students and teachers. If
they are not rooted out, gangs will almost certainly lead to an increase in
violence, fear, and drugs.15
The 1982 Final Report of the Presidents Task Force on Victims of Crime
recognized the important role that educators can play in assisting victims
and preventing crime. The Task Force urged school authorities to take the
following immediate action:
 Develop guidelines for statistical tracking and prompt reporting of
violent crimes committed in schools, crimes committed against school
personnel, and the possession of weapons or narcotics.
 Check the arrest and conviction records for sexual assault, child
molestation or pornography offenses of anyone applying for work in a
school.
 Develop and provide courses on the problems, needs, and legal interests
of victims of crime.
 Be mindful of their responsibility to make students aware of how they can
avoid being victimized by crime.
Since the release of the 1982 report, attention to school violence has
increased greatly, and scores of programs have been developed to protect
the safety of students, teachers, and administrators. In 1984, the National
School Safety Center (NSSC) was created by presidential directive as a
partnership among the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
in the Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Education, and
Pepperdine University. NSSCs mandate is to promote safe schools and help
ensure quality education for children nationwide. NSSC serves as a
clearinghouse for current information on school safety issues and has
produced important documents on addressing violence in the schools,
including a comprehensive guide to school safety law to help educators
implement campus violence prevention programs.
In 1987, the final report of the Presidents Child Safety Partnership
recommended that child safety be made a part of all school curricula and
that communities and schools make a concerted effort to involve youth in
programs that improve their well-being.16 More recently, Congress passed
the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act in 1994, authorizing the
creation of the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program through the U.S.
Department of Education. The program is the federal governments primary
vehicle for reducing school violence through education and prevention
activities. Its wide-ranging initiatives work toward meeting the seventh
National Education Goal, which states that, By the year 2000, every school
in America will be free of drugs and violence and will offer a disciplined
environment conducive to learning.17
School-Based Victim Assistance Programs
Many schools are forced to respond to incidents such as shootings,
kidnapings, sexual assault, and hate crimes that occur on school grounds.
How a school responds to such a crisis affects the healing and the
education of its students. Schools cannot work in isolation from their
communities, however, and assistance must be developed with the involvement
of families and the community. Comprehensive, culturally sensitive
school-based victim services can help schools suffering chronic trauma
better respond to students, teachers, and other staff who are victimized.
A number of schools have established victim service programs offering
crisis intervention counseling and stress reaction training as well as
curricula on victim assistance and violence prevention. These programs are
helping students and teachers better respond to stressful events in their
lives and in the lives of those around them.18
 Victim Services in New York City, the largest victim assistance provider
in the country, has responded to school violence through the creation of
the Safe Harbor program, which grew out of a school-based victim assistance
and peer mediation program. Safe Harbor is a comprehensive school-based
victim assistance/violence prevention program designed to help students,
faculty, and families cope with the violence they struggle with in their
lives, not only at school but at home and on the streets. The program
consists of five components: the PEARLS (People Empowered About Real Life
Situations) victim assistance/violence prevention curriculum, individual
counseling, parent involvement and teacher training, structured group
activities including focused discussions and informal activities, and
schoolwide anti-violence campaigns. An evaluation of Safe Harbor funded by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the program
reduced violent behavior in the school, especially when students
participated in more than one component of the program.
 Many schools and law enforcement agencies have teamed up to create School
Resource Officers (SRO) programs in communities across the country. The
programs place specially trained police officers in schools to create and
maintain safer learning environments. SROs act as counselors and mentors as
well as school law enforcement officers. While SROs are primarily
peacekeepers, their duties include giving students guidance in and out of
school and serving as a link for students who seek additional
student-related services.
 With funding from the Office for Victims of Crime, the Tariq Khamisa
Foundation has developed an interactive program, the Violence Impact Forum,
for underserved victim populations in elementary and middle schools in San
Diego, California. The program gives young victims an opportunity to engage
in meaningful dialogue with adult and peer panelists who have experienced
the trauma of violence firsthand and seek alternatives to violence.
 The United Federation of Teachers in New York City runs a Victim Support
Program (VSP) to assist school staff members who are victims of
school-related crime. Program services include outreach to victims,
psychological counseling and referrals for long-term treatment, training
for social service providers and school administrators for dealing with
victims and trauma, and school site visits to provide assistance in
resolving a schools ongoing trauma. VSP also offers an array of practical
assistance and advocacy services such as helping with procedures and forms
and accompanying victims to court and medical appointments.
 The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes have stationed a juvenile
officer in their public school system who is trained to facilitate conflict
resolution, ensure student safety, and address child abuse and neglect. The
officer helps the school system provide immediate intervention, assessment,
and referrals to appropriate agencies when incidents of violence or
intimidation occur.
 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) published Death at School, a
publication to assist school teachers, counselors, and administrators after
the death of a student, a students family member, or a teacher. As a public
service, MADD mailed the guide to every K-12 school in the United States.
In response to the growing number of youth gangs, there has been a
proliferation of intervention and prevention programs that attempt to
reduce gang-related activities among students. Schools have implemented a
range of measures including targeting students who are vulnerable to gang
recruitment for special assistance through peer counselors, support groups,
mentoring, conflict resolution, and tutoring; educating all school staff on
how gangs develop and how to respond to them; offering special programs for
parents of gang members; monitoring youth who are not enrolled in school
but who hang out on or near school property; offering education programs
for students about gangs and their destructiveness; establishing and
enforcing codes to prohibit the display of gang colors and the use of
beepers or cellular phones; removing graffiti; expanding afterschool,
weekend, and summer youth programs; and providing students with regular
opportunities for individual and group discussions about their experiences
in school.
Crime on College and University Campuses
Few issues affecting colleges and universities captured media attention
more dramatically in the last decade than violent crime. Headlines of major
newspapers across the country described violent incidents on campuses in
California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Minnesota, Virginia, and Florida, among
others. On a Florida campus, five students were murdered by a serial
killer. On a Southern California campus, three students were sexually
assaulted by a serial rapist. One observer wrote that widespread reports of
campus violence put to rest the long-cherished notion that colleges and
universities are somehow cloistered enclavessanctuaries far removed from
the threat of crime that haunts the rest of us.19
Campus violence civil litigation emerged in the mid-1980s as a relatively
new and formidable legal strategy to address the problem of campus crime.
Awards ranging from $50,000 to $2 million for victims of assault and rape
have shaken universities, attracted Congressional and media attention, and
forced schools to examine the quality of security they provide and their
response after a crime occurs.
One tragic case that focused national attention on campus crime involved
the torture, rape, and murder of 19-year-old Jeanne Ann Clery in her
dormitory room at Lehigh University on April 5, 1986. Following the
conviction and sentencing of the woman's murderer, also a university
student, Howard and Connie Clery filed suit against the university for
negligence in failing to take reasonable action to protect their daughter
from foreseeable harm. The amount of the settlement was not made public,
but the university agreed to improve security throughout the campus,
particularly in dormitories. Following the settlement, the Clerys formed
Security on Campus, Inc., an organization dedicated to bringing the problem
of violent crime on college campuses to the attention of those who most
need to know: applicants, students, faculty, and staff. Their crusade has
had widespread results, including the passage of legislation in
Pennsylvania in 1988 to address campus crime, followed by similar
legislation in other states and at the federal level.
In the early 1990s, heightened concern about the safety of students on
college campuses led to the passage of two federal laws: the Campus
Security Act and the Campus Sexual Assault Victims Bill of Rights. The
Campus Security Act, passed in 1990, requires that institutions publish and
distribute an annual report describing security and law enforcement
policies, crime prevention activities, procedures for reporting crimes on
campus, and campus crime statistics. The Campus Sexual Assault Victims Bill
of Rights, passed in 1991, requires institutions of higher education to
develop and publish as part of their campus security report policies
regarding the prevention and awareness of sex offenses and procedures for
responding after a sex offense occurs. A key point in the statute is the
clear responsibility assigned to university officials. They are required to
inform students of their rights, provide them with clear information about
how to report sex offenses, and ensure that students know about the
medical, legal, and psychological assistance available to them if they
become a victim. The Department of Education is responsible for the
enforcement of both statutes. An institutions failure to comply could mean
the loss of federal funds, including student loan money.
These federal laws raised public awareness of the prevalence and impact of
crime on college campuses. Campus law enforcement officials report that
colleges have increased resources for security and improved or clarified
relationships with local police or sheriff's departments. In addition, many
universities have developed or expanded crime victim assistance programs on
campus and established more formal ties with off-campus victim assistance
programs.
 In Orlando, Florida, the University of Central Florida Police Department
has established a Victim Services Unit that employs two full-time victim
advocates. The advocates are available to the university community 365 days
a year, 24 hours a day, to provide programming and direct support for
victims of crime.
 In Ithaca, New York, Cornell University has established a victim advocacy
program that provides free, confidential assistance to any member of the
university community who has been the victim of a serious crime on or off
campus. Its primary focus is to assist victims of assault, rape and other
sex offenses, and bias-related crimes. The program functions through the
Office of the University Ombudsman and works closely with local service
agencies such as Ithaca Rape Crisis, the Suicide Prevention and Crisis
Service, the Task Force for Battered Women, and the Child Sexual Abuse
Project. In addition, the University requires all varsity student athletes
to take a class on sexual assault.
 In Los Angeles, the Womens Resource Center at UCLA provides free,
confidential crisis counseling for sexual assault and domestic violence
related issues to any UCLA student, regardless of when or where the assault
occurred. Trained staff answer questions and refer students to the many
services available to them. The center provides referrals to address a
variety of resources in the community for medical, psychological, legal,
and housing needs.
School and University Based Education About Victimization
Schools and universities have a unique role in helping all students,
teachers, and staff understand and appreciate the rights and needs of
victims of crimes. School-based instruction about victim issues will
produce adults who are better informed about the needs of crime victims in
their communities. A wide range of initiatives have been undertaken in
recent years to educate students as well as faculty and staff.
 With funding from OVC, the National Organization for Victim Assistance
and the Education Development Center have developed a curriculum for young
crime victims called Healing Hearts/Mending Minds. The curriculum was
developed to provide educators and adolescents themselves with tools and
skills to help young victims heal.
 The Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center has
developed a sexual assault prevention education program for secondary
schools that reaches more than 20,000 adolescents each year. The programs
curriculum includes participatory exercises that enable students to
practice effective communication and self-protection skills. The program
also offers private time for students who wish to seek counseling for
personal victimization experiences.
 In 1996, OVC awarded Promising Strategies and Practices for Professional
Education grants to two organizations. The Allegheny Research Institute in
Pennsylvania received funding to conduct a national survey of professional
schools course offerings relevant to victims of crime. The Institutes
findings revealed that professional education about crime victims rights
and services is offered in a limited number of schools. The second stage of
the project was awarded to Victim Services, Inc., in New York to survey
five states to determine if mandatory educational requirements about crime
victims are included in the professional education of medicine, social
work, psychology, and other allied professions. Based on the findings of
both surveys, Victim Services is developing a multidisciplinary academic
curriculum to educate practitioners who interact with crime victims.
 Also with OVC funding, the Victim Assistance Legal Organization, in
partnership with California State University-Fresno, and the Medical
University of South Carolina, developed a college-level Victim Assistance
Academy on victims issues for advocates in the victim assistance field and
allied professions. The Academys rigorous 45-hour curriculum introduces
students to the basic concepts of victims rights and services and examines
new developments in
the field. The curriculum, which is offered each year at several
universities around the country simultaneously through distance learning
technology, allows students to earn undergraduate credits from California
State University-Fresno. The curriculum has been incorporated into numerous
victimology courses and is used widely in state trainings.
 Recognizing the critical role of professional education in preparing
graduates to be a part of the states strategy to reduce violence, abuse,
and harassment, the Minnesota State Legislature earmarked funding in 1993
to establish the Higher Education Center Against Violence and Abuse. The
center focuses on three areas: working with state and national
organizations to develop higher education programs that prepare
professionals to provide safety and services to victims of violence;
conducting research projects to find ways to end violence; and serving as
an international resource on violence and abuse issues to higher education
institutions, community-based programs, and professional organizations.
A number of colleges and universities have begun to offer academic courses
on victims issues as part of their undergraduate curriculum. Courses range
from topic specific areas such as family violence and child abuse to
general courses on victimology and victims rights.
In 1985, California State University-Fresno (CSUF) became the first
university in the nation to develop and conduct a program of study in
victim services. Today it offers an undergraduate degree in victimology, a
graduate degree with a specialization in victimology, and a month-long
summer institute on Victim Services. In 1999, in partnership with the
University of California, CSUF will offer the nations first doctorate
program in victimology.
Several other academic institutions are offering unique programs. The
University of New Haven in Connecticut offers a program in Victim Services
Administration through its Center for the Study of Crime Victims Rights,
Resource, and Remedies. Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas offers a
multidisciplinary Victim Assistance Program and in 1998 will provide an
undergraduate degree in victim/survivor studies. Michigan State University,
Southwestern Missouri State, and Florida State University also offer
courses in victimology and victims rights.
Other educational programs targeting specific professionals who work with
crime victimscriminal justice, health, mental health, clergy, and the
barare mentioned in separate sections of this report.
Prevention Strategies
The educational community has a responsibility to prevent crime and ensure
the safety of students and school staff. As the 1982 Presidents Task Force
recommended, school authorities should check the arrest and conviction
records of anyone applying for work in a school who would have regular
proximity to students for sexual assault, child molestation, or pornography
offenses. This is now required by statute in 21 states.20
In addition, colleges must take basic measures to prevent victimization
such as installing lighting and emergency phone systems, providing shuttle
and evening escort services for students, locking dormitory doors,
controlling access to buildings, and implementing crime watch programs and
24-hour security patrols.
The high risk of victimization for youth and perceptions that most violence
is caused by youth have led many communities to mobilize youth to help
prevent violence.
 Teenagers in 40 states have participated in Teens, Crime, and the
Community (TCC), a unique education and action program to educate teens
about their risk of victimization and offer them strategies to make their
lives and their communities safer. Created by the National Crime Prevention
Council and funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention in the U.S. Department of Justice, TCC has worked with young
people in more than 500 schools, community centers, and juvenile justice
facilities since 1985. Examples of youth-led TCC projects are launching a
child abuse prevention campaign, adopting younger classes to teach them
about the dangers of alcohol and other drug abuse, and making presentations
at local churches and civic organizations.
 The Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation has developed a violence
prevention curriculum called Rise Above It, which is taught by individuals
paralyzed as a result of violent acts. The programs mission is to increase
a students ability to control violent behavior by helping them develop and
practice creative alternatives to violence. The curriculum has been
presented to 3,500 students in the Newark, New Jersey school system.
 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has initiated several programs to
involve students in the fight against underage drinking and impaired
drivingthe cause of thousands of deaths and injuries among our nations
youth each year. In May 1997, one high school student from each of the 435
congressional districts was selected to attend MADDs National Youth Summit
on Underage Drinking. During the 3-day event in Washington, D.C., the
student delegates developed recommendations for preventing underage
drinking and presented them to lawmakers. In another MADD initiative, Youth
in Action, student-led teams across the country work to affect public
policy, media, and law enforcement with the ultimate goal of reducing the
number of traffic fatalities among young people by 25 percent within 5
years. MADD has also developed a Poster-essay contest for students in
grades 1 through 12.
 The U.S. Senate designated November 6, 1997, as a National Day of Concern
About Young People and Gun Violence. On that day, students took part in
activities across the country to raise awareness about youth gun violence,
including a national campaign calling for students to sign a pledge that
they will never carry a gun to school, never resolve a dispute with a gun,
and try to use their influence with their friends to keep them from
resolving disputes with guns. The day received support from organizations
and elected officials nationwide, including the American Federation of
Teachers, the National Education Association, the National PTA, the
American Medical Association, and the National Council of Churches.
 Campus Outreach Services was started by a student in 1990 after she was
assaulted on her college campus. The organization brings speakers on date
rape and sexual assault to colleges and high schools across the country.
Speakers include survivors of sexual assault, sexual assault peer
counselors, victims rights experts, and victim advocates. The organization
offers educational programs for resident advisors in dormitories, school
counselors, administrators, peer educators, health center staffers, and
student leaders. The program has also developed a guidebook entitled Sexual
Assault on Campus: What Every College Student Should Know About Protecting
Victims, Providing for Just Adjudication, and Complying with Federal Laws.
Recommendations from the Field for the Educational Community
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #1
Schools should establish comprehensive programs to assist students,
faculty, and staff who are victimized by crime or who witness violence.
These programs should be coordinated closely with local crime victim
assistance programs and law enforcement agencies.
The creation of school-based victim service programs is proving to be an
effective first step toward addressing victimization in schools.
Comprehensive school-based initiatives should be implemented for all
students in grades K-12, and they should respond to chronic trauma in
everyday life as well as violent incidentsfrom schoolyard bullying to gun
violence. To be comprehensive, victim assistance programs must include
written protocols for handling cases, including reporting crimes to law
enforcement, referring victims to medical and mental health treatment, and
coordinating with local victim assistance agencies.
Each school should develop a victim assistance action plan that focuses on
the immediate (1 to 4 days after the incident), intermediate (4 to 7 days
after the incident), and long-term (7 days to several weeks and throughout
various phases of the criminal justice system) needs of crime victims.21 In
particular, crisis counseling services for youth victims and witnesses to
violent crimes should be made available in school districts with gang
problems. The integrated mediation and violence prevention programs
developed by Victim Services, Inc., in New York City can serve as a model
for schools in this effort. In addition, school-based victim service
programs should involve families and the community in educational
activities.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #2
Schools should incorporate into their core curricula age-appropriate
education about the impact of victimization, the availability of victim
services, and victim rights information, including basic information about
the criminal and juvenile justice systems.
School-based curricula should address a broad range of victim issues such
as appropriate measures for intervention, the rights and services victims
are entitled to receive, and information about how the criminal and
juvenile justice systems operate. Schools should introduce students to
issues related to family violence, child abuse, and incest at an early age,
and they should teach them about specific types of crime victimization
including sexual assault, drunk driving, family violence, gang violence,
and hate and bias crimes. Schools should utilize victim impact panels and
classes as important educational methods to educate students about
victimization, and teachers should invite crime victims to give guest
lectures in classes dealing with these issues.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #3
Crime prevention strategies should be taught to students in every grade,
beginning in preschool, and schools should involve youth as peer educators
about victimization and crime prevention.
School-based education and prevention programs dealing with crime should be
available to all preschool and school-age children. Government, the private
sector, and the media should support innovative campaigns to inform parents
and teachers about steps they can take to prevent children from becoming
victims of crime. Moreover, teens are an enormous pool of untapped energy,
talent, and enthusiasm. They should be involved as peer educators to teach
younger children about crime prevention and victimization. For example,
Victim Services, Inc., has developed a program called Generation NeXt to
provide a vehicle for young people to learn leadership skills to prevent
violence in their homes, schools, and communities. The program trains young
people to be peer educators on conflict resolution, victim assistance, and
multicultural communication.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #4
Schools should implement procedures to help identify missing and exploited
children who may be enrolled in their educational systems.
Each year, missing and abducted children are enrolled in schools around the
country, many by parental abductors. Schools should require that the names
of new student enrollments be forwarded to the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children and state clearinghouses that keep records of
missing children.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #5
Age-appropriate sexual assault and dating violence awareness and prevention
programs should be a required component of school curricula. Schools should
work with law enforcement agencies and rape crisis centers to develop
strategies for preventing sexual violence and for assisting victims of such
crimes.
According to a 1992 study, 61 percent of American rape victims were
victimized before the age of 18, and 29 percent of forcible rapes occurred
when the victim was less than 11 years old. Moreover, 84 percent of rape
victims never report the crime to the police.22 Sexual assault education
for Americas youth should be targeted to preteen adolescent girls and boys
and should stress the importance of reporting sexual incidents to a
teacher, trusted adult, or victim service agency.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #6
Colleges and universities should establish comprehensive programs to assist
students, faculty members, and staff who are victimized by crime. These
programs should be coordinated closely with local crime victim assistance
programs.
Comprehensive services should be available to all campus victims. Campus
law enforcement should be informed of every victimization reported by
students, as should local law enforcement agencies. Responses to victimized
students should be guided by written protocol, which must include, at a
minimum, procedures for referring victims to local victim assistance,
health care, and mental health providers and law enforcement agencies. The
protocol should also address immediate, intermediate, and long-term
responses.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #7
Colleges and universities should offer interdisciplinary credit courses on
victim issues and rights in departments that train professionals who
interact with crime victims. Victim issues should also be incorporated into
professional licensing exams.
The following departments should offer at least one interdisciplinary
course in victims issues: criminal justice, law, psychology, social work,
health care, theology, education, and business. Additional specialized
courses may include crimes against women, hate and bias crimes, child
victimization, elder victimization, domestic violence, homicide, and drunk
driving. Professions requiring licensing or certification should include
victim issues in their professional exams. In addition, colleges and
universities should develop degree programs that focus on victim issues,
and they should encourage students to conduct research in this area.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #8
All college and university campuses should adopt sexual assault and dating
violence protocol that include clear definitions of proscribed conduct.
These policies should be disseminated to all students, campus staff, and
faculty. Campus staff and faculty should be trained in procedures for
responding to students who have been sexually assaulted.
Every college and university should develop, print, and distribute a clear
institutional policy against sexual assault to inform current and
prospective students, faculty, and staff that these crimes will not be
tolerated on campus. Policies should include definitions of sexual assault
and dating violence, data on the prevalence of these crimes on campus,
relevant provisions of the code of student conduct, and a description of
the schools prevention strategies and victim assistance resources.
Colleges should periodically review and update their protocol as new crimes
emerge. For example, the Drug Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act
was signed into law in October 1996 as a result of an alarming rise in the
use of rape drugs on college campuses.23 The law makes it a federal crime
to distribute a controlled substance to an individual without that
individuals knowledge and with the intent to commit a crime of violence,
including rape. In August 1997, Attorney General Janet Reno joined the Rape
Treatment Center (RTC) at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center in launching a
national effort to warn college students of the dangers of two new drugs,
Rohypnol and GHB, that sexual predators use to incapacitate their victims
before assaulting them. The prevention campaign is supported by a broad
partnership of victim advocates, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, and
the private sector, which has produced educational materials and public
service announcements about the dangers of the drugs for national
dissemination. All colleges should widely distribute information about rape
drugs and the new federal legislation.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #9
All school districts, colleges and universities should design and implement
a standardized system for documenting, analyzing, and reporting crimes to
law enforcement.
Schools and universities around the nation vary widely in how they collect
data on incidents of student violence and discipline and whether or not
they report to law enforcement. Without accurate and consistent data, it is
difficult for educators to draw conclusions about the impact of violence
prevention programs in their schools.24 Increasing numbers of schools are
recognizing the benefits of accurate data collection and some have used new
technologies to assist in this process. For example, in Virginia, the
Norfolk Public School Districts School Management and Resource Teams
program, funded by a joint grant from the U.S. Departments of Education and
Justice, includes a simple-to-use, computerized system that is used in each
of Norfolks schools to collect data on the nature and location of
violations. Student names are not included to protect victims identity.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #10
Schools, colleges and universities should develop specialized education and
training programs for faculty, administrators, and staff on crime victim
issues.
Although many school teachers, college faculty, and other staff frequently
face issues of crime and violence, most lack the training, skills, and
resources to address these sensitive issues. When a student or coworker is
victimized, many educators find themselves feeling overwhelmed and
unprepared to respond appropriately. Education about victims rights and
services should be an integral part of training for all school and
university staff. Education should be interdisciplinary and inform future
educators about effective team approaches to handling victims and
offenders. In addition, all educators should receive ongoing inservice
training on these issues.
Campus administrators, faculty, board members, resident advisors, campus
security and police, and university mental health center staff should also
receive training on victim issues. Information about specific crimes such
as sexual assault, drunk driving, dating violence, gang violence, and hate
and bias crimes should be included in both academic and training curricula.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #11
Victims should have certain rights in disciplinary hearings involving
crimes in schools and on college campuses. These rights should include the
right to notice of the hearing, the right to be accompanied to the hearing
by a person of their choice, the right to give a victim impact statement
before a penalty is assessed, and the right to be informed of the outcome
of the hearing. In addition, victims should be protected from irrelevant
questions about their past sexual history.
School and university disciplinary hearing procedures are set forth in
codes regulating student conduct and generally constitute an informal trial
before a panel of faculty or student representatives. To encourage the
reporting of crimes and to ensure fairness to victims throughout the
disciplinary process, schools and colleges should include in student codes
a statement of the rights of victims during disciplinary proceedings
conducted by the college or university.25 Similarly, state education codes
should be revised to establish rights and protections for students who are
victimized in their schools. (The rights of victims in administrative
proceedings are discussed in more detail in Chapter 1.) When
administratively handled cases are not referred to local law enforcement
agencies, the victim should be informed of the reason.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #12
School and college campuses should develop crisis response protocols so
that they are prepared to respond to major incidents of violence.
A growing number of communities and institutions are developing crisis
response capabilities to respond to incidents of violent crime. Since 1987,
the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) has coordinated a
National Crisis Response Team Training Institute, which trains service
providers in community crisis response. NOVA, with funding from the U.S.
Departments of Justice and Education, is currently developing a training
program for school-based personnel on effective responses to incidents of
violence and serious victimization. Every school and college campus should
develop this crisis response capability to ensure that victims receive
appropriate services in the aftermath of violence.
Educational Community Recommendation from the Field #13
School and university libraries should incorporate resources on victim
rights, victim services, and violence prevention into their collections and
information displays.
School and university libraries provide critical information to students,
teachers, and staff, and they should create specialized sections and coding
systems dedicated to publications on victim issues. Libraries can play an
important role in publicizing victim assistance and crime prevention
information. For example, libraries can provide a public service by
displaying posters with the toll-free phone numbers of national
organizations that assist victims of domestic violence, sexual assault,
child abuse, and drunk driving. In addition, school libraries should post
listings of local victim service organizations in a highly visible
location.
Endnotes
1 Bastian, L., and B.Taylor, School Crime: A National Crime Victimization
Survey Report, Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S.
Department of Justice, 1991, NCJ 131645.
2 Nolin, M. J. and E. Davies, Student Victimization At School, Washington,
D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of
Education, October 1995.
(Http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/actguid/finding1.html, September 29,
1997.)
3 Wheeler, E. and S.A. Baron, Violence in Our Schools, Hospitals and Public
Places: A Prevention and Management Guide, California, Pathfinder
Publishing, 1993:105.
4 Id.
5 Id.
6 Stephens, R., G. Butterfield, J. Arnette, and B. James, Student and Staff
Victimization NSSC Resource Paper, Malibu, CA: National School Safety
Center, March 1996.
7 National School Safety Center News Service, School Crime and Violence
Prevention -- Parents Make a Difference, School Safety Update, Westlake
Village: National School Safety Center News Service, September 1993.
8 Stephens, Student and Staff Victimization NSSC Resource Paper.
9 Edsall, T., Mississippi Boy Held in School Killing Spree, The Washington
Post, October 2, 1997, A3.
10 Lal, S., Gangs: From Social Groups to Violent Delinquents in Schwartz,
W. (Ed), Preventing Youth Violence in Urban Schools: An Essay Collection,
1996. (Http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/monograph).
11 Needle, A., and W.V. Stapleton, Police Handling of Youth Gangs: Reports
of the National Juvenile Assessment Centers, Sacramento, CA: American
Justice Institute, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention, 1983.
12 U.S. Department of Justice, Crime in the United States, Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1994.
13 Bastian, School Crime: A National Crime Victimization Survey Report.
14 Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
Combating Violence and Delinquency: The National Juvenile Justice Action
Plan, Report, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 199:35.
15 Burnett, G. and G. Walz, Gangs in Schools, ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban
Education Digest
Number 99, July 1994 (http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/digests/dig99.html).
16 Presidents Child Safety Partnership, A Report to the President,
Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987.
17 National Center for Education Statistics, Student Strategies to Avoid
Harm at School, October 1995.
(http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/actguid/finding2.html).
18 National Victim Center, INFOLINK, Arlington, VA: National Victim Center,
Vol 1, No. 41.
19 Carrington, F., Campus Crime and Violence: A New Trend in Crime Victims
Litigation. The Virginia Bar Association Journal, 1991:XVII. (1).
20 National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Reporting Laws: Mandatory
Reporters, Child Abuse and Neglect Statutes Series #2, Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children,
Youth and Families, December 1995.
21 Young, M., Violence in the Schools: A Domestic War Zone, National
Organization for Victim Assistance Newsletter, Washington, D.C.: Issue #4,
1991.
22 Kilpatrick, D., A. Seymour, and C. Edmunds, Rape in AmericaA Report to
the Nation, Arlington, Virginia: National Victim Center & Crime Victims
Research and Treatment Center, April 23, 1992.
23 Leeds, J., Reno Launches Drive Against Date Rape Drugs, Los Angeles
Times, August 12, 1997.
24 Effective Data Collection for Safe Public Schools, Exemplary Practices,
In Creating Safe and Drug Free Schools: An Action Guide, September 1996
(Http://www.ed.gov/oices/ OESE/ SDFS/actguid/datacol.html).
25 Adams, A. and G. Abarbanel, Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges Can
Do, Santa Monica, CA: Rape Treatment Center, Santa Monica Hospital Medical
Center, 1988.