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Experts once defined school violence conventionally as a serious crime (i.e., murder, rape, assault, robbery, and theft) that occurred on school grounds. However, as social and political awareness focused more rigorously on investigating the phenomenon of school violence, the definition of school violence expanded. The broadened definition rested on research indicating that the threshold for injury for children is much lower than for adults. Compared to adults, children have less emotional maturity and physical ability to defend themselves, making them more vulnerable to emotional, mental, and physical injury. Therefore, even minimal exposure to violence in a school setting may have lasting detrimental effects on a child's development. Traditionally, peer harassment (physical and verbal), sexual harassment, bullying, and fear were accepted as school cultural norms. However, such behaviors are becoming less accepted as a normal part of the "school experience."

Detrimental developmental and educational outcomes occur for students who endure school violence. Exposure to school violence correlates with diminished educational attainment, mental health, general adolescent development, school attachment, and a negative impact on the overall educational process as well as the student's life course. Dropping out, suicide, drug use, and future involvement with delinquency and adult criminal behavior each correlate with school violence. Because school violence may severely impair a student's educational and life outcomes, an understanding of the individual and school environmental factors that make students more or less vulnerable to school violence is important.

The best sources of data about violence in school come from government agencies. Notably, the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, publishes the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey, one of the most comprehensive sources of data available about victimization. The Bureau of Justice Statistics in cooperation with the National Center for Education Statistics also publishes an annual report on crime occurring in and on the way to and from school called "Indicators of School Crime and Safety."

Contrary to popular perception, most varieties of school violence declined in the past decade. Although multiple homicides in schools appeared in news media headlines, school-related homicides actually declined drastically. In fact, schools are among the safest places for children. Students ages 12 to 18 are more likely to be victimized outside of school than in school. In the past decade, the percentage of students carrying weapons to school and engaging in physical fighting also declined.

Despite popular conceptions of schools as violent places, the majority of crimes that occur on school grounds are property crimes such as theft. Like violent offenses, most varieties of property offenses have also declined. These declines in violent and property offense in schools were consistent across gender, grade, and race/ethnicity, although younger, male, and African American or Hispanic students continue to engage in a higher rate of delinquency than their older, female, and white or Asian American counterparts.

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