Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Releases School Crime Report (Knoxville, Chattanooga: crime rates, schools)

[LauraC]

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation today released its annual study dedicated to crime in Tennessee’s schools. Produced by TBI’s Crime Statistics Unit, the study spans a three-year period between 2008 and 2010 and is based on numbers submitted by Tennessee law enforcement agencies to the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS).

The artilcle has the summary and within the article is an actual link to the report.

TBI Releases School Crime Study | study, tennessee, crime - WTVC NewsChannel 9: Chattanooga News, Weather, Radar, Sports, Lottery

[CMK10]

Stuff like this is subject to interpretation. It's now a "crime" to bring a plastic knife in your lunch in certain schools. Not to mention our litigious society has caused CYA to overtake discretion and judgement with respect to reporting "crime".

[jchometeam]

Exactly, the schools that have "criminalized" more behavior will obviously have more crime in these statistics, you simply cannot compare these stats over time- or compare one state (or even city) to another.

Schools overall are a very safe place. What is much more interesting to me, though not reported here, is the crime spike between 3:00 and 5:00 on weekdays, the time period when children are out of school and often unsupervised.

[LauraC]

I didn't comment on the article. It's just another source of information for people moving here with school age children.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by LauraC

I didn't comment on the article. It's just another source of information for people moving here with school age children.

Duly noted, and thank you as usual, Laura.

It's nice to see that crime has gone down from 2008, according to this report. However, it does not show a comparison against other states, or much more importantly, from school to school and city to city.

I suspect that if crime is high in the area it will be high in the schools, though, because as goes the parent, thus goes the children.

Also good to know that Tennessee law enforcement closely watches the situation, as usual.

[CMK10]

Originally Posted by LauraC

I didn't comment on the article. It's just another source of information for people moving here with school age children.

Laura,

I wasn't attempting to diminish your contribution but only sought to add perspective. There was a thread on here about crime rates in middle TN that I shared my personal law enforcement experience about. Reports, statistics, polls etc. are sometimes the most damaging and unreliable sources (even if they are the only forms sometimes), of information as most people refuse to understand the importance of interpretation. There was also this thread on here claiming TN was the 2nd worst state for violent crime:

//www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...ent-crime.html

I didn't respond in that thread because others had already said what I was going too.

My father taught ask these questions when you receive information: Where did it come from? Who wrote it? How old is it?

I've seen polls broadcast as "90% of Americans support the legalization of pot" Then in the fine print read *poll consisted of 200 NYU students...........

Having been in law enforcement, I'm intimately familiar with the games played with the crime numbers. It's pathetic and dangerous. It's also a bit of hot button with me so sometimes I can't help myself even when I should.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by CMK10

Laura,

I wasn't attempting to diminish your contribution but only sought to add perspective. There was a thread on here about crime rates in middle TN that I shared my personal law enforcement experience about. Reports, statistics, polls etc. are sometimes the most damaging and unreliable sources (even if they are the only forms sometimes), of information as most people refuse to understand the importance of interpretation. There was also this thread on here claiming TN was the 2nd worst state for violent crime:

//www.city-data.com/forum/tenne...ent-crime.html

I didn't respond in that thread because others had already said what I was going too.

My father taught ask these questions when you receive information: Where did it come from? Who wrote it? How old is it?

I've seen polls broadcast as "90% of Americans support the legalization of pot" Then in the fine print read *poll consisted of 200 NYU students...........

Having been in law enforcement, I'm intimately familiar with the games played with the crime numbers. It's pathetic and dangerous. It's also a bit of hot button with me so sometimes I can't help myself even when I should.

I don't know who would give better info out on the state than the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. My thought would be that they don't have an agenda.

[jchometeam]

They do not have an agenda...only limitations that by their nature make them misleading.

All government statistics (school crime, national crime, state crime, sex crime, etc.) have the limitation of only being the crimes known to the officials- there is always what criminal justice officials call the "dark figure of crime", or unknown crimes. In this way, they all under report some types of crimes.

They also over represent the crimes that society feels are "serious" at the time. If we have a crackdown on drugs in schools, the drug statistics will go up even if the actual amount of drug possession in schools was the same- there was an increased focus on finding (and counting) it. The newest buzzwords are bullying and sexting- you will see these categories go up because they are focused on more.

These are the best statistics that we have- but I just think it is important for everyone that reads them to understand the limitations and reasons why the stats show particular things. It critical in my opinion, because a statistic that causes many people to say "gosh they have a big problem with..." could also mean "gosh, the police/school officials do a good job of catching the problems". Depending on that interpretation, the schools are either very safe or very unsafe.

[CMK10]

Originally Posted by jchometeam

They do not have an agenda...only limitations that by their nature make them misleading.

All government statistics (school crime, national crime, state crime, sex crime, etc.) have the limitation of only being the crimes known to the officials- there is always what criminal justice officials call the "dark figure of crime", or unknown crimes. In this way, they all under report some types of crimes.

They also over represent the crimes that society feels are "serious" at the time. If we have a crackdown on drugs in schools, the drug statistics will go up even if the actual amount of drug possession in schools was the same- there was an increased focus on finding (and counting) it. The newest buzzwords are bullying and sexting- you will see these categories go up because they are focused on more.

These are the best statistics that we have- but I just think it is important for everyone that reads them to understand the limitations and reasons why the stats show particular things. It critical in my opinion, because a statistic that causes many people to say "gosh they have a big problem with..." could also mean "gosh, the police/school officials do a good job of catching the problems". Depending on that interpretation, the schools are either very safe or very unsafe.

I concur. Your response is factual and accurate albeit a little "sunny side up".

What I mean by that, in my personal experience, I've seen crime statistics flat out... I believe the word was "massaged". I explained more in the other crime statistic thread.

Also, TBI could very well have agenda which would be justifying their budget among other things. I'm not positing that is what's happening, just something that does happen quite often with LE agencies and "crime statistics".

[hiknapster]

That's true. Down in Lee County, Florida there are two guys that often run against each other for sheriff and accuse each other of under-reporting. Florida uses a different tactic for counting crime, too, and I've always felt it was because of tourism. Back in the 80s and 90s tourism dropped off due to crime. You should see the lengths Disney goes through to make sure the public knows nothing about crime. And I remember the Atlanta police chief admitting that he under-reported because of The Olympics.

It's like Tennessee raising its education standards. Other states that have low goals look like they have a stellar educational system.

We tend to stay on top of our crime and report it.

We saw a couple of suspicious people in a parking lot the other day. It was the first time I've witnessed a probable drug deal since we moved here six years ago. And guess who was right around the corner watching them? Yep. A Knoxville cop. That's an impressive department.