School House Hype
School Shootings and the Real Risks Kids Face in America by Elizabeth Donohue, Vincent Schiraldi, and Jason Ziedenberg
"This recent series of killings in our schools has seared
the heart of America about as much as anything I can remember in a long, long
time." -President Bill Clinton, July 7, 1998.
"You never know what it's going to be one of your kids."
-A parent, interviewed after the Springfield, Oregon school shooting.
Introduction
During the 1997-98 school year, the American public was riveted
by the images: small town and suburban schools taped off by police-lines, paramedics
rushing to wheel tiny bodies away on gurneys and kids being carted off in hand-cuffs.
As the national news media poured into Pearl, Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky;
Jonesboro, Arkansas; Edinboro, Pennsylvania and Springfield, Oregon; the magnified
coverage of these highly unusual crime stories turned into what some news outlets
described as "an all-too-familiar story" or "another in a recent trend." Even
a non-fatal shooting in Richmond, Virginia garnered national headlines in June
because it occurred in a high school hallway during final exams.
In the following months, policy makers reacted abruptly to what they perceived
to be a huge swing in public opinion: a moral panic swept the country as parents
and children suddenly feared for their safety at school. As one parent recently
put it: "It scares me to death that I'm sending my child to a school...and in
light of getting an education, I may end up burying her."(1) A middle school
principal from a community that has experienced a 26 percent drop in juvenile
crime - a community that hasn't had a murder arrest of an adult or juvenile
in two years - warned a reporter after the Jonesboro shooting, "It could happen
any place."(2)
But it doesn't happen "any place." Table 1 illustrates
that even in the communities in which these tragic shootings have occurred,
they are atypical events. Eighty-five percent of all the communities in America
recorded no juvenile homicides in 1995, and 93.4 percent recorded one or no
juvenile arrests for murder. Three times as many juvenile homicide victims are
killed by adults as by other juveniles, and only about 3 percent of U.S. murders
consist of a person under 18 killing another person under 18.(3) The best data
on the very specific threat of school-associated violent death reveals that
children face a one in a million chance of being killed at school. Other research
shows that the number of school shooting deaths have declined slightly since
1992. To give the reader a sense of the idiosyncratic nature of these events,
the number of children killed by gun violence in schools is about half the number
of Americans killed annually by lightning strikes.5
Table 1
Juvenile Arrests for Homicide in School Shooting Communities During the 1990s
(4)
| School Shooting Town |
1997 |
1996 |
1995 |
1994 |
1993 |
1992 |
1991 |
1990 |
| Springfield, Oregon |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| Jonesboro, Arkansas |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Edinboro, Pennsylvania |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Pearl, Mississippi |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| West Paducah, Kentucky |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
This is not to say that our children face no threats to their
safety in society or in schools. However, with all the media coverage these
school shootings have received, we have not witnessed the kind of reporting
or analysis needed to give worried parents or concerned policy makers the context
by which to judge the safety of our institutions of learning.
Child Deaths in America in Context, 1997-98
40 -The number of people (including some adults)
that were shot and killed in school during the academic year, 1997-98.
11 -The number of
children shot and killed in Pearl, Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro,
Arkansas; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; and Springfield, Oregon.
11 -The number of
kids who died in two days from family violence (child abuse or neglect, at the
hands of their parents or guardians).(6)
8 -The number of
children who die from gunfire every day.(7)
3,024 -The number
of children who die from gunfire every year.(8)
90% -The percentage
of children under age 12 who are homicide victims, and are killed by adults.(9)
75% -The percentage
of youths between 12-17 who are homicide victims, and are killed by adults.(10)
Rather than providing context, the media's linking of these shootings as "a trend"
has tended to exacerbate people's fears about the safety of their children and
youth in schools. The result is that misdirected public policy is being generated
to safeguard the schools, even though the real threat may lie elsewhere. To remedy
the purported "crisis" of classroom violence, politicians have proposed solutions
ranging from posting additional police officers in our schools, to eliminating
any minimum age at which children may be tried as adults, to expanding the death
penalty to juveniles. The Governor of Virginia suggested ending school-based after-hours
programs due to the violence, even though a wide spectrum of criminologists, educators
and law enforcement officials say that these programs constitute vital crime reduction
and community enhancing strategies.
Likewise, concern among school administrators has reached such
a fever pitch that children are now being expelled or suspended from school
for making fake threats to harm the musical band "The Spice Girls" and "Barney"
the purple dinosaur.
The authors agree that there are many threats facing this nation's
children and youth that could be alleviated through public policy reform. However,
as the risk of school-associated violent death is overblown, we are witnessing
a tragic misdirection of attention and resources. This report will seek to catalog
the real risks children and youth face in our schools. With this proper perspective
in hand, we then hope to refocus the debate over our children's safety and to
alleviate the real sources of violence facing our communities and kids.
Research Methodology
In this report, we sought to answer two primary research questions:
1. Is there a trend towards increasing violent school deaths in America? 2. What
is the overall incidence of crime, and particularly homicides, in America's schools
versus outside of schools?
Utilizing data and research from the United States Department
of Education, the United States Department of Justice, the FBI's Uniform Crime
Reports, the Centers for Disease Control, the National School Safety Center,
the National Safe Kids Campaign, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence and the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, the Justice Policy Institute sought to get a comprehensive picture
of crime and shootings in school as compared to non-school violence, and violence
in and out of school over time. As the reader can discern from the report, no
one data source gives a complete picture of the school killing issue, but together
they offer a more complete analysis than any one or two data sources could.
Unfortunately, no reliable, scientific counts are maintained
regarding the true number of children killed in America's schools each year.
The closest academic survey in existence is the data compiled annually by the
National School Safety Center since the 1992-93 school year. The Center's data
requires two cautionary notes - one definitional and one methodological - with
respect to the goal of discerning the true number of children killed in schools
and whether there is a trend over time.
In conducting their count, the Center uses a broad definition
of "school related violent deaths" which are any deaths, whether they are suicides
or homicides and whether they are deaths of adults or children, caused by adults
or children in, near or on the way to school. As such, some deaths are included
in the count simply because they occur on school property. An example of this
kind of methodological bias is a case the Center counted occurring on May 29,
1998 at Stranahan High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Nichole Weiser, a
26 year old speech diagnostician was shot and killed in the high school's staff
parking lot by Michael Gramming, her jealous boyfriend, who then turned the
gun on himself.(11)
A similar killing/suicide of two adults on school grounds occurred
in Hoboken High School in New Jersey in February. As such, of the 40 "school-related
violent deaths" which occurred in the 1997-98 school year, these adult deaths
counted as 4, or 10 percent of the total.
Secondly, the Center relies on newspaper clippings as its school
related violence death data source. Obviously, the place an issue occupies on
the media's radar screen may affect whether a homicide appears in a newspaper
or not. Between 1990 and 1995, for example, homicides in America dropped by
13 percent according to the FBI, but coverage of homicides on the ABC, CBS and
NBC evening news programs increased by 240 percent.(12) If evening news stories
were used as a means of counting homicides in America during that time, a miscount
of colossal proportions would have occurred. As such, particularly with regard
to the 1997-98 data, what the Center may be counting is a change in reporting
of school killings, rather than a change in school killings themselves. The
research we collected from the Centers for Disease Control also used newspaper
clippings as its counting mechanism, and has employed a broad definition for
school deaths.
In both the Students' Reports of School Crime: 1989 and 1995
(U.S. Departments of Education and Justice) and Violence and Discipline Problems
in U.S. Public Schools, 1996-97 (U.S. Department of Education) much broader
assault and violent crime definitions are used than are generally utilized by
the FBI and national law enforcement agencies. The reader should be cautious
lest these data create the misperception that violent crime is higher in schools
than in the community where the FBI data is the standard.
We raise these limitations not as a critique of the integrity
or intentions of the aforementioned research efforts, which should be credited
for attempting to creatively make sense of an important phenomenon. Insofar
as the data offered herein present a lower rate of homicides and violence in
school than is expected, it should be remembered that even these data may present
an inflated portrayal of "school associated violent deaths."
Significant Findings
Based upon a review of the available data it is apparent that the
recent school shootings were extremely idiosyncratic events and not part of any
discernible trend. Ironically, they may have received magnified coverage because
of the rarity of these tragic events rather than their typicality. Several recent
studies have noted the extremely uncommon occurrence of school related suicides
and homicides.
I. Centers for Disease Control's Study of "School-Associated
Violent Deaths in the United States, 1992-1994"
Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in
1996, this 2 year joint study led by the Centers for Disease Control, School-Associated
Violent Deaths in the United States, 1992-94, found that the estimated incidence
of school-associated violent death was 0.09 per 100,000 student- years.(13) In
other words, the researchers found that there is less than one in a million chance
of suffering a school associated violent death defined as both homicides and suicides.
In contrast, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
there are 3.8 murdered juveniles per 100,000 juveniles within the US population
- about 40 times the in-school death rate.(14)
Furthermore, over the 2 year period, 1992-94, 105 school-associated
violent deaths were identified; 76 of which were student deaths. The researchers
estimated that 0.62 percent of homicides and suicides among school-aged children
were school-associated violent deaths.(15) As such, more than 99 percent of
violent deaths of children occurred outside of school grounds during that period.
II. National School Safety Center's Count of "School Shootings"
According to the data collected through news accounts by the National
School Safety Center at Pepperdine University, the number of school associated
violent deaths has declined slightly since they began to collect data in 1992.
Their data suggest a 27.3 percent decline in school-associated violent deaths
- including homicides and suicides - from the 1992-93 school year through the
current school year. Overall, the 40 deaths this school year make it about normal
for the 6 year study period.
Again, it warrants noting that even this relatively small figure of 40 school
associated violent deaths is larger than the number of children killed in America's
schools because it also includes suicides and killings of adults in schools,
even when those killings occurred at the hands of other adults.
III. National Center for Education Statistics' Violence and Discipline Problems
in U.S. Public Schools, 1996-97
Table 2:
Count of School Shooting Deaths(16)
| 1992-93 |
55 deaths |
| 1993-94 |
51 deaths |
| 1994-95 |
20 deaths |
| 1995-96 |
35 deaths |
| 1996-97 |
25 deaths |
| 1997-98 |
40 deaths |
A recent study published by the National Center for Education
Statistics also evidences the relatively safe and stable environment that American
public schools provide. During the spring and summer of 1997, a representative
sample of principals of 1,234 public elementary, middle and high schools in
all 50 states and the District of Columbia was surveyed to measure the state
of school violence and discipline problems. One of the target areas of the survey
included the incidence of crime and violence that occurred in public schools
throughout the 1996-97 academic year. Ninety percent of the principals surveyed
reported no incidence of serious, violent crime defined as murder, suicide,
rape or sexual battery, robbery, or physical attack with a weapon. Furthermore,
none of the principals interviewed reported any murders or suicides. The authors
did note that the sample was too small to reliably estimate that no suicides
or murders were committed in schools nationwide because they are "relatively
rare events."(17)
In this same study, 80 percent of schools reported 5 or fewer
crimes of any kind (serious or petty) in their schools during the 1996-97 school
year.(18 ) Approximately 1,000 crimes were reported per 100,000 students in
our nation's public schools; 950 of the crimes per 100,000 students were not
serious or violent acts and only 50 crimes per 100,000 students were serious
or violent crimes, as defined by the researchers.(19)
The amount of crime differed according to the instructional
level of the school. Secondary schools were found to have a higher incidence
of crime than elementary schools. 21 percent of high schools reported one or
more serious crimes as compared to 19 percent of middle schools and only 4 percent
of elementary schools.(20)
The location of schools was also noted by the authors as a
significant variable in determining the incidence of crime within schools. City
or urban schools were much more likely than other schools to report serious
violent crime with 17 percent of city principals reporting at least one serious
crime as compared to 11 percent of urban fringe schools, 8 percent of rural
schools, and 5 percent of suburban/town schools reporting at least one serious
crime.(21) These statistics flatly contradict the idea that the recent series
of publicized shootings are an indication that rural schools are suddenly under
siege from a new crime wave, as some articles suggested after the incidents
in Springfield, Jonesboro, Pearl and Paducah.(22)
IV. Student Opinion: Students' Reports of School Crime: 1989-1995,
Metropolitan Life Survey
According to a joint study by the U.S. Department of Education
and U.S. Department of Justice, students perceive their schools as having low
rates of crime. Their survey of students ages 12-19, entitled Students' Reports
of School Crime: 1989-1995, found only a 0.1 percent change in victimization from
14.5 percent in 1989 to 14.6 percent in 1995.(23) What is particularly significant
about this finding is that it covers the years 1992 and 1993, a time when overall
juvenile arrests for homicide, rape and serious crimes peaked. Apparently, this
crime wave did not wash over America's schools. Over that same time period, violent
victimization among students increased from 3.4 percent to 4.2 percent.(24)
The study did conclude that between 1989 and 1995, "more students
were exposed to certain problems at school," because they were more likely to
report violent victimization and exposure to drugs, gangs and guns.(25)
In the Metropolitan Life Survey of The American Teacher 1993:
Violence in America's Public Schools, the nationally representative sample of
students responded overwhelmingly that they believed their schools were safe.
Eighty-nine percent of urban students responded that they felt either very safe
or somewhat safe at school while 90 percent of suburban and rural students responded
that they felt very safe or somewhat safe in school. Again, this survey was
conducted at a time which, we now know, was the national peak of violent juvenile
arrests this decade.(26)
These findings closely match readily accessible, but often
overlooked, data published in The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics.
In the 1996 edition of this encyclopedia of crime statistics, it shows that
the proportion of students who reported being threatened or injured by a weapon
at school was actually lower in 1996 than it was in 1976.(27)
V. Hours and Location of Victimization
Finally, another indication that schools remain a relatively safe
haven for our children is the fact that 90 percent of all childhood deaths occur
in and around the home and not in school. According to data compiled by the National
Safe Kids Campaign, unintentional shootings among children are most likely to
occur at times when children are unsupervised.(28) Peak hours for these shootings
are not during school hours but rather after school between 4 and 5 p.m.; during
the late afternoon; on weekends; over the summer months of June, July and August;
or during the holiday seasons of November and December.(29) 50 percent of childhood
unintentional shooting deaths occur in the home of the victim and approximately
40 percent occur in the home of a friend or relative.(30)
Another way of looking at the context of the threat children
face during the day is to measure admissions to hospital emergency rooms for
"violence related" injuries. In a 1997 U.S. Department of Justice survey of
over a million "violence related" admissions to hospital emergency rooms only
6 percent of the recorded "places of occurrence" were said to be a school. By
contrast, 48 percent of the injuries occurred at home, 29 percent at work and
15 percent on the streets.(31)
Policy Responses
A number of recent public policy initiatives have been linked to
the perception of rising school killings. These policy initiatives indicate that
our concern with school shootings to the neglect of other child killings may be
focusing attention in the wrong place. These policy responses emanate from every
level of government; from the school house to the state house to the White House.
1. Ending Afterschool Programs
In response to the non-fatal shooting in Richmond, Virginia, Gov.
James Gilmore (R) actually proposed reducing the number of nighttime athletic
events to prevent an increase in violence. "The shocking pattern of violence that
is terrorizing our nation's schools must end," he said. "Students cannot learn
and teachers cannot educate in an unsafe environment."(32) In spite of the fact
that far more crime is committed outside of school and that schools remain safe
havens for students in crime ridden neighborhoods, Gilmore suggested that the
violence warranted ending afterschool programs.(33)
A wide spectrum of criminologists, teachers and community advocates agree
that afterschool programs and events are necessary to create a safe environment
because most juvenile offenses occur after school hours. In fact, data from
the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) show that 1 in 5
violent crimes committed by juveniles occur in the 4 hours following the end
of the school day (i.e., between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.).(34) These programs offer
a voluntary safety net that can catch many children at risk and also provide
enriching experiences and programs that are key to healthy childhood development.
2. Police Officers in Schools
President Clinton's reaction to the recent school shootings has
been to request that Attorney General Janet Reno and Education Secretary Richard
W. Riley find ways for the federal government to provide more police officers
in schools. The President also endorsed Representative James H. Maloney's (D-CT)
bill to increase the number of law enforcement officers available to deal with
crime prevention and school delinquency problems.(35) "I urge Congress to pass
his bill as a back-to-school special for America's children," he said.(36) Yet
data compiled in this report have shown that more than 99 percent of juvenile
homicides are committed outside of schools. The vast majority of youth homicide
victims are killed by adults. With a small and stable-to-declining rate of school
killings, it is difficult to understand how federal legislation adding more law
enforcement officers to schools is a priority except as a response to generally
shared misconceptions about homicides in schools.
3. School Expulsions and Suspensions
The climate of fear generated by the coverage of these school shootings
has been used to justify actions against students by school officials that previously
would have been unthinkable. The concern surrounding these school shootings are
leading directly to the expulsion and suspension of students for minor, sometimes
even non criminal acts.
-Two elementary school students in Tyrone, Georgia
were suspended for composing a list of people they wanted to harm. Targeted
victims on the list included the Spice Girls and Barney, the purple dinosaur.(37)
-In Parsippany, New Jersey, a 7th grader was discovered to
have a list entitled "People I Would Want Gone," of 20 classmates and teachers.
The 13 year old was placed under house arrest and must undergo psychiatric
treatment as a result.(38)
-In Mesa, Arizona, 8th grader Raymond Granillo was suspended
from school for 9 days for writing a story about an escaped convict who kills
a teacher, 2 students and a janitor. The mother of the writer said, "They're
overreacting. They're paranoid because of everything that's going around.
That's the bottom line."(39)
-A 15 year old from Ocean County, New Jersey was arrested
for a drawing he made of a man in the cross hairs of a rifle sight. The Pinelands
Regional High School freshman was charged with making terroristic threats
and was also suspended from school for at least 10 days.(40)
-In North Smithfield, Rhode Island, three 5th graders were
suspended for the rest of the school year because they were overheard talking
about how to plant a bomb in the building. No explosives or bombing plans
were found.(41)
One survey of a computer database of newspaper stories found that
between May 1 and July 1, 1998 there were a total of 216 stories of separate incidents
of student suspension and expulsions, ranging from children writing notes that
say, "kill, kill, kill," to a child being suspended for opening up a school computer
with a pen-knife.(42) Setting aside concerns for freedom of speech, most educators
and criminologists would warn against using expulsions and suspensions as a crime
control mechanism, unless there is an authentic threat. If anything, kicking kids
out of school for pranks will place them in harm's way and may contribute to more
intense forms of delinquency as they miss out on education and become social pariahs.
4. Trying Kids as Adults
Just hours after the Jonesboro, Arkansas shooting, Senator Orrin
G. Hatch said, "If we don't pass a juvenile crime bill, the country's going to
see more and more of these things [school shootings]."(43) Hatch (R-UT), co-author
of the Senate's Juvenile Crime Bill (S-10) with Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL),
has proposed altering current law to jail youthful offenders, including those
charged with acts such as running away from home, with adult offenders. The Senate
is poised to do this, even though there is a higher recidivism rate among juveniles
who are jailed with adults, and juveniles in adult institutions are 5 times more
likely to be sexually assaulted than those kept in juvenile institutions.(44)
Ironically, in the same legislation, both Senators beat back a spate of gun control
measures aimed at reducing accidental and purposeful shootings by youth.
The Senate juvenile crime bill is just one example of major criminal justice
reform being proposed to remedy the "crisis" of school shootings that will fundamentally
change the nature of children's rights. Others include:
-A bill in Texas which proposes that 11 year olds who
commit serious crimes be eligible for the death penalty. "Current juvenile laws
could not have anticipated violent crimes being committed by children this young,"(45)
said sponsor State Senator James Pitts.
-A bill before the Arkansas legislature that would allow a juvenile court
judge to decide whether children of any age should be tried as adults. Introduced
after the Jonesboro shooting, State Senator Ted Thomas' bill could see pre-teenage
children serving 40 year sentences. "I've gotten more comments from people
who...say, 'Just fry the little b****,' he says."(46)
While the idea of executing the 11-year-old suspect in the Jonesboro
school shooting may fit someone's sense of vengeance, it will have dubious, if
any, crime control impact. In reality, homicides committed by children under age
13 occur less frequently today than in 1965.Z(47) According to the FBI's Uniform
Crime Reports, there were 25 homicides committed by juveniles under age 13 in
1965 (48) compared to 16 homicides committed by juveniles under age 13 in 1996
- a 36 percent decline.(49) Again, the real threats facing our children won't
be dealt with by putting them in jail, or putting them to death.
Conclusions and Recommendations
A much more pressing issue for those concerned about the safety
of children in America is the threat of everyday gun violence. As many as 8 kids
a day are killed by guns. While most children killed by a gun are killed by an
adult, kids are killed in gun accidents at 23 times the rate they are killed in
schools. According to the Centers for Disease Control, children in America are
12 times more likely to die from guns than children in 25 other industrialized
countries, including Israel and Northern Ireland.(50) While killings by juveniles
with guns quadrupled from 1984 to 1994, non-gun killings by youths stayed the
same.(51) Put another way, the entire increase in juvenile homicides between 1984
and 1994 was gun-related. While America has a homicide rate among its adults and
juveniles which is still far too high, the good news from this report is that
our nation's school children are well protected from homicides during school hours.
Despite the recent shocking school shootings throughout the country, America's
public schools remain very safe. The likelihood of becoming a victim of a school-associated
violent death is slightly less than one in a million. The chance of a child being
violently killed by an adult in their own home or somewhere other than school
is far, far more likely. Statistically, as both students and principals have reported,
crime does not dominate our schools. Rather than search for policies to make already
safe schools safer (maybe, to the point of being overly restrictive on individual
freedom and further alienating our youth), we should seek to channel the public
energy created by these shootings to take guns out of the hands of children and
adults and to provide constructive opportunities for children during peak crime
hours.
Recommendation 1: Expand After-hours programs in schools
Ironically, one of the most cost-efficient and effective crime
prevention strategies policy makers could adopt would be to have kids in America's
schools. Contrary to Governor Gilmore's proposal to eliminate afterschool programs
and athletic events in order to reduce crime, one way to reduce criminal activity
among our youth is to provide enriched afterschool activities. Again and again
studies have found that afterschool recreational programs which aggressively recruit
youth and sustain participation in their programs hold excellent potential to
prevent juvenile delinquency within the community.(52)
Another example of effective afterschool programs which provide an opportunity
for youth to resist being drawn to delinquent behavior are the "Beacon," or
full-service, schools operating successfully in New York. As children are increasingly
raised in families with both parents working or by single working parents, crime
data reveal that the hours between the end of school supervision (3:00 pm) and
the beginning of parental supervision (8:00 pm) are peak juvenile crime hours.
For many of these children, the alternative to closing schools immediately after
the school day ends is leaving children alone on the streets.
Full-service schools address this dilemma by productively occupying children
during those peak crime hours in either educational, recreational or counseling
activities. By leaving currently existing school open late - which in some communities
are the most resource-rich settings in the neighborhood - full-service schools
are able to provide a relatively low cost response to juvenile crime that does
not restrict children's freedom, provides them with recreational and educational
opportunities, and enhances our communities in the process.(53)
Recommendation 2: Restricting Mass Gun Sales
We can do little to stop the 3 dozen child shooting deaths that
occur in schools until we take steps to deal with the 3,000 children who die from
gunfire every year. The issue of taking guns out of the hands of our children
(and some adults) is yet another area that has been inadequately addressed nationally,
despite both the staggering data on killing of kids and the idiosyncratic school
killings. While school shootings in rural communities are misperceived as typical
of incidents involving children and guns, most killings of and by juveniles occur
in urban areas, too often with illegal weapons. A "one-gun-a-month" law which
prohibits mass gun sales has proven to be a very effective means of reducing homicides
by and of juveniles. Such laws take guns out of the hands of both kids and adults
by preventing mass gun purchases and resale on the black market.
For example, since both Virginia and Maryland have instituted
"one-gun-a-month" laws, homicides committed by juveniles in Washington, D.C.
have dropped by 63 percent, a drop explainable by no other demographic or policy-related
factor.(54)
Prior to the enactment of Virginia's one-gun-a-month law, Virginia
was a leading supplier of guns seized in homicides in Massachusetts. Since Virginia
enacted its law, it is no longer a leading supplier of guns seized in Massachusetts
crimes, and the odds of tracing a gun seized in a crime in Massachusetts to
a Virginia gun dealer have declined by 72 percent.(55) After Virginia's law
went into effect, Boston enjoyed a two-and-a-half year period without a juvenile
being shot to death.(56)
Recommendation 3: Context in the Media
America cannot set rational public policy in the important
area of child killings without better information from the media. No one expects
the press to ignore tragic killings of kids, whether they occur on school grounds
or in other places. But the data contained in this report show that the public
and policy makers are done a great disservice if they are led to believe that
school houses are a primary locus for juvenile homicides in America.
As other school shootings occur and/or the juveniles involved
in the previous shootings are brought to trial, the public discourse could tremendously
benefit from the presentation of a broader perspective on juvenile killings.
To provide greater context to such cases, the media should at least explain:
that school killings are not on the increase; that such killings make up a small
minority of all killings of and by juveniles; that the specific communities
in which these killings occurred generally experience very few killings by juveniles;
that children are 3 times more likely to be killed by adults than by other juveniles;
and that there is no trend toward younger and younger juvenile killings. These
data are readily available, and would tremendously benefit the public's understanding
of youth crime.
The recently publicized school shootings could provide a long
overdue call to action for America to productively occupy our children and keep
them away from guns, but only if our elected officials look in the right place
for solutions.
See Also: SCHOOL HOUSE
HYPE: TWO YEARS LATER
This research is funded in part by a grant from The
California Wellness Foundation (TCWF). Created in 1992 as a private and independent
foundation, TCWF's mission is to improve the health of the people of California
through proactive support of health promotion and disease prevention programs.
This research was funded in part by a generous grant
from the Annie E. Casey Foundation
The authors would like to thank Jeffrey Butts, Ph.D. of the
Urban Institute; Lori Dorfman, DrPH, University of California, Berkeley, School
of Public Health; Mike Males, Doctoral Student at University of California,
Irvine, School of Social Ecology; and Randall Shelden, Ph.D., University of
Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Criminology, for their review and comments on this
analysis.
The authors would also like to thank Christine Gralow, Jill
Herschman, Amy Rossi, Eli Segal, Wendy Shang and Cheryl Upshaw for their assistance
in preparing this report.
Endnotes
1 Ann O'Hanlon and Susan Levine, "Local Schools Shaken by Killings."
The Washington Post, March 26, 1998. "Ending School Violence," National Public
Radio's Morning Edition, June 5, 1998.
2 Ibid.
3 Federal Bureau of Investigation (1996) Crime in the United
States: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington D.C.: US Department of Justice.
4 Table was compiled by calling the state Uniform Crime Bureaus
for each relevant town, community or county.
5 According to "1996 Annual Summaries," by the National Climatic
Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina, 1997, 88 people were killed by lightning
in 1997.
6 A conservative figure of the number of children killed by
abuse and neglect is 2,000 per year. "A Nation's Shame: Fatal Child Abuse and
Neglect in the United States." A Report of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child
Abuse and Neglect. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Washington,
D.C., 1995.
7 The U.S. Mortality Detail File, National Center for Health
Stastics, Division of Vital Statistics. Rockville, MD. 1995.
8 Ibid.
9 Snyder, Howard N., Sickmund, Melissa and Foe Yamagata, Eileen
(1996). Juvenile offenders and victims: 1996 update on violence. Washington,
D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
10 Ibid.
11 National School Safety Center. Total School-Associated Violent
Death Count: July 1992 to Present. Updated June 29, 1998. www.nssc1.org.
12 Center for Media and Public Affairs. "Network News in the
Nineties: The Top Topics and Trends of the Decade." Media Monitor, Volume XI.
July/August 1997.
13 Ibid. 1729.
14 Sickmund, Melissa. Snyder, Howard N., and Poe-Yamagata,
Eileen. (1997). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1997 Update on Violence. Washington,
D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. 1. NB: The 3.8
figure only includes homicides of juveniles, compared to the .09 figure which
includes homicides and suicides.
15 Hachur, 1731.
16 National School Safety Center. Total School-Associated Violent
Death Count: July 1992 to Present. Updated June 18, 1998. www.nccs1.org. Percentage
calculated by the Justice Policy Institute. It is expected that this is a close
estimate to the ultimate number of 1997-98 school year deaths because school
is recessed for the summer and the 1997-98 counting period ends in August, 1998.
17 U.S. Department of Education. 4
18 Ibid., 10.
19 Ibid., 9.
20 Ibid., v.
21 Ibid., 8.
22 Fields, Gary, and Paul Overberg. "Juvenile homicide arrests
rate on rise in rural USA." USA Today, March 26, 1998, 11A.
23 Chandler, I.
24 Ibid., 1.
25 Ibid., 12.
26 Metropolitan Life: Survey of the American Teacher, 1993:
Violence in America's Public Schools. Project Directors Robert Leitman and Katherine
Binnus. New York, New York: Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., 1993: 11.
27 Maguire, K., Pastore, AL., "Sourcebook of Criminal Justice
Statistics 1996," Bureau of Justice Statistics. The Department of Justice, Washington:
D.C., 1997.
28 Webster., DW et al. Parents belief about preventing gun
injuries to children. Pediatrics, 1992: 89; 908.14, 1995.
29 Ibid.: Choi E., er al. Deaths Due to Firearms Injuries in
Children. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 1994.: Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
"Child's play: a study of 266 unintentional handgun shootings of children."
CPHV, Washington D.C.: 1988 July 2.
30 Ibid.
31 Rand, Michael R. "Violence-Related Injuries Treated in Hospital
Emergency Departments." Bureau of Justice Stastics, U.S. Department of Justice,
Washington D.C.: 1997.
32 Baker, Donald P., and Spencer S. Hsu. "Two Are Shot at School
in Richmond." The Washington Post. June 16, 1998, A1, A16.
33 ----. "After Gunfire. Richmond Faces Fears." The Washingon
Post. June 17, 1998. B3.
34 Sickmund, 26.
35 "Clinton Wants More Police Assigned to School Beats." The
Washington Post. June 17, 1998. A12.
36 Ibid.
37 Brett, Jennifer. "Responding to trouble at Metro Schools."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. May 30, 1998. D 07.
38 McHugh, Margaret. "Ominous wish list sparks fear in school."
The Star-Ledger, June 2, 1998, p. 19.
39 The Associated Press. "School Suspends Student who penned
murder tale." The Dallas Morning News, June 1, 1998. 14A.
40 The Associated Press. "Teen Suspended After Arrest for Gun
Drawing." The Bergen Record. May 30, 1998. A05
41 "North Smithfield Suspends 5th Grader Over Bomb Threat."
The providence Journal-Bulletin. May 30, 1998. A3.
42 This search was completed on Westlaw, a legal and legislative
database that includes a sampling of newspapers from across the country. The
search terms used were "suspend, expel, school and threat." Given that this
does not include all the newspapers in the country, and the fact that not all
of these cases could (or should) be covered by the press, this count understates
the number of children who may have been suspended or expelled during this period.
43 Weisman, Jonathan. "Shooting revives drive to toughen juvenile
justice." The Baltimore Sun. March 25, 1998. 12A.
44 Ziedenberg, Jason and Schiraldi, Vincent. The Risks Juveniles
Face When They Are Incarcerated With Adults. July 1997.
45 Templeton, Robin. "First, we kill all the 11-year olds."
Pacific News Service. May 27, 1998.
46 Satter, Linda. "The Kids and the Courts." The Arkansas Democrat,
Tuesday, June 30, 1998.
47 FBI. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States. 1965.
Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1966..
48 Ibid.
49 ---. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States. 1996.
Washington, D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1997. 16.
50 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease
Control, February 7, 1997. p. 101
51 Snyder, Howard N., Sickmund, Melissa, and Poe-Yamagata,
Eileen. (1996). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence. Washington,
D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs. 24.
52 Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious,
Violent and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. ed. James C. Howell, Washington D.C.:
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. June 1995. 95.
53 "Quality Child Care and After School Programs: Powerful
Weapons Against Crime." Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. Washington, D.C., 1998.
54 Crime and Justice Trends in the District of Columbia. Prepared
by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Washington, D.C.: Office of
Grants Management and Development, District of Columbia Government, Fall 1997.
Calculated by the Justice Policy Institute.
55 Weil, Douglas, S., Ph.D., and Knox, Rebecca, MPH, MSW. "Evaluating
the Impact of Virginia's 'One-Gun-A-Month' Law." The Center to Prevent Handgun
Violence, 1995, p.1.
56 Harden, Blaine. "Boston's Approach to Juvenile Crime encircles
Youths, Reduces Slayings." The Washington Post. October 23, 1997. A3.
Suggested citation format for this report: Donohue, Elizabeth,
Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Zeidenberg. (1998)
School House Hype: The School
Shootings, and the Real Risks Kids Face in America. Washington DC: The Justice
Policy Institute.