violence against children WORLD REPORT ON - CRIN

“Two kids were fighting and one of them pulled out a gun…because there were too many people aroundthem…he didn’t do anything, but I think he would have shot him if there was no one around.”Boy, 11, North America, 2005 VIII126Violence against children in schools and educational settingsvictims. Bullying can lead to fighting, with orwithout weapons. Physical assault can occuras a separate phenomenon, as in the case ofan attack by one person on another driven byinflamed feelings of anger or jealousy. It mayalso be driven by general feelings of rage, frustrationor humiliation unprovoked by anythingthe victim may have done, as in the case of violentsexual assault and random shootings.Analysis of data from the 2001/02 HBSCsurvey revealed that anywhere from 25% ofschool-aged children in Finland to 49% ofschool-aged children in Lithuania had engagedin physical fights during the past 12 monthsand that physical fights were far more commonamong boys than girls (see Figure 4.3). 87 Analysisof data from more recent surveys done aspart of the GSHS suggests that, in developingcountries, fighting is more common, andgirls from developing countries are more likelyto participate in it than girls in developed andtransitional countries (see Figure 4.3). 88Boys tend to engage in physical fighting andassault against each other as they seek to live upto stereotypes of males as being powerful andstrong. 89 Students at a Kenyan university wereasked to record their ‘Memories of ChildhoodViolence’. What they recalled most vividly wasviolence by teachers, but they described bullyingand fighting among children in ways thatsuggested they were barely worthy of recollectionand just accepted parts of school culture. 90Homicide and serious injuryHomicide and assault resulting in seriousphysical injury– is comparatively rare inschools, and accounts for only a tiny proportionof criminal violence in the whole of society.Media attention to extreme events such asknifings or shootings in schools has created adistorted impression of the prevalence of suchviolence, but it has also prompted enquiry intothe connections between violence in schoolsand criminal violence by juveniles and adultsoutside schools.The testimony of children, parents, teachersand others during the Children’s Forums andRegional Consultations held as part of thisStudy suggests that extreme violence in schoolsneeds to be studied more thoroughly. A studyin Jamaica found that 61% of students hadwitnessed acts of violence at school, 29% ofthose acts had caused injuries, and that manychildren felt unsafe in schools. 91 In Jamaica,the homicide rate was 55 per 100,000 in 2004,and 25% of those arrested for all violent crimeswere school-aged children, mainly boys. Mostof those crimes took place away from schools;however, a separate study has concluded thatcrimes that did occur in schools were due tofactors in wider Jamaican society, suggestingthe need for comprehensive solutions. 92Weapons in schoolsA recent nationwide study in the USA foundthat from 3% to 10% of students carried weaponson school property, while 12% to 25%carried weapons outside school. The samestudy found that 13% of students had beeninvolved in fights on school property at leastonce in the previous year and 33% had beeninvolved in fights outside school. The studyfound that 5% of all students had stayed away