Gender Differences in Victims of School Crime and Bullying

A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences has examined the number of students who were victims of violent crime, nonviolent crime, and bullying at school during the 2021-2022 school year. Although rates of crime and bullying in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary settings has steadily decreased over the past decade, some gender disparities were found among students’ experiences with bullying and harassment.

Roughly 19 percent of all students aged 12-18 reported experiencing some kind of bullying during the 2021-2022 academic year. However, girls were more likely to be victims of bullying than their male peers at 21.8 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively. Among students who were bullied, 27.7 percent of girls reported being bullied online or via text compared to only 14.1 percent of male students. About 5 percent of girl students reported being afraid of attack or harm at school compared to 3 percent of boys. Conversely, boys were more likely than girls to experience physical violence at school at 8.1 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively.

Despite the overall decrease in crime on postsecondary campuses since 2011, the rate for forcible sex offenses increased from 2.2 cases per 10,000 students in 2011 to 7.5 cases per 10,000 students in 2021. During this time frame, the share of hate crimes in postsecondary settings fluctuated, peaking in 2016. Of the 667 reported on-campus hate crimes in 2021, 30 were related to gender and 118 were related to sexual orientation.