School crime investigations, such as the one mandated in the amendment to a bill passed in 1974 by the 93rd Congress, and a subsequent survey resulting in a 1978 report to Congress by the National Institute of Education, revealed the epidemic proportions of the phenomenon. Political considerations linked with the much higher violent crime incidence in inner-city, mostly black, schools, inspired caution in publicizing the findings of these investigations, however. Also, school principals attempted to minimize or even conceal the existence of crime and violence in their schools, taking almost no measures to fight and prevent them. This article argues that school crime can best be understood in the context of social changes that separated secondary schools from effective family and neighborhood influences; mandatory school attendance laws keeping older adolescents in school against their will; the permissiveness of juvenile authorities and their advocacy of children's rights which made it almost impossible for schools to expel ungovernable and violent juveniles; and the erosion of the authority of classroom teachers with the attendant breakdown of classroom discipline. Short-term defensive measures and long-term strategies to alleviate the problem of school crime are discussed, including improved school security, with adoption of the defensible space concept; a greater concern with the rights of victims and the protection of potential victims; a nationwide exchange of information among schools on crime-fighting ideas; a more realistic attitude on the part of juvenile authorities; and, above all, parental cooperation.