title: [Clinical forensic valuation of school violence].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In recent years, the National Education in France has developed tools to identify acts of violence in schools. This has allowed adjusting government policies for the care of victims. School violence can also be measured from the perspective of clinical forensic medicine, a special discipline for observing a society's violence.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study summarized and compared three similar single-center, prospective, and descriptive studies conducted in 1992, 2002, and 2012 in the Department of Forensic Medicine, University Hospital of Lille, via an evaluation form completed during consultations requested by victims in cases of school violence. The purpose was to identify the characteristics of victims, those of their perpetrators, the circumstances and reasons for school assaults, as well as their medical and administrative consequences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Each study had identified about 160 such attacks annually. The victims were younger, especially boys (the average age decreased from 14.8 to 13.6). The gender distribution showed an increase in female victims (the sex ratio decreased from 2.9/1 to 2.3/1). The location of attacks changed, with a marked increase of attacks on the way to school (from 10% to 27%). Recurrence of attacks also rose: victims with a previous history of attacks increased from 18.5% to 32.2% with a high proportion of violence resulting in a strong psychological impact, increasingly requiring psychological support (from 9 to 16%). The duration of school cases rose sharply, from 20 to 53% in 2012. The grade level of the perpetrator showed a significant increase in cases of violence at junior high school (from 40 to 67%), with a relative stability of violence in elementary and high schools. The parameters measured to characterize the aggressors remained stable: they were known to their victims in approximately 80% of cases and these attacks were for the most part related to previous disagreements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Since the 1990s, government policies for the prevention, measurement, and punishment of violence in schools have not ceased to grow, but this violence has not attenuated. It is identified annually by the government and the data from the present study show comparable trends to national data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The progression of school violence over the past 20 years shows trends brought out through a forensic medicine framework. This discipline is indeed an observatory of violence and it has an important role to play in the detection of fragile psychological situations. This violence is increasing and compromises pupils' privacy. In the future, different forms of violence with a strong psychological impact should be emphasized, including the influence on academic achievement and child development.
authors.affiliation: Unité médico-judiciaire du service de médecine légale, CHRU de Lille, rue André-Verhaeghe, 59037 Lille cedex, France; Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France. Electronic address: yann.delannoy@univ-lille2.fr.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Delannoy
authors.affiliation: Unité médico-judiciaire du service de médecine légale, CHRU de Lille, rue André-Verhaeghe, 59037 Lille cedex, France; Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tournel
authors.affiliation: Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tonnel
authors.affiliation: Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France; Unité de gastroentérologie, hépatologie et nutrition du département de pédiatrie, CHRU de Lille, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Turck
authors.affiliation: Unité médico-judiciaire du service de médecine légale, CHRU de Lille, rue André-Verhaeghe, 59037 Lille cedex, France; Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hedouin
authors.affiliation: Unité médico-judiciaire du service de médecine légale, CHRU de Lille, rue André-Verhaeghe, 59037 Lille cedex, France; Université Lille-Nord de France, faculté de médecine de l'université Lille II, 59037 Lille cedex, France.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gosset
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D014754:Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data