Crime in the School and in the Community (From School Safety Legal Anthology, P 34-45, 1985, George Nicholson, et al, eds. - See NCJ-101885)

• NCJ Number: 101886
• Author(s): J McDermott
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: Carver Cty Court Services
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reprinted from Crime and Delinquency, 1984

Annotation

This study draws implications for strategies to address school crime by showing that offenders, victims, and the fearful are not mutually exclusive groups and that school crime reflects crime in the school's neighborhood.

Abstract

'School crime' refers to violations of criminal law on secondary school property by and against students. Data sources for this study are the 1976 Safe School Study, which surveyed more than 30,000 students in over 600 public junior and senior high schools; the Savitz, Lalli, and Rosen study, 'City Life and Delinquency' (1979), which examined the relationship between juvenile victimization experiences and fear; and the Gold and Moles study of the 1972 National Youth Survey, which analyzed the relationship between school crime and community crime. Evidence indicates that juveniles who are offenders, victims, and fearful of victimization on school property are not mutually exclusive groups. The Gold and Moles study suggests that crime and fear of crime in schools reflects the level of crime and fear of crime in the surrounding community and that offenders in school are offenders in the community. These findings imply that prevention strategies cannot target offenders, victims, and the fearful as though they are separate groups, nor can they focus only on the school without addressing broader community problems. 37 notes.