NCJ Number
180441
Journal
Youth Views Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: October 1999 Pages: 1-6
Date Published
October 1999
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Surveys of adolescents conducted before and after the school shooting in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999 revealed that an increasing percentage of adolescents reported feeling fearful about physical safety at school; 37 percent had heard copycat threats of violence similar to that at Littleton.
Abstract
The most recent survey involved interviews with 403 teenagers ages 13-17 in May 1999. Forty-six percent of the participants were aware of groups at school who they thought were violent or capable of violence. Thirty-six percent were also aware of individual students who they thought were potentially violent. Thirty-eight percent of teenagers aware of violent groups said that they know that members of these groups brought weapons to school. Fifty-eight percent of the students with violent groups at their school reported that these groups are most potentially dangerous to homosexual students. Fifty-one percent of the teenagers with dangerous groups at school reported that black, Hispanic, or other minority students might be targets. However, 47 percent of the adolescents considered every student a target and their own friends as targets. Seventy percent of the students at schools where violent groups were known to exist said that these groups had beaten up students, teachers, or school staff. Tables and order form