IN BRIEF
High court refuses Scott
Peterson's jury request
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — The
California Supreme Court on Mon
day rejected a request from Scott Pe
terson’s lawyers that a new jury be
selected to decide whether he
should get the death penalty.
The ruling clears the way for the
penalty phase to start on Tliesday.
The same six-man, six-woman
jury that convicted Peterson on
Nov. 12 of murdering his pregnant
wife, Laci, and the fetus she carried
will decide whether he should get
life in prison or death.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos
had argued that the jurors were
tainted by the public’s reaction to
the verdict. When the verdict was
announced, a big cheer went up
from a crowd outside the court
house and spectators pumped their
fists approvingly.
Geragos wanted the case moved,
perhaps to Los Angeles County, and
a new jury selected for the penalty
phase, a request that was previously
turned down by the trial judge and
an appeals court.
Dollar worries keep
Wall Street on edge
NEW YORK — Stocks finished
mixed in a volatile session Monday
as investors worried that the
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continued fall of the U.S. dollar
would spur inflation and hurt the
overall economy. The concerns
overshadowed a decent start to the
holiday shopping season.
With the Federal Reserve meeting
Dec. 14, many investors felt that the
weakening dollar, which failed to
gain much ground against other
currencies Monday, would lead to
substantially higher interest rates as
the threat of inflation grows.
Wall Street also bid retail stocks
lower despite improved sales for
most retailers over the Thanksgiv
ing weekend. A warning from
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which said
its sales were lower than expected,
led to selling across the sector.
A strong showing in sales of
electronics kept tech stocks slightly
higher for the session.
The Dow Jones industrial average
fell 46.33, or 0.44 percent,
to 10,475.90. The Dow had been
down more than 105 points earlier
in the session.
Psychoanalysis request
denied in Jackson case
SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The
judge in the child-molestation case
against Michael Jackson refused on
Monday to order Jackson’s accuser
and the boy’s family to undergo
psychological examinations.
Superior Court Judge Rodney
Melville ruled without hearing
arguments in court and gave no
reason for rejecting the request
from Jackson’s side.
Attorneys could not comment on
the decision because of a gag order.
The judge did grant a defense re
quest to release transcripts of the
grand jury selection process as long
as grand jurors’ names remained
confidential. The defense has com
plained that prosecutors had too
much sway over grand jurors.
The pop star is accused of molest
ing a boy and plying him with alco
hol. His trial is set to begin Jan. 31.
Attorneys also argued in court
over efforts by the defense to
subpoena medical and banking
records involving the accuser’s fam
ily. Prosecutors said the material
is irrelevant.
— The Associated Press
School violence cut in half
in last 10 years, report says
Justice and Education departments report that students
are safer in school buildings than they are on the streets
BY CURT ANDERSON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Violent
crime against students in schools fell
by 50 percent between 1992 and 2002,
with young people more often target
ed for violence away from school.
There were about 24 cases of rape,
sexual assault, robbery and physical
assault for every 1,000 students in
2002, down from 48 per 1,000 a
decade earlier, according to a report
Monday from the Education and Jus
tice departments.
The reduction mirrored the trend
found outside classrooms — overall
crime is at a 30-year low across the
nation.
The report found instances
of school violence involving students
have dropped steadily since a string of
fatal shootings in the 1990s, notably
the 1999 killings of 13 people at
Columbine High School in Colorado
by two heavily armed students.
“There has been a drop, and we at
tribute a lot of that to the fact that
schools are focusing on the issue
more,” said William Lassiter, school
safety specialist at the Center for the
Prevention of School Violence in
Raleigh, N.C.
Schools have taken a number of
steps to reduce violence, from in
stalling metal detectors and hiring
more security personnel to imple
menting programs aimed at curbing
bullying, which can lead to more seri
ous crimes. A recent analysis of more
than 200 studies shows that school
based violence prevention programs
reduce school violence by up to 50
percent, said Dewey Cornell, director
of the Virginia Youth Violence Project
r
at the University of Virginia.
“Prevention programs have been
quietly successful but tend to get over
looked. If you have one fight at school,
it gets a lot of attention,” Cornell said.
OTHER FINDINGS IN THE REPORT
In 2003,22 percent of students in grades 9-12
reported using marijuana during the preceding
30 days. That compares with 18 percent in 1993
and 27 percent in 1999.
About 45 percent of high school students in 2003 said
they had at least one alcoholic drink in the 30 days
before they were surveyed, about the same as in 1993
and down from a recent high of 52 percent in 1995.
A third of students in grades 9-12 said that
someone had offered, given or sold them an illegal
drug on school property in 2003. That number has
essentially remained the same over the past decade.
About 21 percent of students in 2003 su,d that
street gangs were active in their schools, most often
in urban districts.
— The Associated Press
Others say the scope of the problem
is underreported by the federal study,
which relies on limited surveys and
self-reporting instead of tracking actu
al reported crimes. In addition, the
data used is already outdated, said
Kenneth Thump, president of National
School Safety and Security Services, a
consulting firm.
“To tell the American public that
school crime is dramatically declin
ing based upon underreported, out
dated and limited data is misleading
and creates a false sense of securi
ty,” Thump said.
The report found students are
more apt to be victims of violence
outside schools.
In 2002, there were about 659,000
violent crimes involving students at
school and about 720,000 away from
school property. For the most serious
nonfatal violent crimes — rape, assault
and robbery — the crime rates were
lower in school than away from school
every year from 1992 to 2002.
The report also found that, be
tween 1992 and 2000, students be
tween 5 and 19 were 70 times more
likely to be murdered away from
school than on campus. There were
234 homicides at school during that
time span, compared with more than
24.000 away from school.
“There was initially great concern
about school violence, but our report
shows that kids are safer at school
than they are away from school,” said
the report’s co-author, Katrina Baum of
the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Overall in 1992 there were more
than 3.4 million crimes in school
against students between 12 and 18,
the report estimated. That included
more than 2.2 million thefts — by
far the most common serious crime
in school — and over 1.1 million vi
olent crimes.
By 2002, the report found the total
number had dropped to 1.7 million
crimes: just over 1 million thefts and
about 659,000 violent crimes.
Teachers are also targets of school
house crime. The report found that
from 1998 through 2002 teachers
were victims of an annual average of
233,900 crimes at school, more than
90.000 of them violent. That trans
lates to an annual rate of 51 crimes
per 1,000 teachers.
The report shows that inner-city
teachers are more than twice as likely
to be victims of violent crimes than
those in suburban or rural school dis
tricts, and that male teachers are more
often attacked than female teachers.
The report does not give year-to-year
comparisons because the sample sizes
studied are too small, Baum said.
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