NCJ Number
134653
Editor(s)
D Challinger
Date Published
1987
Length
206 pages
Annotation
This 1987 seminar notes that schools have long been the sites of criminal behavior and that teachers and students are both victims and offenders.
Abstract
There is a widespread public and professional perception that the behavior of children and young people has emerged as the most serious educational problem. The discipline issue has been highlighted by the elimination of corporal punishment in schools. In general, parent views the dealing with school crime are conservative because they believe all children have the right to education in a setting free from violence. In Australia and elsewhere, various school practices have been developed to maintain order and discipline. Disciplinary problems require appropriate responses that consider contemporary standards and values. Teachers need to understand group dynamics, encourage their students to participate in class decisionmaking, and view themselves and their classes as one group working toward a common aim. Teaching has to occur in schools that have a common philosophy of respect, responsiveness, responsibility, and resourcefulness. Teachers can play a positive role in the prevention of school crime, and proper preservice education should provide the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to ensure effective lesson planning and classroom management. Parents should collaborate with teachers to achieve a school environment in which students can exercise the greater control over their own lives. Seminar participants consider the development and introduction of a discipline code at one Australian high school, conflict resolution as a means of dealing with student misbehavior and criminal activity, student suspension, special schools for seriously disruptive students, adolescent offense types, and programs to deter repetitive theft behavior. Presentations also deal with the role of police in schools, juvenile diversion, relationships between schools and delinquency and crime, and criminal conduct of teachers. 86 references and 6 tables