The American School Shooting Study (TASSS) is an ongoing mixed-method project funded by the National Institute of Justice to catalog US school shootings. It has amassed data based on open sources and other public materials dating back to 1990. This brief presents new insights from TASSS, diving deeper into the database's potential to examine the…

Scholars theorize that the nature of school gun violence varies across school settings. Yet, there is a lack of statistical research testing this idea. This study investigates contextual factors associated with six forms of school gun incidents (N = 1,238) over a 40-year period (1980-2019) in the United States. To conduct the analyses, school,…

The reasons for committing to active shooter drills and exercises are based on psychological survival and decision-making research, along with experiences and lessons learned. However, in the realm of education, the origins and research-based purposes of active shooter drills are mostly unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the…

The data in this report are from the 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10, 2015-16, and 2017-18 administrations of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). SSOCS is a nationally representative sample survey of public elementary and secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey asks principals about the prevalence…

School delinquency in public elementary, middle, and high schools has decreased in recent years, but is still a major issue that has negative mental health and academic implications for adolescents. Although research has focused on both individual-level and school-level explanations of school delinquency, it is not yet clear which macro-level…

Safety-seeking has fueled the growth of charter schools. Descriptive evidence suggests different possible factors underlying safety in charter schools. This study investigates characteristics mediating the relationship between safety and charter schools by linking five waves of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS: 2003-04; 2005-06;…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), the report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety. SSOCS collects data from public school principals about violent and nonviolent crimes in their schools. The survey also collects…

My dissertation studies the relationship between counseling and violence within U.S. schools. Much of the research on school security and school safety tends to lean heavily on routine activities theory and other opportunity theories, which limits the study of other factors critically relevant to this topic such as school climate. This…

In addition to the potential loss of life, school shootings can evoke feelings of profound fear and anxiety that disturb a community's sense of safety and security. Questions have been raised about whether schools' approaches to addressing student behavior are a factor in school shootings. These approaches include discipline that removes the…

These are the supplemental tables for the report, "Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2021-22. First Look. NCES 2024-043." The report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to…

This is the 23rd edition of Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a joint effort of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This report provides summary statistics to inform the nation about current aspects of crime and safety in schools. This report covers a variety of topics on school…

Devastating school shootings have spawned a cottage industry of untested responses to school violence. Some involve target hardening, or making schools less vulnerable to violent attacks. School administrators and community members can be quick to gravitate towards target hardening measures for preventing school violence. However, crime prevention…

Sometimes school and district personnel must involve law enforcement in disciplinary actions, which may include reporting specific offenses or directing school resource officers to address certain infractions. This data point examines when state statute or regulation requires schools to involve law enforcement agencies and personnel and for which…

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former…

The data in this report are from the 2007-08 and 2017-18 administrations of the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS). SSOCS is a nationally representative sample survey of public elementary and secondary schools in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey asks principals about the prevalence of crime and violence in their…