Reported Occurrence and Perceptions of Violence in Middle and High Schools

The purpose of this study was to document and compare rates of reported and perceived crime and violence within schools. With highly publicized acts of school violence prevalent in the minds of the American public, there is a perception that schools are unsafe. Reports of school crime and violence from teachers, administrators, and students differ in severity and in nature from what is perceived by the public. Few studies are available on the frequency of these or other types of reported violence or the relationship between actual and perceived violence in schools. Extant data on reported violence in schools from the database of North Carolina were analyzed and compared to data reflecting perceptions of violence. The public perceptions of the types of school crime and violent acts differed greatly from actual occurrences reported by school administrators. Limitations and implications for research and practice are discussed.