‘Risky places’ — young people’s experiences of crime and victimisation at school and in the community

Schools have often been data-gathering sites for studies about victimisation. As we have seen in other chapters, bullying surveys have been around since the early 1990s (see Smith and Sharp, 1994) and a number of Home Office (Graham and Bowling, 1995; Roe and Ashe, 2008) and Youth Justice Board (YJB) surveys (see, for example, MORI, 2000; YJB, 2009a) have added information about offending behaviour and victimisation in this age group. Ongoing academic research on youth transitions and crime tracks a cohort of over 4000 secondary school children in one city (Edinburgh, Scotland) (Smith and McVie, 2003). However, some surveys have mixed up behaviours that are clearly against the law, with behaviours that may not be. Furthermore, some surveys do not always make clear where the offending behaviour took place. It is relatively rare to have research that provides us with a clear picture of offending behaviour on the school site.