Violence in U.S. Public Schools: 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety, Statistical Analysis Report

• NCJ Number: 208536
• Author(s): Amanda K. Miller; Kathryn Chandler
• Date Published: October 2003
• Length: 112 pages
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Education Statistics
• Sale Source: US Dept of Education (Publication Ctr)
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded January 27, 2005.

Annotation

This report analyzes 1999-2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) data on the presence of violence and serious violence in America’s public schools.

Abstract

Media attention on extreme incidents of school violence has focused national attention on the issue of violence in the Nation’s public schools. In order to gain valuable data concerning this issue, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) administered the 2000 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) to a nationally representative sample of 2,270 regular public elementary, middle, secondary, and combined schools throughout the United States. The SSOCS provides a measure of the amount of crime, violence, and disorder in public schools across the Nation, as well as the practices and programs used by schools to identify and eliminate potential problems. This report focuses on the data involving the occurrence of violence and serious violence in the Nation’s schools and represents the first analysis of SSOCS data. The analysis examines the relationship between the characteristics of the schools and the types of violence that occurred during the study period (1999-2000). Among the key findings is the report that 71 percent of public elementary and secondary schools experienced at least 1 violent incident and approximately 1.5 million violent incidents occurred on school grounds around the United States. Moreover, one or more serious violent incidents occurred in 20 percent of reporting public schools. Secondary schools reported the most violent incidents and the size of the school’s student enrollment was found to be related to the prevalence of both violent and serious violent incidents. Student’s academic and standardized testing performance were also significantly related to violence in schools; schools with more academically successful students experienced fewer violent incidents. Other variables related to violence in schools were urbanicity, number of classroom changes, percentage of males, and number of schoolwide disruptions. Tables, figures, references, appendix