The Indicators of School Crime and Safety provides the most recent national indicators on school crime and safety. These indicators demonstrate that improvements have occurred in the safety of students: between 1992 and 2002, the violent crime victimization rate at school declined from 48 violent victimizations per 1,000 students in 1992 to 24 such victimizations in 2002. Even so, violence, theft, bullying, drugs, and firearms are still prevalent: students ages 12-18 were victims of about 659,000 violent crimes and 1.1 million crimes of theft at school in 2002.

Accurate information about the nature, extent, and scope of the problem being addressed is essential for developing effective programs and policies. The information in this report is intended to serve as a foundation for policymakers and practitioners so that they can develop effective programs and policies to prevent violence and crime in schools and cope with it when it occurs.

This is the seventh edition of Indicators of School Crime and Safety, a joint publication of the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. This report provides detailed statistical information to inform the nation on the current status of crime in schools. The 2004 edition of Indicators includes the most recent available data, including data from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the 2002 National Crime Victimization Survey, and the 2003 School Crime Supplement, a survey of our nation's students about their experiences with school crime and safety.

The data in this report were compiled from a number of statistical data sources supported by the federal government. Such sources include results from a study of violent deaths in schools, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Crime Victimization Survey and School Crime Supplement to the survey, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics, respectively; the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and the Schools and Staffing Survey and School Survey on Crime and Safety, both sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The entire report is available on the Internet. The Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics continue to work toward providing more timely and complete data on the issues of school-related violence and safety.