A Profile of Criminal Incidents at School: Results from the 2003-05 National Crime Victimization Survey Crime Incident Report NCES 2010-318
Author: Ruddy, Sally A.
Date: 2010-05-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: School Buses,Weapons,Violence,Crime,Injuries,Criminals,Measures (Individuals),School Buildings,Victims of Crime,Surveys,Profiles,Sample Size,Standards,Juvenile Gangs,Administrators,Antisocial Behavior,Error of Measurement,Police,Statistical Significance

This report provides estimates of criminal incidents that occur at school. Incident-level data were obtained from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the nation's primary source of information on criminal victimization and criminal incidents in the United States. The NCVS collects demographic information on respondents in the NCVS Basic Screen Questionnaire (NCVS-1), and data on the characteristics of criminal incidents are collected in the NCVS Crime Incident Report (NCVS-2). In order to reach a sample size that was large enough to allow the reporting of estimates that meet the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) statistical standards, it was necessary to pool three NCVS data years to derive the estimates presented in this report. Major findings include the following: (1) During the 2003-05 period, 4,763,000 criminal incidents occurred at school; (2) The highest percentage of violent incidents occurred inside the school building (54 percent), with 35 percent occurring outside the school building on school property (school parking area, play area, school bus, etc.), and 11 percent on the way to or from school; (3) Inside the victim's school building, a higher percentage of violent incidents occurred in hallways or stairwells (41 percent) than in classrooms (29 percent), locations in the &quot;other&quot; category (25 percent), or bathrooms or locker rooms (5 percent); (4) A greater percentage of both thefts and violent incidents occurred between noon and 3 p.m. (36 percent and 41 percent, respectively) than between 6 a.m. and noon (28 percent and 33 percent, respectively) or 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. (13 percent and 15 percent, respectively); (5) Eighty-two percent of any incidents at school were not reported to police, whereas 16 percent were reported; (6) More violent incidents at school involved an offender without a weapon (85 percent) than with a weapon (10 percent); (7) No injury to victims occurred in 73 percent of violent incidents, whereas 27 percent of violent incidents did involve an injury; (8) Eighty percent of violent incidents were committed by a single offender. The offender was known to victims in 90 percent of violent single-offender incidents; (9) In 36 percent of the violent incidents in which multiple offenders were involved, the incident was committed by a group in which at least one member had previously committed a crime or made threats against the respondent or other household members. In 29 percent of violent incidents in which a single offender was involved, the incident was committed by a person who had previously committed a crime or made threats against the respondent or other household members; (10) A higher percentage of violent incidents committed by a single offender involved a male offender (75 percent) than a female offender (25 percent). A higher percentage of these incidents were committed by an offender age 14 years or younger (53 percent) than by an offender ages 15 through 17 years (38 percent), or age 21 years or older (4 percent); (11) For violent incidents involving multiple offenders, a greater percentage was committed by an all-male group (51 percent) than an all-female group (30 percent); and (12) Among violent incidents, a greater percentage committed by multiple offenders involved at least one offender who was a gang member (24 percent) than by a single offender who was a gang member (4 percent). Appendices include: (1) Technical Notes; (2) Standard Error Tables; (3) Selected Items From the National Crime Victimization Survey Basic Screen Questionnaire (NCVS-1); and (4) Selected Items From the National Crime Victimization Survey Crime Incident Report (NCVS-2). (Contains 20 tables, 6 figures, and 12 footnotes.)