Schools Are Safe: In Wake of School Shooting In Germany, School Crime and Youth Crime Continue to Decline In The U.S.

4/26/2002

From: Laura Jones of the Justice Policy Institute, 202-737-7270, ext. 254 or 202-425-4659 (cell)

WASHINGTON, April 26 -- In the wake of the school shooting tragedy in Germany, data from the Justice Policy Institute shows that school-associated violent deaths and youth crime in the United States continue to fall. School-associated violent deaths have dropped by 72 percent since 1992 from 2000, from 55 to 16. By comparison, 16 children are killed by gunfire every two days in America, and 16 children die at the hands of their parents or guardians every three days in America.

Youth homicides arrests declined by 68 percent between 1993 and 1999, from about 3,800 to 1,200, and are at their lowest rate since 1966. The youth violent crime rate of 339 per 100,000 is the lowest since 1988.

"As we mourn the tragedy in Germany," said Justice Policy Institute President Vincent Schiraldi, "Americans need to know that our young people are better behaved than their parents' generation, and that our schools are among the safest places for our kids to be."

Despite the fact that schools are safe and becoming safer, as recently as 1999 Americans feared that school violence was on the rise. In that year, when there was approximately a one in 2 million chance of a child dying a violent death in a school, 71 percent of respondents to a Wall Street Journal Poll thought it was very likely or likely that a school shooting could happen in their community. According to polling by USA Today in 1998 and following the Columbine shooting in 1999, respondents were 49 percent more likely to report being fearful of schools in 1999 than in 1998 even though the chance of being killed in a school declined by 40 percent between 1998 and 1999. In 1999/2000, there was a 1 in 3 million chance of a child being violently killed in a school in the US.

Research shows that the media's coverage of school shootings and youth crime may be driving the publics' fears. Three quarters (76 percent) of the public say they form their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the news, more than three times the number who say that they get their primary information on crime from personal experience (22 percent). In a Los Angeles Times poll, 80 percent of respondents stated that the media's coverage of violent crime had increased their personal fear of being a victim. The study commissioned by the Building Blocks for Youth Initiative of which Schiraldi was a co-author found that the news media presents a distorted image of youth, and especially youth of color, in crime coverage.

The report, Off Balance: Youth, Race and Crime in the News (www.buildingblocksforyouth.org), found that the news media over-reports crime generally, unduly connects youth to violence, and over reports people of color as criminals while underreporting victims of color.

For more information about school violence and youth arrests in the United States, see "Safe Schools and Suspensions" and "School House Hype" at www.cjcj.org.