NCJ Number
74866
Date Published
1980
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Research findings on offenders, victims, and fear in schools challenge the assumptions that crime in schools is different from crime in the community and that offenders and victims are mutually exclusive groups.
Abstract
Despite media attention and public outcry, no reliable evidence indicates that serious crime in the schools has increased markedly in recent years or constitutes a significant problem. This paper examined crimes which were committed on the grounds of secondary schools, excluding status offenses, and focused entirely on youths. Although crime studies tend to concentrate on one group at a time, in reality there is a great deal of overlap among offenders, victims, and those who fear crime. Most victims are fearful, some of the fearful youth are probably offenders, and some offenders have been victims. Projects such as the National Institute of Education's Safe School Study have shown a link between previous victimization and fear of being hurt or harassed. Official statistics and self-reported data on delinquencies have indicated that juvenile offenders have higher victimization rates than nonoffenders. If victims and offenders to some extent form a common pool, it is reasonable to expect some relationship between fear of crime and criminal offending. Studies have found that delinquents are no less fearful of victimization than nondelinquents and that some types of delinquency, such as membership in a fighting gang, can reduce fear. Furthermore, some victims probably react to assault or fear of crime by becoming more aggressive and victimizing others. The tendency to view crime in the schools as distinct from community problems places blame solely on school personnel and emphasizes school-related solutions. However, high crime schools have been associated with high crime communities. Students who are apprehensive or fearful tend to come from neighborhoods with noticeably high levels of fear. Researchers have also concluded that the youths responsible for delinquent behavior in school were also commiting criminal acts in the community. These findings suggest that concentrating crime prevention efforts in the schools will probably not have significant impact in the long run for those schools located in high crime communities who have very real crime problems. Law and order tactics or suspensions may reduce crime in schools, but will have no effect on the overall amount of juvenile crime. The demonstrated overlap between victims and offenders implies that repressive preventive strategies which focus only on offenders may be ineffective. Footnotes and 14 references are provided.