Most injuries that occur at school result from accidents, not violence, and most school crime is theft, not violent crime. In addition, U.S. schools are becoming even safer. Between 1993 and 1997, the overall school crime rate for students ages 12-18 declined, and the percentage of high school students carrying weapons or engaging in physical fights on school property decreased significantly. Notwithstanding this encouraging news, the recent school shootings in the United States have clouded the public's perception of school safety. Many parents wonder whether their children will be victimized by school violence.
Many educators question the adequacy of their school's security measures.
And if the trend that displayed itself during the first half of the 1990s has continued in the same direction, many children feel less safe at school now than they did in the past. This issue of The ERIC Review focuses on school safety and violence prevention. Most of the articles appearing in this issue were originally published as ERIC Digests. These brief overviews of education topics support the issue's broad-based approach to school safety and violence prevention. The issue begins with an article that presents the latest statistics on school violence and describes the characteristics that many safe schools have in common.