1,183,700 Violent Crimes Committed at Public Schools; Only 303,900 Reported to Police

[Makalakumu]

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/118...ed-public-schools-only-303900-reported-police

(CNSNews.com) - The Department of Education and the Department of Justice say that 1,183,700 violent crimes were committed at American public schools during the 2009-2010 school year, but that only 303,900 of these violent crimes were reported to the police.

By this government estimate, 879,800 violent crimes committed at U.S. public schools in the 2009-2010 school year were not reported to police.


These statistics are part of a report—“Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2011”—published jointly on Feb. 22 by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).


As defined by the report, “violent crimes” included rape, sexual battery other than rape, physical attack or fight with or without a weapon, threat of physical attack with or without a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.

It's sad to say, but I think these statistics make the case that our kids need some serious self defense skills just to go to school. What do you think is going on here?

 

[ballen0351]

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/118...ed-public-schools-only-303900-reported-police



It's sad to say, but I think these statistics make the case that our kids need some serious self defense skills just to go to school. What do you think is going on here?

Depending on the school district everytime 2 kids get into a little pushing match they consider it a violent crime. That articles a little misleading.

 

[Cryozombie]

I agree with Ballen... Back in the 80's I had numerous schoolyard brawls, that at the time resulted in at most a detention and a call home (remind me to tell you about the time they called my "opponents" mom and told her I was "jiggling her son's nuggets") that today would probably be considered a "criminal offense" and the cops called in. I think there are serious offenses, and I think there are overblown cases of kids will be kids, and they go at it as mutual combatants. *shrug*

 

[Dirty Dog]

Whenever I see these sort of numbers, I am reminded that 84.7% of all statistics are made up.
It sort of reminds me of the reports regarding cell phone use and car crashes. The report made cell phones look more dangerous than driving drunk, but that was because they classified the cell phone as being a factor in the crash if the driver had used the phone any time in the 15 minutes prior to the crash.
And as mentionmed above, "violent crime" and "horseplay" can have a significant overlap.

 

[Takai]

It's sad to say, but I think these statistics make the case that our kids need some serious self defense skills just to go to school. What do you think is going on here?

Looks to me like "kids" just need to learn about respect, discipline and proper behavior. I am sure a lot of us had "tussles" on the playground during our formative years. Unfortunately the days of Johnny and Jimmy scrapping, then being made to apologize shake hands and eventually become friends appear to be gone.

With the state legislating all of the PC and zero tolerance policies it is a wonder that these numbers aren't higher. After all if a Kindergartner can get his dad arrested after the little one draws a picture of a gun then the decision making paradigms need to be reconsidered. According to the above article this could be considered a "threat".

http://www.onlineschools.org/educat...hild-draws-gun-picture-in-class-dad-arrested/

Yes I realize this is Canada but I think that the theory still holds.

 

[Makalakumu]

The strange thing about this article is that if you want to actually see what is happening in a lot of these incidents, you can go to youtube or other sites and see where the students have uploaded the cell phone camera footage of their actions. In Hawaii, kids in public schools love to fight. They love to find victims and do what's called a "false knock" as in run up from behind, get their attention, and then strike them as hard as they can. So, I don't think it's totally overblown.

Could there be some inflation of numbers? Maybe, but looking at what students say they experience and what they say they've done, there is a measure of truth to this, IMO.

 

[Tez3]

How many schools and how many school children in the USA? The number of 'attacks' could be huge or not depending on how many children you have couldn't they.

 

[granfire]

How come they ahve a number so accurately down to the hundreds? I mean, unreported...

 

[Cryozombie]

How come they ahve a number so accurately down to the hundreds? I mean, unreported...

If I had to guess, mine would be that they have the disciplinary reports for the students involved, but the cops were never involved, it was handled in-house.

 

[granfire]

Well, we have a double edged sword....we have the playground scuffle that is made into a mountain, and of course a case like a friend of mine you got jumped by 3 guys and nothing was ever made from it...not until the ringleader pulled another 2 or so stunts! And that was a full out assault, resulting ina broken nose and all the good stuff...

 

[Makalakumu]

Here are some numbers to think about.

The USA has 311,591,917 citizens
The USA has 76,100,000 school age children.
The USA has 25,400,000 children ages 12-17

Out of the total population, there are 3 per 1000 citizens.
Out of the school age children, there are 16 per 1000 citizens.
Out of the total population of children from 12-17, there are 47 per 1000
(I'm assuming that these are the ones most likely involved in violent crime)

The overall crime rate for the USA is 40 per 1000 citizens.


As compared to the general population, US schools have a very low crime rate. If we look at only school age children, the rate is still lower. If we look at the students who are mostly likely going to be committing violent crimes, the rate is pretty much the same as the overall violent crime rate for the country.

So, maybe this isn't that surprising. Why wouldn't the level of violent crimes committed outside of the schools influence what happens inside of them?

 

[Makalakumu]

How many schools and how many school children in the USA? The number of 'attacks' could be huge or not depending on how many children you have couldn't they.

Good questions...good enough for me to look up some stats with my Sunday morning coffee.

 

[Big Don]

If I had to guess, mine would be that they have the disciplinary reports for the students involved, but the cops were never involved, it was handled in-house.

Isn't failure to report a crime itself a crime?

 

[oftheherd1]

Isn't failure to report a crime itself a crime?

I think it mostly depends on the job of a person. Teachers may be required to report certain crimes at a school, but school janitors not. A church lay person may be required to report certain types of crimes during chruch activities, and the preacher/priest probably never.

But mostly, ordinary citizens are never under legal obligation to report a crime.

 

[Big Don]

It is damn sure a moral obligation.

 

[ballen0351]

It is damn sure a moral obligation.

Unless your a coach at Penn state