re: Are kids who take Karate more or less likely to get into a fight?

As others have said, it will depend a lot on the kid. My kid started Tae Kwon Do when he was 10, and is 14 now and a 2nd degree black belt. He never was a discipline problem, but was more of the bookworm type and had a stuttering problem. We put him in martial arts to boost his self confidence and to get his chubby arse off the couch and into something other than video games. He is now in very good shape. He's also a certified instructor and teaches several classes, so it has done wonders for his self confidence and his ability to speak in front of groups of children or adults. The organization our school belongs to has a "McDojo/belt factory" reputation, but we have a very good instructor and that is the most important factor. They teach some Krav and other self defense stuff in addition to Tae Kwon Do. While my kid is not really big into sparring, I would not want to fight him. I tried play-sparring with him once, and when he kicked me in the thigh I thought my leg was going to break. He is more into extreme weapons competition, in which he makes up his own routines choreographed to music (more in the "Sport Karate" realm). Right now he's ranked #1 in the world in our organization (which is one of the largest) for his black belt age group and has won 5 gold medals at Nationals over the past 3 years. This year we'll hit around 20 tournaments across the country, and we go out of state to train under a couple world champions also. It is a fantastic sport to get involved in competitively (I've always been partial to individual sports over team sports). The transformation that he has undergone both physically and socially over the past few years has been nothing short of amazing. He does not flaunt his skills at school, because he does not want to invite fights. But if a fight comes his way, he is a hell of a lot more equipped for it than he was a few years ago. You get out of it what you put into it. Between teaching, training at the school, and training at home, he devotes 12-15 hours/week to martial arts.