NCJ Number
191054
Journal
Journal of Security Administration Volume: 24 Issue: 1 Dated: June 2001 Pages: 45-62
Date Published
June 2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses local, State, and national perspectives on school violence.
Abstract
The paper claims that, contrary to public perception, and despite recent school shootings, nationwide, school violence has been declining over the past decade. Most school crime is theft, not serious crime. Students in schools today are not more likely to be victims of crime than in previous years. The paper seeks to put school crime in perspective by: (1) providing local, State, and national statistics on school violence and violence in general; (2) dispelling the myth of school violence by illustrating how the media have exploited youth; (3) critiquing programs and policies for school safety that simply do not deter violence; and (4) presenting a theoretical application and profiling of five recent school shootings across the country. The paper states that the social bond, labeling, and modeling theories, the theory of differential association, and the southern culture theory, in combination, can explain the reasoning behind the five shootings described. The paper recommends more attention to and evaluation of local and State prevention and intervention programs that deal with students' everyday feelings and behaviors, not with the school's environment. References