Annual School Crime and Safety Report Co-Produced by AIR Shows Reports of Forcible Sex Crimes on College Campuses Increasing, Highlights Data on Juvenile Offenders

Washington, D.C. – The annual Indicators of School Crime and Safety report, co-produced by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), was released today by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The report presents the most current data on crime and safety at schools and on college campuses from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals and postsecondary institutions.

New this year are two “spotlight indicators,” one on topics related to student suspension and expulsion and another on juvenile offenders in residential placement facilities. Among students entering the ninth grade in fall 2009, the report shows, about 19 percent had been suspended or expelled by spring 2012. The number of juvenile offenders housed in residential facilities went down by half between 1997 and 2013.

Additional topics covered include student and teacher victimization, crime at school, disciplinary actions taken by schools, school security measures and criminal incidents at postsecondary institutions. Where available, data on crimes committed off school grounds are cited for comparison.

Key findings from this year’s report include:

• The number of reported forcible sex crimes on college campuses jumped by 126 percent between 2001 and 2013. During this same period, overall crimes reported by postsecondary institutions dropped 34 percent.

• Arrests for drug law violations at postsecondary institutions increased by 70 percent between 2001 and 2013. In contrast, arrests for liquor law violations and illegal weapons possession were both lower in 2013 than in 2001.
• The rate at which students aged 12 to 18 years were victims of crime at school fell between 1992 and 2014. Rates fell from 181 victimizations per 1,000 students to 33 victimizations per 1,000 students. 2014 saw about 850,100 nonfatal victimizations among this group, including 363,700 thefts and 486,400 violent incidents.
• About 65 percent of public schools recorded at least one violent incident in the 2013-14 academic year. Sixteen percent reported student bullying that occurred at least once a week at school and 5 percent reported student verbal abuse toward teachers at least once a week.
• There were 1.3 million disciplinary actions taken at elementary and secondary schools in 2013-14 related to alcohol, drugs, violence or weapons possession that resulted in a student being removed from an education setting for at least an entire school day. About 78 percent of these disciplinary actions were in response to violence. Fifteen percent were related to drugs, 5 percent to weapons possession and 2 percent to alcohol.
• In 2013-14, most public elementary and secondary schools had written emergency plans for various scenarios. During this school year, about 94 percent of public schools reported having a plan in place for natural disasters; 88 percent for shootings and bomb threats; 60 percent for chemical, biological or radiological threats; and 50 percent for hostage situations.

AIR experts took part in all aspects of the publication, including statistical analysis, writing, report design and quality control review. AIR has co-written the Indicators of School Crime and Safety reports since 1999.

The full Indicators of School Crime and Safety report can be found on the National Center for Education Statistics website.

Read author insights on the report at AIR’s Education Policy Center blog, InformEd.

About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.

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