Trends: Violence Against College Students

POSTED: 12:34 pm EDT April 16, 2007
UPDATED: 12:41 pm EDT April 16, 2007

According to a Department of Justice study of college students from 1995 to 2002:

Male college students were twice as likely to be victims of overall violence than female students (80 versus 43 per 1,000).

White students had somewhat higher rates of violent victimization than blacks and higher rates than students of other races (65 versus 52 and 37 per 1,000 respectively).

For females, nonstudents were over 1.5 times more likely than college students to be a victim of a violent crime (71 versus 43 per 1,000).

Nine percent of violent victimizations involved offenders armed with firearms; 7 percent were committed with knives; and 10 percent were committed with other types of weapons, such as a blunt object. The remainder did not know the type of weapon or if a weapon was used.

Weapons present in violent crimes against college students, by type of crime and type of weapon, 1995-2002
Presence Of Weapon	Number	Percent
Total	479,140	100%
No weapon	315,680	65.9
Firearm	42,890	9.0
Knife	32,100	6.7
Other	46,640	9.7
Type unknown	4,440*	0.9*
Don't know	37,380	7.8
Source: Department of Justice *Based on 10 or fewer sample cases.