Half of the students (48%) reported being subjected to activities that are considered hazing. Based on this percent as the best estimate available, we project more than 1.5 million high school students in the United States are being subjected to some form of hazing each year.
Percent of Students Subjected to Various Types of Hazing
| Initiations Rites-Inclusive | % |
|---|---|
| Hazing of Any Form | 48 |
| Humiliating Hazing | 43 |
| Potentially Illegal Hazing | 29 |
| Substance Abuse Hazing | 23 |
| Dangerous Hazing | 22 |
Nearly all students who were hazed were subjected to humiliation (43% of the total). Distinguishing what is embarrassing to a teenager from what is humiliation targeted toward specific individuals is a task teenagers struggle to learn. Of the students subjected to humiliating hazing, just under half (19%) were subjected to only humiliating behaviors, while just over half (24%) were also expected to engage in substance abuse or other dangerous acts.
When substance abuse and other dangerous behaviors are combined, nearly a third (29%) of all students were expected to engage in potentially illegal acts as part of an initiation. Twenty-one percent were expected to engage in substance abuse as a form of initiation. Seven percent were engaged in only substance abuse, but no other dangerous hazing, while 16% of all students were also engaged in other dangerous hazing activities. Twenty-two percent of all students were subjected to dangerous hazing beyond substance abuse.
In addition, 13 percent of the students reported that they did not join a group because they were afraid of being hazed (10%), left a group because of the hazing (7%) or both. Struggling to learn socially appropriate and constructive ways to bond and form social identities is a challenge for all high school students. Being ostracized and isolated makes being a teenager even more difficult.
Most high school students did not perceive even the most dangerous initiation activities as hazing. Only 15 percent of the students said that they thought they were hazed in high school, but twice that many reported abusing substances or committing dangerous acts as part of their initiation. Even though high school students' self-report of hazing is substantially lower than the actual behaviors reported, a total of 29 percent said they had been hazed (15%), witnessed hazing (18%), and/or left a group because of the hazing (7%).
Across the United States, the greatest number of high school students were subjected to hazing for sports (24%), peer groups or gangs (16%), music, art, or theater (8%), or church (7%). For all other types of groups, 5 percent or less of all students reported being hazed (estimated at <170,000 per group type). By far the greatest number of high school students were hazed for athletics. Sixty-seven percent of the high school students reported being involved in athletics, and 35 percent of them reported being subjected to some form of hazing; this constitutes 24 percent of all students or approximately 800,672 high school athletes per year.