Although last year saw a small down tick, juvenile crime has been escalating alarmingly in recent years. Nowhere is the trend so obvious as in schools, says the Justice Department.

Experts perceive a direct correlation between teen misbehavior and the lack of a father in offenders' homes.

• Juvenile arrests for serious violent crimes rose 67 percent from 1986 to 1995.

• Arrests jumped 63 percent for robbery, 78 percent for aggravated assault and 90 percent for murder.

• More than half of all crimes against teenagers happen on or near school property.

• Almost one-fourth of all violent crimes against teens occur at school.

Sixth to 12th grade public school students are twice as likely to be worried about robbery, bullying or physical attack as those who attend private schools, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

With the out-of-wedlock birth rate five times higher today than it was 30 years ago, the absence of a father figure in teens' lives is clearly a factor in juvenile crime.

• Violent children are 11 times more likely not to live with their fathers and six times more likely to have parents who aren't married, according to a 1994 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

• Children not living with both biological parents are four times as likely to be suspended or expelled from school as children with both parents at home, according to the journal Family Planning Perspectives.

Not only does having a father at home head off violent behavior, experts say, it also helps boost student achievement.

Statistics show that such problems as student use of alcohol and drug abuse are far more frequent in public schools than in private ones.