Segregation and School Violence

• NCJ Number: 203779
• Journal: Social Forces Volume: 82 Issue: 2 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 589-615
• Author(s): David Eitle; Tamela McNulty Eitle
• Editor(s): Richard L. Simpson, Judith Blau
• Date Published: December 2003
• Length: 27 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study investigated whether desegregation reduces or exacerbates the problem of school violence.

Abstract

Since many school districts across the United States are in the process of altering school desegregation plans that have been in place for years, exploring the effects of variations in the extent school district segregation on school disorder seems appropriate. This analysis investigated the influence of school-based segregation patterns on school violence. Two competing hypotheses were examined as applied to school violence to determine whether conditions of school desegregation serve to increase or decrease violent crime through intergroup hostilities. The first hypothesis states that the greater the segregation in a school system the greater the rate of school violence. The second hypothesis states that the greater the desegregation in a school system, coupled with greater inequality, the greater the rate of school violence. Data were obtained from the Florida Department of Education and the Bureau of the Census (2001). Two important community characteristics were examined in the analysis: population density and index crime rate. The results found that contrary to the original hypothesis, lower levels of school district segregation were found to correspond to higher levels of violent crime in the schools. Validation was ascertained suggesting that under the “wrong” conditions, desegregation can have unintended consequences. The findings also suggest that school social milieu and cultural factors do matter in explaining differences in school disorder. These findings contribute to the understanding of how segregation and inequality within the community and within the school systems can have meaningful associations with the rate of violence in schools and they both have consequences for the level of violence in schools. References and appendix