PERCEIVED AND ACTUAL RISKS OR SCHOOL-RELATED VICTIMIZATION: FINAL ACTIVITIES REPORT

• NCJ Number: 143999
• Author(s): F S Pearson; J Toby
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 27 pages
• Grant Number(s): 91-MU-CX-0001
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)

Annotation

This study analyzed how specific perceptions of victimization risk among students in public and private schools are associated with their responses to victimization risk.

Abstract

Perceptions of victimization risk include the student's memory of direct experience (or nonexperience) with victimization; the student's perception of risk-relevant aspects of the school environment; and the student's perception of risk, which can be inferred to result from different sociodemographic characteristics (for example, age, sex, social class). Two related data sets were used for the study: the annual National Crime Survey and the School Crime Supplement, one of the special-topic supplements to the National Crime Victimization Surveys. The data used in this study were collected from January 1, 1989, to June 30, 1989. The survey responses analyzed were from approximately 10,000 students aged 12 to 19. The bulk of the data analysis consisted of testing just over 35 hypotheses and sub- hypotheses, and the primary methods of analysis were cross- tabulation and log-linear analysis. The main variables analyzed were actual criminal victimization; fear of victimization; perceived risk in the school environment; avoidance of particular locations at school; poor attendance at school; bringing things to school for self-protection; public versus private schools; grade structure of the school; level of urbanization; and such sociodemographic data as age, sex, race/ethnicity, and family income. The study found a linkage between perceived risk in the school environment and the respondents' own reported experience of violent victimization. Violent victimization was in turn strongly associated with bringing something to school to protect themselves, staying away from particular places at school and on the way to and from school, and staying home because of fear. 11 tables and 2 references