• Students ages 12 through 18 experienced fewer nonfatal serious violent crimes (that is, rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault) when they were at school than away from school (tables 2.1 and 2.3).² In 2000, students in this age group were victims of about 128,000 such crimes at school, and about 373,000 away from school. The victimization rate for serious violent crime at school and away from school generally declined from 1992 to 2000 (figure 2.1 and tables 2.2 and 2.4).
• Students were victims of about 700,000 nonfatal violent crimes (that is, serious violent crime plus simple assault) at school, and about 921,000 away from school in 2000 (tables 2.1 and 2.3). Between 1992 and 2000, there was a 46 percent decrease in the violent crime victimization rate at school and a 52 percent decrease away from school (from 48 to 26 and from 71 to 34 per 1,000 students ages 12 through 18, respectively) (figure 2.1 and tables 2.2 and 2.4). Between 1992 and 2000, the victimization rates for nonfatal violent crime were generally lower at school than away from school, except in 1998 and 1999. In these years, no differences were detected between nonfatal victimizations at school and away from school.
• Students were more likely to be victims of theft at school than away from school for all years between 1992 and 2000, except for 1997 and 2000. In these years, no differences were detected between victimization rates due to thefts occurring at and away from school. In 2000, about 1.2 million thefts occurred at school (64 percent of all crimes at school), and about 1.1 million away from school (54 percent of all crimes away from school) (tables 2.1 and 2.3).
• Regarding nonfatal crime (theft plus violent crime), students were victims of about 1.9 million crimes while they were in school in 2000, and about 2.0 million away from school (tables 2.1 and 2.3).
• In 2000, the rate of serious violent crime at school and away from school was higher for males than for females (figures 2.2 and 2.3 and tables 2.2 and 2.4).
• In 2000, no difference was found in the rates of serious violent crime at school among students living in urban, suburban, and rural areas (figure 2.2 and table 2.2). Away from school, suburban students were more vulnerable to serious violent crime than rural students. But there were no differences between urban and suburban students' vulnerability to such victimization (figure 2.3 and table 2.4).
• In 2000, younger students (ages 12 through 14) were victimized by serious violent crime at a rate not different than older students (ages 15 through 18) either at school or away from school (figures 2.2 and 2.3 and tables 2.2 and 2.4).

*This indicator has been updated to include 2000 data.
2 "Students" refers to persons 12 though 18 years of age who have attended any grade equal to or less than high school. An uncertain percentage of these persons may not have attended school during the survey reference period. These data do not take into account the number of hours that students spend at school and the number of hours they spend away from school.