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Trends: Violence Against College Students

Monday, 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.