Term Paper on "Violence in Schools"

Term Paper 14 pages (4258 words) Sources: 15

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In the late 19th an early 20th centuries, scientists began to recognize

violent school behavior, but little empirical research was conducted to

determine the cause of this violence and, just as important, ways to reduce

or eliminate it. After 1950, studies began to be conducted that included

not only descriptions of the behavior, but intervention programs as well.

Researchers now use scientific study to determine and describe these

disorders with increasing validity and reliability. In the future, it is

hoped that similar scientific studies will continue, so more progress will

be made on reaching and helping students and schools with such problems.

Antisocial behavior refers to wide range of activities that reflect

the breaking of social rules and values, acts against others, or both. Such

activities include behaviors such as lying, disobedience, truancy, running

away, drug use, setting fires, vandalism, theft and violence against other

people. Some antisocial behavior is relatively common over the normal

course of a child's life and is not of concern. For example, the majority

of five and six year olds lie or are disobedient (Henggeler, 1998, p.4).

On the other hand, when children show relatively severe antisocial

behavior, it is likely to be noticed by parents, teachers and other adults

as a major difference from normal activity and may bring the child or

adolescent into contact with the mental health or juvenile justice system

(Henggeler, 1998, p.4).

Although school violence is not a new occurrence, is becoming

increasingly significant in American society because of situations such as

Columbine. Recognizing that violence may possibly occur in a school

environment, actions must be taken to ensure the safety of all students and

the staff who serve them. Over the past decade, a definition has evolved to

cover this increasing problem. School violence is now seen as a

multifaceted problem that involves both criminal acts and aggression in

educational institutions, which inhibit learning and development of the

students, in addition to a negative impact on the school climate. It was

not until 1992 that the label "school violence" was used widely as a term

to describe violent and aggressive acts on institutional campuses.

Citations in the University of California computer database of news reports

in 5 major national newspapers show that before this year, just 179

citations were listed under this keyword. From 1992 to 1998, there were

about 600 articles using this term in the same newspapers. Similarly,

previous to 1992, only 38 news articles had the words "school violence" in

their title, compared to 118 between 1992 and October 1998 (Furlong &

Morrison, 2000, p. 71).

Early interest in school violence had a stress on youth whose

behavior was primarily a law enforcement issue. Then, researchers became

interested in understanding influences contributing to the development of

antisocial behavior in children. Studies also emerged among public health

researchers and advocates interested in decreasing harm to youth,

especially as it related to the increase of violence-related adolescent

injuries and homicides during the late 1980s and early 1990s (Furlong &

Morrison, 2000, p. 72).

Eventually, a school safety and crime scorecard was developed that

reported the incidence of these factors: (a) nonfatal student victimization

(student reports), (b) violence and crime at schools (public school

principal reports), (c) violent deaths at school, (d) nonfatal teacher

victimization at school (teacher reports), and (e) school environmental

conditions (Furlong & Morrison, 2000, p. 72).

Several definitions of school-related violence were very broad and

difficult to use. For instance, Berg (2000) defined school-related violence

as "the use or threat of physical force with the intent of causing physical

injury, damage or intimidation of another person" (p. 18). Astor and Meyer

(2001) saw it as intentional and negligent behavior that caused physical or

psychological harm andor property damage. Furlong and Morrison (2000)

further expanded the extent of school-related violence to consist of all

criminal acts and aggression that may inhibit learning and harm the

school's climate.

Other definitions were more precise, focusing on certain aspects of

student behavior. Emphasizing a psychological perspective, Early Warning,

Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools defined school-related violence as

a "broad range of troubling behaviors and emotions shown by students-

including serious aggression, physical attacks, suicide, dangerous use of

drugs, and other dangerous interpersonal behaviors" (Dwyer, Osher &Warger,

1998, p. 2).

In order to have a better idea of the present-day extent of the

violence in the schools, it is helpful to look at the overall numbers

of those being educated. The Digest of Education Statistics (Snyder,

2001) reported that approximately 25 percent of United States residents

were involved in formal education as teachers, school administrators,

support staff or students in 2000. There were approximately 3.3 million

teachers and 53 million students in elementary and secondary schools.

The chance of any student being killed at school was one in two million

or becoming a victim of violent crime was less than 0.5 percent.

School-related crimes are decreasing (Clark, 2002), yet the numbers

are still high. In 1998, 12- to 18-year-olds were the victims of 2.7

million school-related crimes, including 252,700 nonfatal serious violent

crimes. Further, data from the National School Safety Center's School

Associated Violent Deaths Report reported there were 318 violent school

deaths, 55 that were suicides, since the start of the 1992 to1993 school

year. In total, outside- of-school juvenile arrest data mirrored the

above trends. However, it is difficult to get a true handle on the amount

of crime, because of the degree of non-reporting. The Metropolitan Life

Survey of the American Teacher (Binns & Markow, 1999) found that only one-

third of student victims told police officers or school officials about

violent incidents. Thirty-five percent said they would never report

violent behavior despite their relationship to the victim or perpetrator.

Self-reports of weapons possession and bullying were considerably

higher than reported incidents, regardless that the perceptions of school-

related violence were consistent with the incidence data. This finding was

consistent with research data concluding that there was an increase in the

percentage of students who sometimes felt "too unsafe" to attend school.

Self-reporting data also found that most schools are free of serious

violent crime. Only ten percent of schools reported one or more serious

crimes to police. Furthermore, 43 percent of schools reported no criminal

incidents to police. (Binns & Markow, 1999)

When looking at the statistics regarding school violence, some

significant consistencies can be found. First, boys are most involved in

school violence and are much more likely than girls to be physically

aggressive and the victim of attacks. Second, bullying behavior is most

frequent among upper-elementary-age students. Some forms of aggressive

behavior are higher among middle school students, such as fighting. Third,

most studies to this point have not found significant differences across

racial and ethnic groups. Similarly, no difference was found in overall

student violence in schools located in central city, suburban, and non-

metropolitan areas, even though crime victimization is normally found to be

higher in urban than suburban and rural locales. However, despite the fact

that the amount of school violence may not differ strongly by location,

variances may occur in specific areas. In addition, since central city

areas have larger student populations, in a given time period these

students may be exposed to a greater number of violent incidents. And

fifth, the attitudes held by individual students are associated with their

involvement as perpetrators of violence or as its victims (Furlong &

Morrison, 2000, p. 73).

It should be made clear here that school violence is not indicative

of the United States, but is found throughout the world. Violence in

schools is a worldwide problem: it exists in both rich and poor countries.

Experts do agree on one point: This violence cannot be pinned to a single

cause. Instead, they blame it on a complex pattern related to family

situations, socioeconomic conditions and teaching methods.

A number of reasons have been given for school violence. Bender,

McLauchlin, & Shubert (2001) investigated the random school shootings that

occurred from October of 1997 to May of 1998, in the cities of Pearl,

Mississippi; West Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Edinboro,

Pennsylvania;… READ MORE

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