School violence can generally be defined as threats, weapon possession, or physical con- duct or intimidation perpetrated against students and staff while at school or traveling to and from school (Lintott, 2004). Literature on school violence is quite varied, and covers a wide variety of related areas. Sociological studies examine extraneous social and environmental fac- tors in an effort to explain school violence (Fergusson, Swain-Campbell, & Horwood, 2004; Randolph, Koblinsky, & Roberts, 1996; Smith & Smith, 2006). Studies of educational psychol- ogy examine psychological factors such as peer pressure, stress, cognition, emotional devel- opment and their relation to school violence (Pellegrini & Bartini, 2000). Other studies have examined the effects of school violence in the short and long-term (Lawrence & Green, 2005; Leary, Kowalski, Smith, & Phillips, 2003), as well as the different types of violence: shootings, assaults, sex-related violence, and weapon-related violence (Garbarino, Bradshaw, & Vorrasi,
2002; Henry, 2000). Still other studies have examined the administrative and political elements
of school violence (Gagnon & Leone, 2001; Kajs, 2006; Mooij, 2005; Salmivalli, Kaukiainen,
& Voeten, 2005).
The subject of school violence has become a major concern for educators as nearly 16% of teachers report having been threatened or attacked by a student (Kaufman, Chen, & Choy et al., 1998). Other studies and surveys find school violence to be an increasingly important issue for parents and the general public as well (The Gallup Organization, 2001; Reinke & Herman,
2002). The rise in public awareness of school violence can be at least somewhat attributable to high profile cases of school violence that receive a great deal of publicity in the media, such as the school shootings in Jonesboro, AK, Paducah, KY, at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, and at Red Lake High School in Minnesota (Browne, 2003: 10; McCord, Widom, & Crowell,
2001; Mengelcoch, 2006 pgs. 12-13). In fact, during the six years between the academic years of
1992-1993 and 1997-1998, there was an average of 38 shooting deaths each year (Doob & Sprott,
1999). However, recent research clearly illustrates that juvenile violence has been on a downward trend during the late 1990s and early 2000s, reaching the lowest level in 18 years (Snyder, 2004). Stevick and Levinson (2003, p. 326) point out that “less than one-thousandth of a percent of ho- micides took place in schools between 1992 and 1994”, and during the 1990’s, the odds of being shot and killed in school were 1 in 6 million (Merrow, 2004). Overall the crime rate at school declined by roughly 50% from 1992 to 2002 (Devoe, Peter, & Kaufman, 2004) and school-as- sociated deaths decreased by 78% from 1992-2000 (O’Donnell, 2001).
It is an axiom in criminal justice scholarship that actual crime numbers are only part of the picture; perception and fear of crime is also an important indicator (Warr, 1980). If the fear of crime climbs, even while crime rates remain stable or drop, then the quality of life in the community is diminished. In the context of schools, the “community” consists of the students, staff, parents, and visitors. Even while crime rates declined in the 1990s, the fear of crime went up—particularly in the schools (Smith and Smith, 2006). Doob and Sprott (1999) reported that
5.5% of students between the ages of 12-19 years expressed fear of being attacked or harmed at school, and 15.3% believed street gangs were active in their schools. These percentages rose to 8.6% and 28.4%, respectively, in 1995. Interestingly, there is little evidence that high-profile events of school violence, such as the Columbine or Red Lake shootings, have a significant impact on the fear of school violence across the school-aged population. Addington (2003) studied the effects of the Columbine shooting on fear of crime by analyzing National Crime Victimization Surveys from before and after the highly-publicized shooting. The study showed only a modest, anecdotal increase in the fear of crime in schools among 12-18-year-old stu- dents. Rather, more mundane but persistent and chronic experiences and observations among pupils appear to fuel the fear of criminal victimization at school.
Public perceptions of school violence have also linked school violence to factors external to the school. Laub and Lauritsen (1998, p. 127) state that “the conventional wisdom holds that school violence is a reflection of violence in the broader social context, that is, violence is imported into a school by the students, and by intruders from the neighborhoods surrounding the school.” This “conventional wisdom” has strong roots in sociological research connect- ing schools to the communities that schools reside in. Poverty, racial and ethnic composition, family composition, housing density, and population turnover are factors that have been found to correlate with violence (Smith & Smith, 2006). Factors outside of school, such as exposure to crime, violence, drugs, as well as family factors (parental involvement in crime, violence, drugs, and whether or not the student has only one parent) also increase the likelihood of
violent student behavior (Haynes, 1996; Kandakai, Price, Tellojohann, & Wilson, 1999; Kot- lowitz, 1991). Youth with high exposure to violence have also been found to be more likely to suffer from a host of psychological and social disorders, including: depression and anxiety (Garbarino, Dubrow, Kostelny, & Pardo, 1992; Martinez & Richters, 1993; Osofsky, 1995; Py- noos, Frederick, & Nader et al., 1987; Richters & Martinez, 1993); emotional numbing (Terr,
1989); poor educational performance (Bell & Jenkins, 1993); and behavioral problems (Bell,
1991; Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Garbarino, 1993).
One type of violent behavior that has been well researched in the literature is bullying. Several studies have shown that the majority of teenage aggression involves bullying of peers (Boulton, 1999; Coie & Dodge, 1998; Pellegrini & Bartini, 2000; Perry, Willard, & Perry,
1990). Further, some have found that bullying, when not dealt with, is frequently a precursor to acts of school violence and delinquency (Wong, 2004). Bullying itself, however, is not always violent. Pellegrini & Bartini (2000, p. 700) point out that bigger and stronger students victim- ize their peers through repeated use of negative actions—among which physical violence is an option—but often times bullying is more verbal with the implicit threat of violence used as a coercive tool (see also Boulton & Underwood, 1992; Schwartz, Pettit, Dodge, & Bates, 1997). Because bullying is not always inherently violent, it will not be a primary focus in this article. While there is little doubt that some of the acts of violence (assaults) recorded in the data ana- lyzed are instances of bullying, data limitations prevented us from teasing out just which acts of violence involved bullying as the underlying cause. (Model specification and the operation- alization of school violence will be discussed in a later section.)
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