Wednesday, July 2, 2025

A unified approach to assessing safety in educational institutions

Note: it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia, so in this article, he considers the situation on the example of his country. Measures to ensure the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places with a mass stay of children that he proposes are developed by him for use in Russia, taking into account the existing law enforcement system and the situation there.

Often, after another tragedy, in expert discussions addressing the protection of educational institutions, participants use the term «security level» with various adjectives such as high, low, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, compliant, minimal, etc. However, the question arises: what exactly do they mean by this concept? What can this level be, how is it determined, and what factors influence it?
After studying publicly available information on these issues, I concluded that there is currently no unified (or even widely accepted) system for formally assessing the security level of educational facilities. Most reports containing such evaluations and conclusions are based on the personal opinions of the specialists who prepared them, relying on compliance with regulatory documents, as well as numerous guidelines, recommendations, and informational letters from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the National Guard, and other executive and local government bodies. These documents mostly contain general, and often vague, wording, making it difficult to judge how accurate and objective the conclusions drawn from them are.

After reviewing publicly available foreign practices, I also found nothing concrete; the situation on this issue appears to be similar there, despite the clear need for such a tool.
I am not a proponent of excessive standardization in security matters, but I consider this area an exception. Due to the absence of an assessment system that could, based on formal criteria, objectively calculate the security level of an educational facility with minimal influence from the «human factor»—and since I need such a tool in my work—I decided to try creating it myself.

The table presented in this article is intended to assess the security level of an educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats. The evaluation is based on 64 criteria, covering:

- Characteristics of the educational facility’s territory and location,

- Buildings and structures,

- Presence of physical security and its specifics,

- Technical security measures and their capabilities,

- Additional active and passive protective measures.

Each item, if present and—just as importantly—fully operational, is assigned the number of points indicated in the table. If absent or non-functional (fully or partially), it receives 0 points, and so on for all items. The points are then summed to produce a final score. In addition to the total score, there are factors that negatively affect the final assessment, all of which are outlined in the «Final Score Calculation Formula» section.
When completed, the table clearly shows the level of protection of the educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats, its capabilities, and, most importantly, obvious shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the security system. Based on the resulting score, measures and costs for improving the facility’s protection level can be planned.
Furthermore, using annual assessment data for one or multiple facilities, comparative and trend analysis can easily be conducted, clearly evaluating the situation in this area for a specific school, city, region, or even country over a given period—comparing both overall scores and individual indicators or sections. This is a convenient and, most importantly, objective tool for monitoring the situation. A decrease in the score, even by 1 point compared to the previous period, will immediately indicate a worsening situation and the need for action.

Author’s note: I believe that once completed, this table should be classified as at least «For Official Use Only» (or preferably with a higher restriction level), with very limited access granted to its contents. This information is too critical, and if it falls into the hands of someone planning a mass killing or terrorist attack, it could become a «lethal weapon,» significantly increasing the number of potential victims...

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Friday, June 27, 2025

Announcement of upcoming publications

Dear readers and colleagues.

An article entitled «A Unified Approach to Assessing the Safety Level of Educational Facilities» will be published shortly (planned date: July 2).

In this publication, the author argues that there is currently no unified (or even widely used) system for assessing the safety level of educational institutions based on formal criteria. Most conclusions with similar assessments and findings are based on the personal opinions of the experts who compiled them, based on compliance with regulatory requirements, as well as a large number of various methodological guidelines, recommendations, and other documents containing mostly general and often vague wording.

The author proposes his own development – a table for assessing the overall level of security of an educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats, based on 64 criteria. Using this table should make it possible to objectively calculate the level of security of a facility based on formal criteria, with minimal influence from the «human factor», as well as to more easily and quickly conduct security audits and analyze changes in the security system of educational institutions, both in a single municipality and across an entire region or country.

Sincerely.

Author and editor-in-chief of the project

#SchoolSafety #SafetyLevel #SafetyAssessment #school #university #kindergarten #technicalcollege #university #institute #crime #terrorism #analytics #SafetyStandard

Saturday, April 19, 2025

January 10, 2025 incident at a school in Nova Sintra, Republic of Cape Verde. Need help gathering information.

 

#Cabo_Verde #CaboVerde #NovaSintra #Nova_Sintra #school #attack #information #SafetySchools #schoolshooting #crime

Dear readers and colleagues!

As I have already mentioned in previous publications, I am currently working on an addition to the handbook, which will also include statistics for the year 2025. While analyzing open sources, I found information about an incident that allegedly took place on January 10, 2025 in a school in the city of Nova Sintra, Republic of Cape Verde. The only mention of it is in the «List of attacks related to secondary schools» section of Wikipedia. Here's what it states:

A student shot a classmate with a firearm on Thursday, January 10, 2025, wounding him in the neck, at the Eugénio Tavares High School on Brava Island, authorities announced. The incident occurred around 3:40 p.m., when the teenagers were at recess and one of them took a 6.35-caliber firearm from his backpack and shot his friend, hitting him in the neck. Despite the rough sea, the victim was transferred by the military and a nursing team to the São Francisco de Assis Hospital on the neighboring island of Fogo, and is out of danger. This was the first school shooting incident in Cape Verde and the only one so far.

The article itself does not link to the source of information about the incident. Search queries in various search engines also yielded no useful information, except for a few references to the same article on Wikipedia and a few of its clones.

I will be glad to any information on the circumstances of this incident (if of course it was at all), or information refuting the fact of the event of this crime, with links to sources.

I thank in advance all those who help me in collecting new information, clarifying and correcting previously published data, forming and editing sections, as well as other work on the guide.

With respect.

Author and Editor-in-Chief of the project - Roman Grishin.


Monday, April 14, 2025

New edition of the handbook. Why is statistics important?

 


Dear readers and colleagues, I am pleased to inform you that the fourth, supplemented edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions has been completed, albeit with a slight delay (originally planned for April 11). The file has already been posted on the website and is available for download. The new edition corrects some errors and inaccuracies in previous editions and adds new information sent to me by colleagues from the Republic of Kazakhstan.

When I first started doing research on the security of schools and other educational institutions, the first problem I encountered was the lack of statistical data on crimes of this category collected and systematized in one source. I had to spend a great deal of time and effort to collect information from dozens of different sources and recheck it, because the completeness, reliability and objectivity of the published information often raised reasonable doubts. It became clear that there was a need for a unified information and reference resource containing information on crimes of this category and at least a brief (minimum) set of factual data on their details and circumstances. Without this information, it is simply impossible to see an objective picture of what is happening and assess the real scale of this threat, as well as to conduct a qualitative analysis of data, comparative, cross-checking, to assess the development of events in dynamics. Without the results of such analysis it is extremely difficult to explain the criminological processes taking place, and most importantly, to identify and identify the factors that affect them, which in turn makes it very difficult to predict the likely development of events.

When there is no understanding of the vector and features of threat development, it is impossible to develop effective countermeasures. This can be clearly seen now, when after another mass murder or terrorist attack in an educational institution, various experts, political scientists, law enforcement officials, educators and journalists, discussing the tragedy, ask the question: «Why did the measures developed and implemented as part of the security strategy to prevent and suppress threats not work?». The answer is simple: they were developed on the basis of incomplete data, and in many cases the data was not only incomplete, but also unreliable.

I often come across statistics in media publications that are very far from reality. For example, when commenting on another mass murder at a school or university, the author supports the article with figures of general statistics of incidents at educational institutions, despite the fact that most of these incidents are neither mass murders nor terrorism. For the most part, these are crimes of general criminal orientation, committed on the basis of personal animosity between specific people, or related to material motives (robbery, robbery, extortion), committed with hooligan motives or even unintentionally.

Therefore, it is crucial not only to know the statistical numbers, but also to understand the meaning behind them. Proper sorting of data is equally important. All collected cases should be cross-analyzed, comparing information from different sources, with preference given to police press releases, reports and court records because these contain more facts than speculation. All collected incidents should be divided into groups and subgroups according to various criminological characteristics. Such a division will make it possible to clearly see the nature of the development of the situation in a certain time period, both in comparison and in dynamics.

On the basis of qualitatively collected and systematized statistical data, it is possible to create fairly accurate criminological models and forecasts, and most importantly, thanks to these models and forecasts, it is possible to develop truly effective measures for preventing and combating these threats. This is the main goal and primary objective of applied criminology: to understand the nature of the threat, assess the prospects for its development, identify vulnerabilities, develop a strategy to counter the threat and eliminate it. This requires reliable raw data, validated and systematized, collected in a single source.

In the fall of 2023, I set about creating it. As a form of data presentation, I chose a format similar to a police incident report, in the form of a summary of the circumstances of the event containing such information as: date, time, place, manner, subject, object, subject, victims, consequences, outcome, and other reliably established facts.

In February 2024, the first edition was published on the website of the Public Order and Safety Project, which included statistical data for 24 years (from 2000 to 2023 inclusive). Then I received a lot of feedback, recommendations, additions and edits from colleagues around the world, already 2 months later, in April 2024, the second edition was published, which contained more than 100 additions and edits. During 2024, taking into account the requests from readers and colleagues, the information was updated and supplemented, the third edition, published in January 2025, contained updated information for 25 years. Today, the fourth edition has been published, which contains additional information and edits. As new data becomes available, work will begin on the fifth edition, which I plan to publish by the end of 2025. I would welcome any help in working on the new edition, and you can find out how to do this in the final part of the guide, in the section «Prospects for new editions».

My goal is to make a useful, reliable, informative, user-friendly and, most importantly, publicly available reference and analytical tool for researchers and specialists in ensuring the safety of schools and other educational institutions from threats of various types and nature.

Once again, I would like to thank all those who assisted me in collecting new information, clarifying and correcting previously published data, creating and editing sections, and other work on the handbook.

With respect.

Author and Editor-in-Chief of the project - Roman Grishin.

#SafetySchools #CrimeCrimesInSchools #EducationTerrorism #CrimeStatistics #SecurityAnalytics #SafetyGuide #EducationSafety #EducationSafety #MassMurder #SchoolTerrorism #Criminology #ChildSafety #EducationSchools #CrimeResearch #PublicPolice #ResearchAnalytics


Tuesday, April 8, 2025

New edition (№ 4) of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions

 

Dear readers and colleagues.

In the near future (planned date April 11), the fourth, supplemented edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions will be published. The new edition corrects some inaccuracies in the previous edition, makes several additions, in particular, adds information on crimes of the category under study committed in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Currently, the technical editing of the last edits is being finalized and in the coming days the file with the new version will be posted on the project website and will be available for download.

Many thanks to all those who assisted in collecting new information, clarifying and correcting previously published data, forming and editing sections, as well as other work on the handbook. Special thanks to colleagues from Kazakhstan for the provided information.  

Regards.

The author and chief editor of the project - Roman Grishin.

 

#analytics #reference #statistics #SchoolSafety #School_Safety #SchoolSooting #School_Sooting #Handbook


Saturday, March 1, 2025

Consumer fraud: analyzing the problem and ways to solve it

 

Published on the main website of the project.

The article is devoted to one of the current topical problems of «Consumer fraud» - criminal activity aimed at deceiving citizens by selling (forcing) goods or providing services at inflated prices through deception, abuse of trust or moral and psychological state of the victim. The author examines in detail several common schemes of such fraud, such as imposing unnecessary services or equipment on elderly and socially vulnerable people, and analyzes psychological and legal aspects of these crimes.

Particular attention is paid to the vulnerability of the victims, that most often they are lonely elderly people who, due to lack of information and legal literacy, become easy prey for fraudsters.

The article also proposes specific measures to combat this phenomenon, including the re-establishment of specialized police units, strengthening preventive work, informing the population and creating hotlines for rapid response. The author emphasizes that a comprehensive approach, including both legal and social measures, is needed to effectively counter fraud.

The article will be useful not only for specialists in law and criminology, but also for a wide range of readers.

#fraud #ConsumerFraud #consumer_fraud #deception #crime #analysis #prevention #prevention #counteraction #crime #criminology #criminality


Saturday, February 1, 2025

The third edition of the Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions has been published

 


Dear readers and colleagues!

I am pleased to announce that the third edition of the handbook was finalized in January 2025. The file has already been posted on the website and is available for download.

The new edition corrects some errors and inaccuracies made in the first and second editions.

What's new:

1.      The Handbook has been updated with information on 42 more serious crimes committed in schools, other educational and childcare institutions (including preschools), including 33 crimes that have signs of mass murder and terrorist acts. The data on these crimes are detailed in more detail.

2.      Both general and detailed statistics for 2024 are added.

3.      Added Table #5 of a summary analysis of data for the five-year period from 2020 through and including 2024.

4.      Completed the summary and dynamic analysis sections (appendix) to reflect the new five-year period.

5.      Statistical models of the identities of likely suspects of similar crimes have been updated to reflect the additions.

6.      The section: «Summary of suicide cases among suspects» was supplemented with new data. Improved the data layout, making it more detailed and user-friendly. The cross-analysis of data has been supplemented with new statistics for a five-year period, including individual periods, comparisons and trends.

7.      Beginning in 2024 and going forward, when describing the details of crimes categorized as «Mass Murder and Terrorist Acts», a description of the weapon used will be included in addition to the type of weapon used.

I would like to thank all those who participated in the work on the third edition of the handbook for their help, data and useful recommendations. I look forward to the same fruitful cooperation in the future.

Work on the fourth edition will begin soon. As I said earlier, in the new editions, in addition to statistics, more attention will be paid to analyzing the obtained data, selecting and comparing individual parameters, searching for dependencies.

I will be very grateful to all those who are ready to help me in the work on the handbook by supplementing it with information on crimes that are not listed in it and their characteristics. The principles of collecting, referring, reviewing and verifying information, as well as contact details for contacting the author and editor of the handbook, are given in the final part of the handbook, in the section «Prospects for new versions of the handbook» (p. 92).

My goal is to create a useful, user-friendly and informative reference and analytical tool that is accessible to all. It is intended for researchers and security professionals in schools and other educational settings, as well as for anyone interested in the topic.

I would welcome feedback and constructive criticism. If you have any questions, suggestions or additions, write in the comments to the post or to me personally.

 

Regards,

Author and editor - Roman Grishin.

 

#SafetySchools #CrimeCrimesInSchools #EducationTerrorism #CrimeStatistics #SecurityAnalytics #SafetyGuide #EducationSafety #EducationSafety #MassMurder #SchoolTerrorism #Criminology #ChildSafety #EducationSchools #CrimeResearch #PublicPolice #ResearchAnalytics


A unified approach to assessing safety in educational institutions

Note:  it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia , so in this article, he considers the situation on the example ...