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Secondary School Children and the Experience of Robbery: A survey in Three South London Schools

NCJ Number
238579
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2012 Pages: 122-139
Author(s)
Carol Hayden; Gabriela Dlugosz
Date Published
April 2012
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article presents selected results from a victimization survey of secondary school pupils in 3 very different schools in south London (n=1590).
Abstract
The focus is on the experience of robbery in school and on the journey to and from school; 'experience' includes those who were personally 'robbed' when they were alone, as well as those who were with others when they were 'robbed'. The associations between this experience and perceptions of safety and safe behaviors are explored. The inherently problematic nature of this kind of survey methodology with children is highlighted, with reference to other well-known surveys in the United Kingdom. The survey found that overall 21.6 percent of pupils had experienced a robbery, of whom 7.9 percent were alone at the time and 13.7 percent were with a person who was robbed; 3.3 percent of the whole sample reported that they had been injured. The article concludes that better practical use could be made of such data, especially if it was more routinely collected electronically and used in planning a response at the school level. (Published Abstract)