School crime is down, or is it?

A report recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that the crime rate in the country's schools has decreased dramatically from 1992 to 2002.

The report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, 2004, states that violent victimizations dropped from 48 incidents per 1,000 students in 1992 to 24 per 1,000 in 2002. Approximately 659,000 violent crimes occurred while at school and approximately 720,000 violent crimes while away from school in 2002. However, more thefts occurred in school than outside. For the more serious crimes-rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault-the rates per 1,000 students were lower at school than away in each survey year from 1992 to 2002.

The information was gleaned from annual surveys taken by the bureau, says spokesman Stu Smith. However, both Smith and report co-author Katrina Baum decline to comment on why the numbers are decreasing, claiming the report only looks at patterns and not causes. Baum says the decline in school violence mirrors a decrease in crime among the whole population.

Bill Modzeleski, associate deputy undersecretary of the Office of Sale and Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, feels several factors help make the schools ostensibly safer. He says the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act means that more schools are employing programs that are proven to be effective. Secondly, he adds that in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shootings in 1999, schools have become more sensitive to potentially explosive situations. "Schools are not only employing better programming but combining that programming with strong policies and practices," Modzeleski says.

Finally, Modzeleski feels that schools are better at linking with the community, particularly in involving the police in the day-to-day affairs of school. "As for whether this trend will continue, no one knows," he says.

Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Service, takes issue with the way the report was prepared, calling it misleading. "The federal report grossly underestimates the extent of school crime because it is based upon limited research surveys, not actual reported crime incidents," he says. "While no one wants to be alarmist and overstate the problem, most experienced school safety professionals know that school crime is underreported to law enforcement and that there is no federal mandatory K-12 school crime reporting and tracking law on the books."

Trump claims that by using reported crime incidents rather than a random sampling, the numbers are quite different. For example, Trump claims the number of school-associated violent deaths jumped to 49 in 2003-2004, more than the two prior school years combined and greater than any school year since 1999.