American schools and colleges saw 1,299,063 criminal incidents and 1,504,310 individual offenses between 2020-2024, according to an FBI report released on Tuesday, showing assaults as the most common crime committed on school or college property.
[RELATED: Northern Maine Man Who Admitted Assaulting His Infant Elected To School Board…]
The report included both K-12 schools and colleges, and compiled data acquired under the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.
Criminal incidents were divided into three major categories, crimes against persons (589,308 incidents), crimes against property (479,670 incidents), and crimes against society (314,898 incidents), and further divided into types of crime.
The most common type of crime, falling under crimes against individuals, were assaults, with 538,778 incidents. The second-most common form of crime against individuals were sex offenses, with 45,582.
In the crimes against property section, theft took the lead, with 234,601 incidents, and vandalism came in second with 146,373.
Crimes against society included drug offenses (244,002 incidents), and non-violent weapons violations (51,261 incidents).
Of the numerous reported assaults, 411,192 offenses were committed with “personal weapons” meaning unarmed violence with fists or other body parts. Knives or bladed weapons were used for 33,470 offenses, and handguns were used in 12,375.
Concerningly, automatic weapons, including handguns, rifles, and even automatic shotguns, were used in 678 offenses, and explosives were used 491 times.
Data showed a steady and significant increase in incidents from 2020 (100,810) to 2023 (352,796) followed by a slight drop in 2024 (329,424). That data does not, however, necessarily reflect a massive, unprecedented increase in criminal activity, since the data is likely skewed in favor of lower crime in at least 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and school closures.
September, typically the first full month of school, saw the most criminal incidents, with 159,111, though criminal incidents never dipped below the tens of thousands even in summer months.
The FBI report also collected demographic data on the victims and know perpetrators of school-based crimes.
Interestingly, the most offenders fell within the 13-15 age range (478,279) with the highest number of victims (374,896) being over 19 years old.
Sadly, 5,272 victims and 720 perpetrators fell in the 0-4 year age group, though it is unclear how babies and toddlers could be responsible for hundreds of reportable criminal offenses.
Females were slightly more likely to be the victim of a criminal incident than men, with women and girls accounting for 49.4 percent of victims compared with males who made up 49.1 percent.
In contrast, males vastly outnumbered females as perpetrators, making up 64.3 percent of offenders.
By race, white people made up the highest number of victims, (631,349) and offenders (663,365), while black/African American accounted for 267,783 victims and 423,213 offenders.
Hispanic/Latino is considered under the data as an “ethnicity” rather than a race, and Hispanic people are thus included among other racial categories.
19.9 percent of offenders and 17.8 percent of victims were identified as Hispanic or Latino.
The FBI data included schools across the country, but did not break down information by state so it remains unclear how many of the criminal incidents occurred in Maine schools.
