U.S. Department of Education

Office of Educational Research and Improvement

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS

EDUCATION POLICY ISSUES:

STATISTICAL PERSPECTIVES

July 1995

Gangs and Victimization

at School

The NCES Education Policy Issues series is designed to provide the best statistical information available on important policy questions. The

series primarily provides responses grounded in statistical findings, but also, as appropriate, provides some information based on smaller scale

research and case studies.

Public concern over violent juvenile behavior has intensified in recent

years, especially in regard to safety inside schools. Included among the

National Education Goals is a strong commitment to providing

children with learning environments that are free of violence. Yet there

are very limited data about the causes of either juvenile street violence

or school-related crime. Journalists frequently blame street violence

on the influence of gangs. This issue brief looks at the relationship

between gang presence in schools and students’ reports of

victimization and fear. Data collected in 1989 and 1993 reveal:

 • Minority students living in urban areas are not the only ones who

attend schools with gang members. Similar numbers of white

students and minority students report gangs in their schools. Also,

similar numbers of students living in suburban neighborhoods and

students living in urban neighborhoods report gangs in their

schools.

 • Gang presence in schools is strongly associated with increased

student reports of victimization and fear.

 • When gang presence is taken into account, differences in

victimization and fear levels decrease between students living in

rural, suburban, and urban areas.

Which students are exposed to gangs at school?

In 1989, 15 percent of students (approximately 3,301,000) reported

"street” gangs in their school.1 By 1993, in a different survey, 35

percent of students said "fighting" gangs were present in their schools.2

Although the data from these two surveys can not be compared directly

due to the different wording of the gangs question, these data may

signal an increase in the number of students exposed to gangs.

Many people assume that gangs are confined to urban areas and

schools with large concentrations of minority students. The 1989

survey, which asked students whether there were street gangs at their

school, found that while the proportion of students reporting gangs was

higher in urban areas (27%) than in suburban (15%) or rural areas

 

1

 Based on the 1989 School Crime Supplement to the annual National Crime

Victimization Survey (NCVS), sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (U.S.

Department of Justice). NCVS surveyed 10,499 students, ages 12 to 19, and is a

nationally representative sample of households in the United States. Students were

asked “Are there any street gangs at your school?”

2

 Based on the School Safety and Discipline Survey conducted as part of the 1993

National Household Education Survey (NHES), administered by the National

Center for Education Statistics. NHES surveyed 6,800 students in grades 6 through

12 and 13,300 parents and is a nationally representative sample of households in

the United States. Students were asked “Do any of the students at your school

belong to fighting gangs?”

(8%), the number of students in both suburban areas and urban areas

who reported attending schools with gangs was roughly equivalent at

1.4 million each.3

 (See figure 1.) In short, gangs are not just an urbanschool problem.

Exposure to gangs is also viewed primarily as a problem for minority

youth, despite that students from all backgrounds report gangs in their

schools. In 1989, one in three Hispanic students reported members of

street gangs were enrolled in their school (34%). Black students and

white students were less likely to report gang members present in their

school (21% and 12% respectively). Yet, because the school

population of white students is much larger than that of other groups,

more white students than minority students are estimated to report a

gang presence in their school (in 1989, 1.8 million white students

compared to 1.5 million minority students when all minority students

are combined as shown in figure 1).4

Analyses of 1993 data by race and ethnicity find similar patterns. In

1993, while the proportion of white students reporting the presence of

fighting gangs in their school (31%) was less than that of black (42%)

and Hispanic students (51%), the number of white students exposed to

gangs at school (5.2 million) was nearly two million more than the

number of minority students combined (3.2 million) exposed to gangs

at school.5

 

3

 NCVS, 1989. Residential areas are based on Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)

classifications. Suburbs are inside an MSA, but not in the central city of the MSA.

Rural areas are all outside MSA’s.

4

 NCVS, 1989.

5

 NHES, 1993.

Figure 1. Students reporting gangs in school, by students' residence 

 and minority status 

SOURCE: 1989 National Crime Victimization Survey

Urban Suburban Rural White Minority

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

1.4 1.4

0.4

1.8

1.5

Millions
This brief was prepared by John H. Ralph, NCES; Kelly W. Colopy and Christine McRae, Policy Studies Associates; Bruce Daniel, Pinkerton Computer Consultants,

Inc. For more information on school violence issues, contact John Ralph, (202) 219-2270 or see Ralph, J.H., D.D. Nelson, L.T. Ogle, School Violence and Misbehavior:

What National Surveys Tell Us, National Center for Education Statistics, forthcoming.

NCES 95-740

Are schools with gangs likely to have higher rates of victimization

and fear?6

Overall, in 1989, 15 percent of students feared an attack on their way

to or from school and an even greater percentage (22%) feared an

attack while at school. A much smaller percentage (4%) said they had

actually been victimized in the last six months.

Reported rates of fear and victimization varied by whether gangs were

present in the school. Students at schools with gangs consistently

reported much higher victimization rates and levels of fear than

students at schools without gangs (table 1). Compared to students who

did not report gangs in their schools, students who did were: nearly

twice as likely to fear an attack at school; more than twice as likely to

fear an attack while traveling to or from school; and more than twice as

likely to have been victimized within the past six months. The overall

proportion of students reporting they avoided certain areas within

school (6%) or carried a weapon to school (2%) is roughly comparable

to the proportion who reported being victimized in the past six months

(4%), and again the pattern of gang related victimization and fear is

the same. Students attending schools with gangs were more than four

times as likely to avoid certain areas within their school and more than

three times as likely to report that they had brought something to

school for protection in the last six months.

These 1989 results are consistent with 1993 data, also based on

measures of student-reported victimization and student reports of

having “brought a weapon to school” (table 2). As in 1989 data, the

proportion of students affected is small, but the relationship of

victimization and weapons-carrying to gang presence in the schools is

clear. Students attending schools where fighting gangs were present

reported much higher rates of victimization and weapons-carrying than

other students. Students in schools with gangs were over three times

more likely to report having something forcibly taken from them (over

the course of the school year), more than three times as likely to report

bringing a weapon to school, and more than twice as likely to report

 

6

 See definition of victimization in table 1.

being physically attacked. Though the data indicate that gang presence

is related to levels of student victimization and fear, these data do not

tell us whether an already violent school climate fosters gang

membership or whether gangs themselves are the culprit.

Does gang presence outweigh where students live and student

race/ethnicity in accounting for levels of student victimization and

fear?

All students, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or place of residence,

tend to report higher rates of victimization and fear when there are

gangs in school. For example, in 1989, whether they lived in an urban,

suburban, or rural area, roughly 7 percent of students in schools with

gangs reported they were victimized within the last six months (table

1). Also, differences in students’ reported rates of victimization varied

little by urban status in schools without gangs—roughly 3% of the

students reported victimization. Based on statistical tests of the 1989

data that simultaneously take into account where students lived and

whether they attended a school with gangs, the likelihood of becoming

a victim of violence at school was less related to place of residence

than to whether the student attended a school where there were gangs.

Similarly, based on statistical tests of the 1993 data that

simultaneously take into account students’ racial or ethnic background

and whether they attended a school with gangs, the likelihood of

becoming a victim of violence at school was less related to student

background than to whether the student attended a school where there

were gangs.

Conclusion

The problem of gangs in schools is limited to neither urban areas nor

minority students—the actual number of students who encounter gangs

in school is as great for suburban or white students as it is for urban or

minority students. Gang presence, not a student’s race or ethnicity nor

whether the student lives in an urban area, accounts for most of the

differences across students who report different levels of victimization

and fear at school. When gang presence is factored in, urban and racial

differences tend to become insignificant.

Table 2. Student victimization and fear at school, by gang

 presence and race/ethnicity: 1993

 Presence of

gangs at school

and student

race/ethnicity

 Physically

attacked

during

school year

Something

taken by

force

Brought

weapon to

school

Total* 3.7% 1.2% 3.4%

Gangs 5.9 2.3 6.2

White 5.5 2.3 4.6

Black 8.2 1.9 10.4

Hispanic 4.9 2.6 6.7

No gangs 2.5 0.7 1.9

White 2.5 0.5 1.5

Black 2.1 1.0 4.0

Hispanic 3.0 1.8 1.9

*Total includes racial/ethnic subgroups not shown separately.

SOURCE: 1993 National Household Education Survey Table 1. Student victimization and fear at school, by gang presence and

 students’ residence: 1989

Presence of

gangs at school

and students’

residence

Victimization in

last 6

months*

Ever fearing an attack

 To or

 At from

 school school

Avoiding

places inside

school

Brought

something to

school for

protection in

last 6 months

Total 3.5% 21.8% 14.7% 5.9% 2.0%

Gangs present 6.7 35.4 24.2 13.0 4.9

Urban 6.5 37.5 28.4 13.5 5.5

Suburban 6.8 32.4 19.6 13.0 5.1

Rural 6.9 38.0 25.3 13.0 1.9

No gangs 2.9 18.2 11.6 2.9 1.5

Urban 3.0 19.3 16.3 3.7 2.0

Suburban 3.0 18.1 11.0 2.6 1.4

Rural 2.6 17.5 8.9 2.9 1.1

* Victimization comprises the number of students who answered “yes” to either of

two questions: “During the past six months, did anyone take money or things

directly from you by force, weapons, or threats at school?” or “Did anyone

physically attack you at school during the last six months?”

SOURCE: 1989 National Crime Victimization Survey
This brief was prepared by John H. Ralph, NCES; Kelly W. Colopy and Christine McRae, Policy Studies Associates; Bruce Daniel, Pinkerton Computer Consultants,

Inc. For more information on school violence issues, contact John Ralph, (202) 219-2270 or see Ralph, J.H., D.D. Nelson, L.T. Ogle, School Violence and Misbehavior:

What National Surveys Tell Us, National Center for Education Statistics, forthcoming.

NCES 95-740