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School Vandalism and Break-Ins

This guide, produced by the Community-Oriented Policing Service of the US Dept of Justice, addresses school vandalism and break-ins, describing the problem and reviewing the risk factors. It also discusses the associated problems of school burglaries and arson. The guide then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice.

Title: School Vandalism and Break-Ins
Author: Kelly Dedel Johnson, Community-Oriented Policing Service, US Dept of Justice
Series: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police, Problem-Specific Guides Series No. 35
Number of pages: 80
Date published: August 2005
Availability: Download full report PDF 717Kb

School break-ins typically fall into one of three categories:

• Nuisance break-ins:  Where youths break into a school building, seemingly as an end in itself. They cause little serious damage and usually take nothing of value.

• Professional break-ins: Where offenders use a high level of skill to enter the school, break into storage rooms containing expensive equipment and remove bulky items from the scene. They commit little incidental damage and may receive a lot of money for the stolen goods.

• Malicious break-ins: Which entail significant damage to the school's interior and may include arson. Offenders sometimes destroy rather than steal items of value.

While school vandalism and break-ins generally comprise many often-trivial incidents, in the aggregate they pose a serious problem for schools, communities, and the police and fire departments charged with protecting them. Many school fires originate as arson or during an act of vandalism. Though less frequent than other types of school vandalism, arson has significant potential to harm students and staff. In the United Kingdom in 2000, approximately one-third of school arson fires occurred during school hours, when students were present, a significant proportional increase since 1990.

Not all incidents of vandalism and break-ins have the same effect on the school environment. Two useful dimensions for understanding the problem's impact are the monetary cost (where the repair charges are high), and the social cost (where the event has a significant negative impact on student, staff, and community morale). Events with high monetary and social costs typically occur less frequently than those with low monetary and social cost.

Offender characteristics

Those who vandalize or break into schools are typically young and male, acting in small groups. Vandalism and break-ins are most common among junior high school students (roughly 12-15 years-old), and become less frequent as students reach high school. Those involved in school-related arson are more likely to be in high school. Many vandals have done poorly academically and may have been truant, suspended, or expelled. As is typical of many adolescents, students who vandalize and break into schools have a poor understanding of their behaviour's impact on others and are more concerned with the consequences to themselves. Offenders are no more likely to be emotionally disturbed than their peers who do not engage in the behaviour, nor are they any more critical of their classes, teachers, or school in general.

Motivations

The typical observer may think school vandalism and break-ins are pointless, particularly when the offenders have focussed on property destruction and have taken nothing of value. One can better understand the behaviour when considering it in the context of adolescence when peer influence is a powerful motivator. Most delinquent acts are carried out by groups of youths and vandalism is no exception. Participating in vandalism often helps to maintain or enhance his or her status among peers. This status comes with little risk since, in contrast to playing a game or fighting, there are no winners or losers.

Beyond peer influence there are several other motivations for school vandalism:

• Acquisitive vandalism is committed to obtain property or money

• Tactical vandalism is used to accomplish goals such as getting school cancelled

• Ideological vandalism is oriented toward a social or political protest against school rules

• Vindictive vandalism (such as setting fire to the principal's office after being punished) is done to get revenge

• Play vandalism occurs when youth intentionally damage property during the course of play

• Malicious vandalism is used to express rage or frustration. Because of its viciousness and apparent senselessness, people find this type particularly difficult to understand.

Opportunity

Certain physical attributes of school buildings and grounds also affect their vulnerability to vandalism and break-ins. In general, large, modern, sprawling schools have higher rates of vandalism and break-ins than smaller, compact schools. The modern, sprawling schools have large buildings scattered across campus, rather than clustered together. A school's architectural characteristics may also influence the quality of administrative and teacher-student relationships that are developed which can affect the school's vulnerability. Common vandalism locations and typical entry points include:

• Partially hidden areas around buildings that are large enough for small groups of students to hang out in (which can give rise to graffiti, damaged trees and plants, and broken windows)

• Alcoves created by stairways adjacent to walls, depressed entrances and delivery docks (which offer coverage for prying at windows, picking locks and removing door hinges)

• Main entrances not secured by grills or gates when school is closed and secondary entrances with removable exterior door hardware

• Unsecured windows and skylights

• Large, smooth, light-coloured walls (which are prime graffiti targets)

• Rooftops accessible from the ground, from nearby trees or from other rooftops (which can allow access to damageable equipment and hardware)

Understanding your local problem

The following are some critical questions you should ask in analyzing your particular problem of school vandalism and break-ins, even if the answers are not always readily available. Your answers to these and other questions will help you choose the most appropriate set of responses later on.

• How many school vandalism incidents were reported to the police in the past year? How many weren't? Why weren't they?

• How many school break-ins were reported to the police? How many weren't? Why weren't they?

• How many school fires were reported to the police and fire departments? How many weren't? Why weren't they?

• What were the repair and replacement costs for all incidents?

• Were the costs generally spread out among many smaller incidents, or concentrated among a few larger incidents?

• How accessible are school grounds and buildings? What type of fencing exists? How visible are building entrances?

• What, specifically, is being damaged?

• What are the characteristics of the main entry points for unauthorized access to the school buildings?

• What are the characteristics of the main areas of the school's interior that are damaged?

• What is being stolen during break-ins? From where in the school? Who has legitimate access to the area(s) when the incidents occur?

• How are stolen goods being disposed of (sold for cash, traded for other goods, used by thieves)?

• Where are most fires started?

• What materials are used to start fires? Are materials obtained on-site or brought in from outside? Are accelerants used?

• For what proportion of incidents are offenders apprehended? What are their characteristics (e.g., age, gender, grade, school of attendance)? What proportions are students versus non-students?

• Do offenders operate alone or in groups? How active are they? Do they re-offend even after getting caught?

• How do they travel to and from the school?

• What reasons do students offer for why youth engage in school vandalism and break-ins? Do students view peers who engage in vandalism and break-ins negatively? If not, why?

• What reasons do offenders give for their behavior?

• How motivated to damage school property do offenders seem to be? How sophisticated are they?

• At what times of the day do vandalism, break-ins, and arson occur? On what days of the week? At what times of the year?

• Do these times correspond with other events?

• Are incidents clustered in time, or spread over time?

• What are the surrounding community's characteristics (e.g., isolated or active, commercial or residential)?

• How concerned are community members about the problem? How willing are they to get involved in solving it?

• What characterizes the media's coverage of the problem (if there is any)?

• What types of community activities occur in the school(s) after hours? How is access to the rest of the building limited during these times? To what extent do vandalism incidents correspond with the activities?

• What are the current practices regarding surveillance (either electronic or human) of grounds and buildings after hours?

• How are the school entrances secured after hours? How are windows secured?

• What types of alarms, sensors, and security cameras are used? What building areas do they cover?

• What valuable equipment does the school own? How is it stored? Who can access it, and how so?

• How quickly is property damage repaired?

• What are the schools' insurance arrangements? What actions, if any, have insurance loss-prevention agents recommended to school officials?

• What school sanctions are used against apprehended offenders? What criminal justice sanctions are used? How do parents respond

Responses to vandalism

The full report gives detailed analysis of 30 possible responses, including how they work, how they work best and considerations. A list of these responses is given below:

1. Recognizing the person-environment interaction

2. Establishing a task force

3. Using the media wisely

4. Setting priorities

5. Operating at the district level

6. Controlling access to deter unauthorized entry

7. Posting warning signs

8. Storing valuables in secure areas

9. Reducing the availability of combustibles

10. Inscribing valuables with identifying marks

11. Adjusting indoor or outdoor lighting

12. Obstructing vandals through physical barriers

13. Repairing damage quickly and improving the appearance of school grounds

14. Removing ground-floor glass windows and other vandalism targets

15. Increasing the frequency of security-staff patrols

16. Using closed-circuit television

17. Improving opportunities for natural surveillance

18. Providing caretaker or "school sitter" housing on school grounds

19. Holding offenders accountable

20. Diverting offenders to alternative activities

21. Educating school staff

22. Controlling building and room keys

23. Maintaining an inventory of valuable equipment

24. Creating a "vandalism account"

25. Changing the organizational climate

26. Providing rewards for information concerning vandalism or break-ins

27. Creating "School Watch" programs

28. Evaluating public use of school facilities after hours

29. Controlling the sale of vandalism tools

30. Increasing penalties

Getting a copy

Download the full COPS report School Vandalism and Break-Ins PDF 717Kb

Last update: Tuesday, August 05, 2008