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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for school violence
94 results foundAuthor: Neiman, Samantha Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2007-08. Summary: From the introduction: "[t]his report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2008). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, and 2007-08, SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences and supported by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education, SSOCS asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts, in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools." Details: Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2009 Source: Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 114863 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Carroll-Lind, Janis Title: School Safety: An Inquiry Into the Safety of Students at School Summary: This report examines the issues of school violence and bullying in New Zealand Schools. The key finding of the report is that the most effective schools worked to improve their whole school environment, culture and ethos, rather than focusing solely on the bullies and students they bullied. Details: Wellington, NZ: Office of the Children's Commissioner, 2009. 155p. Source: Year: 2009 Country: New Zealand URL: Shelf Number: 114595 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimeSchool Violence |
Author: Glover, Richard L. Title: Community and Problem Oriented Policing in School Settings: Design and Process Issues Summary: Community and Problem Oriented Policing (CPOP) is a multidemsional strategy used by police departments to control crime and improve the quality of life in target areas. This monograph presents CPOP as a possible solution to the problem of school violence. It identifies design components and process dimensions that can contribute to successful applications of CPOP. Five models have gained wide acceptance as strategies for school based problem solving around safety and security issues: the School Resource Officer model, student problem solving, the public health model, the Child Development-Community Policing Program, and the collaborative problem solving model. Eight components from these five models are fundamental to school based CPOP: police-school partnerships, problem solving approach, collaboration that reflects full stakeholder involvement, organizational support, education and training of problem solving group members, effective planning approaches, appropriate problem solving group size, and use of memoranda of understanding. The process dimensions associated with successful implementation of CPOP in schools are partnering between schools and police, collaborative problem solving, implementation, and evaluation of the overall CPOP effort. Details: New York: Columbia University School of Social Work, 2002. 58p. Source: Year: 2002 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118340 Keywords: Community PolicingCrime PreventionProblem SolvingProblem-Oriented PolicingSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Ruddy, Sally A. Title: A Profile of Criminal Incidents at School: Results From the 2003-05 National Crime Victimization Survey Crime Incident Report Summary: This report uses U.S. National Crime Victimization Survey data from three calendar years, 2003-05, to examine a range of characteristics of criminal incidents that occur at school, such as the location at school where the incident occurred, time of day when the incident occurred, whether the police were notified, and characteristics of offenders including their age, race, and whether they carried a weapon. Details: Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2010. 25p., app. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118556 Keywords: Juvenile OffendersSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceTheft |
Author: Burke, Kimberly Title: Issues in Illinois College Campus Safety: History & Development of Campus Safety Planning Summary: Incidents of extreme violence on and around college campuses, such as the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, are rare. However, such events can have devastating and long-lasting consequences for students, faculty, and family members. While violent acts on campuses typically receive extensive media coverage, alcohol and drug violations, rather than violent crime, are the most prevalent types of offenses on college campuses. Nonetheless, college administrators and campus law enforcement must take threats of extreme violence seriously and do everything they can to improve the safety and security of students, faculty, and staff on campuses. The purpose of this report is to identify the incidents that inspired federal and state legislative changes regarding campus safety, to trace the history of this legislation, and to identify steps taken to ensure that institutions of higher education are safe learning environments for faculty, staff, students, and visitors. Details: Chicago: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 2010. 26p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118767 Keywords: Campus CrimeCampus SafetySchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Poutvaara, Panu Title: School Shootings and Student Performance Summary: This paper studies how high school students reacted to the shocking news of a school shooting. The shooting coincided with national high-school matriculation exams. As there were exams both before and after the shooting, it was possible to perform a difference-in-differences analysis to uncover how the school shooting affected the text scores compared to previous years. The study found that the average score of young men declined due to the school shooting, whereas there was not a similar pattern for women. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2010. 20p. Source: Internet Resource; IZA Discussion Paper No. 5009 Year: 2010 Country: Finland URL: Shelf Number: 119136 Keywords: GenderSchool Shootings (Finland)School ViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Crime Statistics Unit Title: School Crime Study: A Study of Offenses, Offender, Arrestee and Victim Data Reported To The Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System Summary: This study presents information about the characteristics surrounding crime in Tennessee schools, focusing upon public and private school systems, excluding colleges/university and technical schools. The time frame covered by the study was the years 2006 through 2008.The study specifically addresses incident characteristics, offender characteristics, arrestee characteristics, offense characteristics, victim characteristics, and victim to offender characteristics. Details: Nashville, TN: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, 2009. 29p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118692 Keywords: School Crime (Tennessee)School Violence |
Author: Jones, Nicola Title: Painful Lessons: The Politics of Prevention Sexual Violence and Bullying at School Summary: This paper seeks to identify policies, programmes and legal instruments that address school violence in the developing world and to draw implications for policy, practice and research. Details: London; Overseas Development Institute; Woking, UK: Plan International, 2008. 81p. Source: Internet Resource; Working Paper 295 Year: 2008 Country: International URL: Shelf Number: 114751 Keywords: BullyingSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual Violence |
Author: Major Cities Chiefs Association Title: Campus Security Guidelines: Recommended Operational Policies for Local and Campus Law Enforcement Agencies Summary: This report provides law enforcement with recommendated guidelines to improve the ongoing relationships with campus public safety and major city police departments. The Campus Security Guidelines are organized in four sections. The first section on formal policies and agreements provides guidelines for law enforcement to encourage the development of written policies and formal agreements between local and campus law enforcement departments. The second section presents guidelines to assist local and campus law enforcement in preventing and preparing for critical incidents on campus. The third section recommends actions law enforcement should take to carry out a coordinated response with multiple agencies. Finally, the last section provides law enforcement with guidelines to assist with the continued response and recovery period after the critical incident. By covering all facets of the relationship between local and campus law enforcement, it is hoped that this document can be of benefit before, during, and after a critical incident. Details: Columbia, MD: Major Cities Chiefs Association, 2009. 152p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 119426 Keywords: Campus CrimeCampus PoliceCrime SecuritySchool CrimeSchool Violence |
Author: Sullivan, Elizabeth Title: Teachers Talk: School Culture, Safety and Human Rights Summary: This study surveyed more than 300 middle and high school teachers, conducted interviews and held focus group meetings of teachers in New York City public schools to solicit their opinions on how to make schools safer. The study found that teachers reject the punitive measures that are often used to discipline students, and feel that more constructive measures such as the teaching of behavior skills or conflict resolution should be used more often. Details: New York: National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and Teachers Unit, 2008. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed August 8, 2010 at http://www.nesri.org/Teachers_Talk.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.nesri.org/Teachers_Talk.pdf Shelf Number: 116294 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool Safety (New York City)School Violence |
Author: Wald, Johanna Title: First, Do No Harm: How Educations and Police Can Work Together More Effectively to Preserve School Safety and Protect Vulnerable Students Summary: "This policy brief offers recommendations for how school resource officers can be more effectively deployed in public schools. It provides an overview of how and why police moved in such critical masses into middle and high schools across the country, identifies studies that have examined some of the consequences of placing police in schools, and summarizes major findings from a series of interviews the authors conducted during 2008-2009 of police chiefs and school resource officers in 16 Massachusetts school districts. The last section of this brief offers recommendations for steps that we believe schools, districts, and state legislatures can take to maximize the benefits of placing school resource officers in school, while reducing the likelihood of criminalizing student behaviors that should be handled more appropriately within the school environment." Details: Cambridge, MA: Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, 2010. 14p. Source: Internet Resource; A CHHIRJ Policy Brief; Accessed August 8, 2010 at www.charleshamiltonhouston.org/assets/documents/news/FINAL%20Do%20No%20Harm.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118684 Keywords: School CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Kramen, Alissa Title: Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence. 2nd ed. Summary: School violence has come into the public eye after deadly multiple shootings in such places as Littleton, Colorado; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Santee, California; Red Lake, Minnesota; Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania; and Cleveland, Ohio. The possibility of school shootings has become an issue for urban, rural, and suburban communities alike. Since 1992, more than 40 schools have experienced multiple victim homicides, many in communities where people previously believed “it couldn’t happen here.” Given the number of students and schools in the United States, multiple-victim homicides are still extremely rare, and in recent years, the overall rate of violence in schools has actually declined. Physical conflicts, threats, and harassment are, however, still common. Many students and teachers are more fearful than ever before when they enter the doors of their school. This climate of fear makes it more difficult for schools to provide positive learning environments. This report provides guidance for school violence prevention and response in each of the following areas: 1) Ways to prevent student violence; 2) Threat assessment; 3) Planning and training for what to do during an actual crisis; 4) How to respond during a crisis; 5) Legal considerations; 6) Recommendations for the media; and 6) Legislative issues. Details: Alexandria, VA: International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2009. 66p. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed August 8, 2010 at http://www.theiacp.org/Portals/0/pdfs/Publications/schoolviolence2.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.theiacp.org/Portals/0/pdfs/Publications/schoolviolence2.pdf Shelf Number: 117383 Keywords: School CrimeSchool SafetySchool ViolenceViolence Prevention |
Author: Petkova, Dobriana Title: Research Into Violence Against Children in Schools in Kosovo Summary: The purpose of this research was to investigate the nature and scope of violence against children in schools in Kosovo and to gain a better understanding of the problem for effective prevention and response. This study identified corporal punishment and peer violence as key behaviours to investigate, although other violent behaviours are explored as well. The study included a desk survey, research questionnaires with children and teachers, and interviews and focus group discussions with children, teachers and parents. Specifically the research looked at how respondents defined violent behaviour, what their experiences of violent behaviour had been, how widespread such behaviour is, what the causes of violent behaviour might be, who the victims and perpetrators are and where victims can go for help. Details: Pristina, Kosova: UNICEF Kosovo, 2005. 64p. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed August 13, 2010 at: www.unicef.org/kosovo/kosovo_media_prot_011.08.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Europe URL: Shelf Number: 117669 Keywords: School Crime (Kosovo)School SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Fontaine, Jocelyn Title: Violent Prevention at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School Summary: "This summary brief is based on research conducted by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center on the violence prevention activities taking place at the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School during the 2008-2009 school year. Researchers from the Justice Policy Center conducted an assessment of the school's violence prevention activities using qualitative and quantitative data from stakeholder interviews, programmatic records, and surveys with students and faculty. This brief provides an overview of Thurgood Marshall Academy's violence prevention approach." Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2010. 8p Source: Internet Resource: Summary Brief: Accessed August 20, 2010 at: http://www.urban.org/publications/412196.html Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/publications/412196.html Shelf Number: 119646 Keywords: School CrimeSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Fontaine, Jocelyn Title: Violence Prevention in Schools: A Case Study of the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School Summary: This report is based on research conducted by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center on the violence prevention activities taking place at the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School during the 2008-2009 school year. Based on an assessment of the school's violence prevention approach using qualitative and quantitative data from stakeholder interviews, field observations, programmatic records, and surveys with students and faculty, this report includes: a logic model of the school's violence prevention approach; detailed information on each of the violence prevention activities within the violence prevention approach and how they compare to national best practices; student and faculty perceptions of the school climate and the violence prevention approach; and recommendations to the school administrators on how to strengthen their violence prevention approach based on the assessment findings. The report concludes with brief remarks on next steps in school violence prevention research. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center, 2010. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 1, 2010 at: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412200-violence-prevention-schools.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412200-violence-prevention-schools.pdf Shelf Number: 119723 Keywords: School CrimeSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Overseas Development Institute Title: Increasing Visibility and Promoting Policy Action to Tackle Sexual Exploitation In and Around Schools in Africa Summary: Sexual exploitation and sexual violence in or around schools is a serious and pressing problem throughout West Africa2 that necessitates greater policy attention. In a global report on all settings (not just schools), the World Health Organization estimates that 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 years have experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual violence around the world. This, combined with the fact that such violence is generally carried out by offenders known to the child (relatives and authority figures, including teachers and school authorities), provides a hint of the magnitude of the problem of school-based sexual violence. Examining what little quantitative information exists for West Africa reinforces this. According to a 2006 survey of 10 villages in Benin, 34% of school children interviewed confirmed that sexual violence occurs within their schools and 15% of teachers acknowledged that sexual harassment takes place within the school and yet rarely are such incidences reported or perpetrators held accountable. In Ghana, a study conducted in 2003 suggested that 6% of the girls surveyed had been victims of sexual blackmail over their class grades, 14% of rape cases had been perpetrated by school comrades, while 24% of boys in the study admitted to having raped a girl or to have taken part in a collective rape (UNICEF Bureau Regional Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre 2008). As the 2006 United Nations Study on Violence against Children (hereafter UNVAC) demonstrated, the long-term consequences of such high incidence of sexual abuse and exploitation are profound; above all sexual exploitation at and around schools compromises the rights to education, freedom from oppression and equality as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. For girls, sexual exploitation also undermines gender equality and prevents girls and women from obtaining equal educational and public sphere opportunities - as outlined in Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Being denied access to quality education, or feeling intimidated in or en route to the classroom, can also reinforce poverty by lowering school attendance rates. This not only threatens the achievement of MDG 2 (universal primary education) (Action Aid 2004), but also in the longer term risks lowering human development levels and potential contributions to broader national development goals as students are discouraged from pursing their studies and thereby progressing to higher education and qualified employment. Sexual abuse may also result in serious health effects, such as the transmission of sexual infections, particularly HIV, unwanted pregnancies and psychological trauma. This briefing paper seeks to raise awareness of the problem of sexual exploitation in and around schools in the West African region. It also highlights problems with regards to limited evidence and explores policy implications. It aims to support Plan’s regional ‘Learn Without Fear’ campaign and contributes evidence to the global debate on sexual exploitation in and around schools and children in general. Details: Dakar, Ponty, West Africa: Plan International, 2008. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 17, 2010 at: http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/Rapport_plan_LWF_web_(3).pdf Year: 2008 Country: Africa URL: http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/Rapport_plan_LWF_web_(3).pdf Shelf Number: 119831 Keywords: RapeSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual ExploitationSexual HarassmentSexual Violence |
Author: Pereznieto, Paola Title: The Economic Impact of School Violence: A Report for Plan International Summary: The research, carried out by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), reveals the enormous economic and social cost of violence in schools across the world. Focused on three types of violence in schools – corporal punishment, bullying and sexual violence – it found the total cost of school violence in terms of social benefits lost in just 13 countries for which information is available ran to almost $60 billion. The research found that children who experience violence at school are likely to earn less, be in greater need of healthcare and other services, and long-term, contribute less to their countries’ economies. It says that the problem is a significant barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals - as it leads to truancy, under-performance and high drop-out rates. No country is immune from the blight of school violence and eradicating it takes commitment and resources. But failing to invest in it costs considerably more. Details: London: Plan International and Overseas Development Institute, 2010. 91p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 2, 2010 at: http://plan-international.org/learnwithoutfear/economic-impact-of-school-violence-report Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://plan-international.org/learnwithoutfear/economic-impact-of-school-violence-report Shelf Number: 120166 Keywords: BullyingCorporal PunishmentEconomics of CrimeSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual Violence |
Author: Antonowicz, Laetitia Title: Too Often in Silence: A Report on School-Based Violence in West and Central Africa Summary: Corporal punishment, sexual violence and bullying are some of the areas explored in this joint report by Plan, ActionAid, Save the Children Sweden and UNICEF on school-based violence in West and Central Africa. Aimed at policy makers, education and child protection programmers, as well as educators, children and communities, the report: looks at the context and causes of violence in and around schools, its nature, and its impact on students - and more broadly on communities and nations; synthesises evidence on the prevalence, frequency and intensity of school-based violence; and proposes key actions to tackle the problem. Although countries in West and Central Africa have ratified international conventions that protect children’s rights to non-violent education, national provisions to fulfill these rights are often inadequate. The report gives a set of recommendations to strengthen and accelerate interventions against violence in schools across the region. Details: Yorr, Dakar-Senegal: UNICEF West and Central African Regional Office; Dakar Ponty, Senegal, Plan West Africa: Regional Office; Dakar-Fann, Senegal: Save the Children Sweden: Regional Office for West Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa: ActionAid International, 2010. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 2, 2010 at: http://plan-international.org/files/global/publications/campaigns/Too_often_in_silence_English.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Africa URL: http://plan-international.org/files/global/publications/campaigns/Too_often_in_silence_English.pdf Shelf Number: 120167 Keywords: BullyingCorporal PunishmentSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual Violence |
Author: Queensland Schools Alliance Against Violence Title: Working Together: Queensland Schools Alliance Against Violence Report Summary: The formation of the Queensland Schools Alliance Against Violence (QSAAV) provided an important opportunity for the school sectors to collaborate on how best to respond to the issues of bullying and violence in Queensland schools. The issues facing students, school staff and parents are complex, and the possible responses are varied given the unique characteristics of our schools and general population. There is clearly a common concern about bullying, cyber bullying and violence in schools, and a need for effective responses to support students, parents and schools at the individual school, broader community and systemic policy levels. Much effort is already occurring in schools and school sectors to address the issues, but focused ongoing attention and commitment will be required. It is also clear that working to prevent incidents and to respond effectively when incidents do occur requires constant effort and vigilance. The prevention of bullying, cyber bullying and violence in schools must engage students and become part of the broader conversation across the community. Schools cannot successfully deal with these issues in isolation. They require the cooperation of the broader community, and QSAAV has produced an evidence-based framework within which this can occur. This report provides a summary of the information and advice considered by QSAAV during its six-month term, and includes recommendations for consideration by the Minister for Education and Training. Details: Brisbane: Queensland Government, 2010. 45p., app. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 18, 2011 at: http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/behaviour/qsaav/docs/qsaav_report.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Australia URL: http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/behaviour/qsaav/docs/qsaav_report.pdf Shelf Number: 120819 Keywords: CyberbullyingCybercrimeSchool BullyingSchool Violence |
Author: Spears, Barbara Title: Behind the Scenes: Insights into the Human Dimension of Covert Bullying Summary: The emergence of new technologies has led to covert and cyber bullying becoming an issue for many schools. The Australian Government has commissioned two research projects to better understand these issues and the impact on Australian schools. This second study, Behind the Scenes: Insights into the Human Dimension of Covert Bullying explored real life experiences of individuals exposed to covert bullying (victim/ perpetrator/ bystander/ teacher/ parent). Details: Adelaide: South Australia Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2008. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2011 at: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NationalSafeSchools/Documents/covertBullyReports/Behind%20the%20Scenes%20-%20Insights%20into%20the%20Human%20Dimension%20of%20Covert%20Bullying%20-%20Final%20Short%20Report.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Australia URL: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NationalSafeSchools/Documents/covertBullyReports/Behind%20the%20Scenes%20-%20Insights%20into%20the%20Human%20Dimension%20of%20Covert%20Bullying%20-%20Final%20Short%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 120856 Keywords: CyberbullyingHarassmentSchool Bullying (Australia)School Violence |
Author: Petrosino, Anthony Title: 'Policing Schools' Strategies: A Systematic Search for Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Studies Summary: WestEd researchers undertook a systematic search of the literature to identify experimental and quasi-experimental evaluations of policing schools strategies. Police have long implemented strategies at schools, and this study takes stock of the evidence that assesses the effectiveness of those strategies. Although police-taught prevention curricula like Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) have been the subject of many high-quality evaluations and at least two systematic reviews, the evidence concerning other police-led school strategies is less well-known. This study is an attempt to take stock of what is known. Details: Woburn, MA: WestEd, 2011. 75p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 10, 2011 at: http://gunston.gmu.edu/cebcp/PetrosinoetalPolicingSchools.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://gunston.gmu.edu/cebcp/PetrosinoetalPolicingSchools.pdf Shelf Number: 120965 Keywords: Police in SchoolsSchool CrimesSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Boccanfuso, Christopher Title: Multiple Responses, Promising Results: Evidence-Based, Nonpunitive Alternatives to Zero Tolerance Summary: In response to highly publicized violent incidents in schools, such as the Columbine High School massacre, school disciplinary policies have become increasingly severe. These policies have been implemented at the school, district, and state levels with the goal of ensuring the safety of students and staff. Many of these policies have one component in common: zero tolerance. While it is clear that protecting the safety of students and staff is one of school leaders‘ most important responsibilities, it is not clear that zero tolerance policies are succeeding in improving school safety. In fact, some evidence based on nonexperimental studies suggests that these policies actually may have an adverse effect on student academic and behavioral outcomes. Child Trends developed this brief to explore these issues. The brief does this in two ways: it reviews existing research on the implementation and effects of zero tolerance in the school setting; and it highlights rigorously evaluated, nonpunitive alternatives to zero tolerance that have shown greater promise in improving school safety and student outcomes. Nonpunitive programs that take a largely preventive approach to school discipline have been found to keep students and schools safe by reducing the need for harsh discipline. These programs take many forms, such as targeted behavioral supports for students who are at-risk for violent behavior, character education programs, or positive behavioral interventions and supports that are instituted schoolwide. Details: Washington, DC: Child Trends, 2011. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Publications #2011-09: Accessed April 25, 2011 at: http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2011_03_01_RB_AltToZeroTolerance.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2011_03_01_RB_AltToZeroTolerance.pdf Shelf Number: 121485 Keywords: School CrimesSchool SafetySchool ViolenceZero Tolerance Policies, Schools |
Author: Arciaga, Michelle Title: Responding to Gangs in the School Setting Summary: Gangs are present in many schools in the United States. The National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, released in August 2010 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, reported that: Forty-five percent of high school students say that there are gangs or students who consider themselves to be part of a gang in their schools. Thirty-five percent of middle-school students say that there are gangs or students who consider themselves to be part of a gang in their schools. The differences between public and private schools are stark. While 46 percent of students in public schools reported the presence of gangs and gang members at school, only 2 percent of private school students did. According to the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (2007), 23 percent of students reported the presence of gangs on their school campus or in the surrounding area in 2007. This represents an increase in the percentage of students reporting gangs on/around campus in 2003 (21 percent). Schools in urban areas appear to be the most affected by the presence of gangs: 36 percent of urban students reported gangs, versus 21 percent of suburban and 16 percent of rural students in 2005. In a survey of students conducted in almost 1,300 schools nationwide (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 2001), 7.6 percent of male respondents and 3.8 percent of female respondents at the secondary level reported that they belonged to a gang. Based on the increased number of students reporting a gang presence at school between 2001 and 2010, this number has likely increased, although no subsequent nationwide studies have been conducted. Gang members do not leave their conflicts, attitudes, and behaviors outside the school doors. Some of the most dangerous gang activities in any community may take place in and around local schools. Gang members encounter each other at school during class changes, in the lunchroom, in common areas, and during assemblies and school events. Students may loiter on or around the school campus before and after school, and conflicts may occur between rival gangs. In some instances, gang members come to school to engage in criminal behavior (drug dealing) or to confront rivals. Because of the potential for violent gang interactions at school, school staff members and administrators need to formulate a plan to deal with gang activity. This article provides an overview of action steps that schools can take to prevent, intervene in, and suppress violent gang activity, as well as crisis response plans that can be developed to address potential acts of school violence including, but not limited to, gang activity. Details: Tallahassee, FL: National Gang Center, 2010. 15p. Source: Internet Resoruce: National Gang Center Bulletin, No. 5: Accessed May 3, 2011 at: http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/Bulletin-5.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Content/Documents/Bulletin-5.pdf Shelf Number: 121589 Keywords: Gang ViolenceGangsSchool SafetySchool ViolenceSchools and Crime |
Author: DeVoe, Jill Title: Student Reports of Bullying and Cyber-Bullying: Results From the 2007 School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey Summary: In school year 2006–07, some 8,166,000 U.S. students ages 12 through 18, or about 31.7 percent of all such students, reported they were bullied at school, and about 940,000, or about 3.7 percent, reported they were cyber-bullied anywhere (i.e., on or off school property). These Web Tables use data from the 2007 School Crime Supplement (SCS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) 1 to show the extent to which bullying and cyber-bullying are reported by students with different personal characteristics. Estimates are included for the following student characteristics: student sex, race/ethnicity, grade, and household income. In addition, appended data from the 2006–07 Common Core of Data (CCD) and the 2007–08 Private School Universe Survey (PSS) show the extent to which bullying and cyber-bullying are reported by students in schools with different characteristics. School characteristics examined are region; sector (public or private); locale; level; enrollment size; student-to-full-time-equivalent (FTE) teacher ratio; percentage of combined American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino students; and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Further, the tables use the SCS data to show the relationship between bullying and cyber-bullying victimization and other variables of interest such as the reported presence of gangs, guns, drugs, and alcohol at school; select school security measures; student criminal victimization; and personal fear, avoidance behaviors, fighting, and weapon-carrying at school. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: NCES 2011 316: Accessed May 19, 2011 at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011316.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011316.pdf Shelf Number: 121760 Keywords: CyberbullyingInternet CrimesSchool BullyingSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceVictimization Surveys |
Author: Washington Statistical Analysis Center. Office of Financial Management, Forecasting Division Title: Violent Crime in Washington’s Schools: 2008-09 School Year Summary: In February 2010, the Washington Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) conducted a survey on the occurrence of violent crimes in public schools, the Washington State Survey on School Crime (WSSSC). In the survey, which was based on the national School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), all public school principals in Washington State were asked to provide information on the frequencies and types of violent crimes that occurred at their schools during the 2008-09 school year. Respondents were also asked to provide information on school characteristics. The following are key findings from the survey results. Key Findings · Overall, Washington is very similar to the nation in the percentage of schools recording violent incidents on campus, 76.3 percent versus 75.5 percent. The state had a higher percentage of schools recording serious violent crime, 21.9 percent, than occurred nationally, 17.0 percent. · During the 2008-09 school year, middle schools had the highest percentage of schools recording violent crime, 91.7 percent, and the highest rate of violent crime per 1,000 students, 54.4 per 1,000, when compared to other school levels. · About 18.2 percent of all schools reported at least one violent crime against staff or faculty and 6.5 percent reported at least one serious crime against staff or faculty during the 2008-09 school year. · Approximately 14.4 percent of schools experienced at least occasional gang violence during the 2008-09 school year. · During the 2008-09 school year, 18.4 percent of urban schools reported gang violence, more than either suburban or small town/rural schools. · Schools in high crime neighborhoods and schools with students who live in high crime neighborhoods were more likely to report gang activity and more frequent gang activity. · About 41.0 percent of schools had a security officer, resource officer, or both at the time of the survey. · Sixty percent of schools with enrollment of 1,000 or more students had both security and resource officers. Details: Olympia, WA: Washington Statistical Analysis Center, 2010. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 16, 2011 at: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/sac/crime/crime.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/sac/crime/crime.pdf Shelf Number: 122408 Keywords: School Crime (Washington, State)School SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: O'Neill, Daniel Title: Campus Violence Prevention and Response: Best Practices for Massachusetts Higher Education Summary: Pervasive media images of mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University have raised the specter of serious violence on college campuses. But by any measure, the risk of serious violence on campus is remarkably low, particularly in its most extreme form. Although the chances of serious violence may be remote, the potential consequences can be devastating and long-lasting. Colleges must respond proactively to the risk, as parents rightly expect a special level of care for their sons and daughters while they are away at school. Thus, it is prudent and imperative that colleges take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of students as well as faculty and other employees. While shootings may be the most visible form of campus violence, they are clearly not the most commonplace. Security practices must also focus on other, more prevalent, forms of violence such as sexual and physical assault. Current best practices, taken in combination with research, demonstrate the essential role of collaboration among all service providers in the prevention of violent incidents on college campuses. This report has four major sections. First, we define the nature and scope of campus violence both nationally and in Massachusetts. Next, we review previous reports of study groups and task forces and discuss established best practices for enhancing campus safety and violence prevention. Third, we examine the current state of security and violence prevention at institutions of higher education throughout Massachusetts based upon a survey conducted of public colleges and universities. Finally, by comparing these results with established best practices, we advance 27 recommendations for how Massachusetts schools can best improve their security and violence prevention efforts. Details: Boston: Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, 2008. 127p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 17, 2011 at: http://www.mass.edu/library/Reports/CampusViolencePreventionAndResponse.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.mass.edu/library/Reports/CampusViolencePreventionAndResponse.pdf Shelf Number: 122420 Keywords: Colleges and UniversitiesSchool Crime (Massachusetts)School SafetySchool Violence |
Author: DevTech Systems, Inc. Title: The Safe Schools Program: Jamaica Assessment Report, April 11-22, 2005 Summary: From April 11 – 22, 2005, a four-person team from the Washington, D.C.-based Safe Schools Program (DevTech SSP)1 traveled to Jamaica to conduct a school-related gender-based violence(SRGBV) assessment. Using the social mobilization model as its frame of reference, DevTech SSP collected SRGBV information at the national, institutional, community and individual levels, as well as types of SRGBV. Matrices were created to organize the information collected, which included a programmatic overview, information on NGO partners, and perceptions of SRGBV in Jamaica. DevTech SSP began by collecting information on current Mission programming, which provided a historical overview of USAID-funded and other programs within Jamaica by meeting with the USAID teams working in Education, Health, Economic Growth, and Democracy and Governance. Other data collection activities included a review of reports and other materials, and the administration of open-ended interviews and informal group discussions with government and non-governmental organizations and individuals. Key information collected included: • Types of school-related gender-based violence • Issues and gaps • Promising programs and/or organizations • Recommendations for further action After five days of interviews in Kingston, DevTech SSP divided into three groups: two teams traveled to the field and one team member remained in Kingston to continue interviews with government and NGO representatives. The teams outside Kingston met with a sample of New Horizon supported school representatives (e.g. principals, teachers, guidance counselors, PTA members, students) as well as other NGO and government organizations. These field visits afforded the team an opportunity to more closely examine the programs being implemented in schools, to discuss how SRGBV is defined in schools, and consider possible approaches to addressing SRGBV. Details: Washington, DC: United States Agency for International Development, 2005. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2011 at: http://www.devtechsys.com/assets/Uploads/docs/publications/safe-schools-jamaica-assessment-report.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Jamaica URL: http://www.devtechsys.com/assets/Uploads/docs/publications/safe-schools-jamaica-assessment-report.pdf Shelf Number: 122780 Keywords: GenderSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool ViolenceViolence Against Women |
Author: Stambaugh, Hollis Title: Northern Illinois University Shooting: DeKalb, Illinois, February 14, 2008 Summary: On February 14, 2008, less than 1 year after a senior at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) murdered 32 people and committed suicide, the campus community at Northern Illinois University (NIU), in DeKalb, Illinois, faced a similar horror. A former NIU graduate student walked onto the stage of a large lecture hall and began firing on startled students and faculty. The shooter, a 28-year old male, had a history of mental illness. He shot and killed 5 students and wounded 18, some critically. His suicide at the end of the brief attack brought the number of deaths to 6. The building where the shooting occurred, Cole Hall, is centrally located in the interior of the campus and is directly across from a concentration of dormitories identified as Neptune East, West, Central, and North. Cole Hall contains two large lecture halls for large group classes. All of the injured who were transported were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, the only hospital nearby. Several of the most seriously injured were then transferred to five other hospitals in the region—four via helicopter and one via ground ambulance. A close examination of how the emergency medical and hospital services were carried out reveals that the right decisions and actions were taken during triage and treatment, lives were saved, and no one was hurt in the process of providing emergency medical services (EMS) to the victims, transporting them, or safeguarding the rest of the campus immediately after the murders. The City of DeKalb Fire Department, the NIU Department of Public Safety, the hospital, and other mutual-aid responders were prepared. They had practiced emergency drills together and coordinated their planning. They were familiar with the Incident Command System (ICS) and had formally incorporated its use in their plans. The fire/EMS, university police, and university events management partners had worked together frequently in planned and unplanned events, so Command and control procedures were well practiced. They also had studied the official report1 on the Virginia Tech shootings and had integrated the lessons learned enumerated in that report into the university’s and the City of DeKalb’s emergency response plans, especially from the chapters that reported on the law enforcement and EMS response to that April 16, 2007 incident. The value of that report, their training, and their joint planning was apparent in the excellent response to Cole Hall. The DeKalb Fire Department has stated they hope that what they discovered from their internal debriefings and reports can add to the lessons that were documented from Virginia Tech so that the body of experience can expand to include this most recent tragedy and help other universities, law enforcement agencies, and fire departments as the Virginia Tech report helped them. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is pleased to enable the sharing of information from the NIU shooting with emergency response organizations nationwide. Details: Wshington, DC: U.S. Fire Administration, Department of Homeland Security, 2009. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: USEA-TR-167: Accessed September 27, 2011 at: http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr_167.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr_167.pdf Shelf Number: 122914 Keywords: Campus Crime (U.S.)Campus ViolenceColleges and UniversityEmergency ServicesGun ViolenceHomicidesSchool ViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Northern Illinois University Title: Report of the February 14, 2008 Shootings at Northern Illinois University Summary: On February 14, 2008, Steven Phillip Kazmierczak entered room 101 in Cole Hall and opened fire in the lecture hall killing five students and wounding 21. He then shot and killed himself. Administrators at Northern Illinois University, the Illinois Governor’s office, and the U.S. Fire Administration have reviewed the response of the University, Police, Fire and Medical departments in regards to this incident. After reviewing hundreds of interviews, phone records, e-mail correspondence and thousands of pages of evidence, what follows is the most recent, up-to-date report of the police investigation. Due to the nature of the ongoing investigation under certain statutes in Illinois, it is imperative that official police reports remain privileged. This report includes as much information as can be released without jeopardizing future potential investigative work. It is the goal of this report to review incidents prior to the shooting as well as in the aftermath, including: • The life and mental health history of Steven Phillip Kazmierczak from early childhood until the days prior to the shooting • Response of the NIU Department of Public Safety to the initial reports of a shooter on campus • Emergency medical response • Incident command and investigative cooperation between the NIU Department of Public Safety (NIUDPS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Illinois State Police (ISP), City of Sycamore Police Department, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, City of DeKalb Fire Department, and the City of DeKalb Police Department (DPD), as well as other law enforcement agencies • Services provided for surviving victims of the shooting as well as family and friends of the victims and NIU community members • Student affairs policies • Mental health services and prevention programs • Information flow during a crisis • The communiversity response to February 14, 2008 • Academic and campus implications of the 2/14/08 tragedy. Details: DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University, 2010. 322p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 28, 2011 at: http://www.niu.edu/feb14report/Feb14report.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.niu.edu/feb14report/Feb14report.pdf Shelf Number: 122928 Keywords: Campus Crime (U.S.)Campus ViolenceColleges and UniversityEmergency ServicesHomicidesSchool ViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Title: Peer-to-Peer Violence and Bullying: Examining the Federal Response Summary: This report focuses on the government‘s efforts to enforce federal civil rights laws with respect to peer-to-peer violence based on race, national origin, sex, disability, religion, and sexual orientation or gender identity. The Commission examined the nature and incidence of peer-to-peer violence in public K-12 schools and studied the types of peer-to-peer violence faced by students, as well as the effects of such violence. The Commission further reviewed the policies and procedures employed by the United States Departments of Education and Justice in enforcing prohibitions against peer-to-peer violence. The Commission, by majority vote, concluded that bullying and harassment, including bullying and harassment based on sex, race, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or religion, are harmful to American youth, and developed findings and recommendations to address the problem, including the following recommendations: The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice should track their complaints/inquiries regarding sexual harassment or gender-based harassment by creating a category that explicitly encompasses LGBT youth. The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice should track complaints that they receive regarding harassment based solely on sexual orientation that are closed for lack of jurisdiction. The U.S. Department of Education should track complaints that it receives regarding harassment based solely on religion that are closed for lack of jurisdiction. The U.S. Department of Education should consider issuing a new Dear Colleague Letter regarding the First Amendment implications of anti-bullying policies. The new Letter should provide concrete examples to clarify the guidance that the Department of Education previously provided in its Dear Colleague Letter on the First Amendment dated July 28, 2003. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2011. 225p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 23, 2011 at: http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2011statutory.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/2011statutory.pdf Shelf Number: 123448 Keywords: HarassmentSchool Bullying (U.S.)School CrimeSchool Violence |
Author: Neiman, Samantha Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2009-10, First Look Summary: This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2009-10 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2010). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, and 2009-10, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences and supported by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education, SSOCS asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts, in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools. SSOCS:2010 is based on a nationally representative stratified random sample of 3,476 U.S. public schools. Data collection began on February 24, 2010, when questionnaires were mailed to principals, and continued through June 11, 2010. A total of 2,648 public primary, middle, high, and combined schools provided usable questionnaires, yielding an unweighted response rate of approximately 77 percent. When the responding schools were weighted to account for their original sampling probabilities, the response rate increased to approximately 81 percent. A nonresponse bias analysis was performed because the weighted response rate was less than 85 percent, and the results suggest that nonresponse bias is not an issue for SSOCS:2010. For more information about the methodology and design of SSOCS, including how response rates were calculated and the details of the nonresponse bias analysis, please see Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes in this report. Because the purpose of this report is to introduce new NCES data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information, only selected findings are presented below. These findings have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using SSOCS:2010 data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences. The tables in this report contain totals and percentages generated from bivariate cross-tabulation procedures. All of the results are weighted to represent the population of U.S. public schools. Comparisons drawn in the bulleted items below have been tested for statistical significance at the .05 level using Student's t statistic to ensure that the differences are larger than those that might be expected due to sampling variation. Adjustments for multiple comparisons were not included. Many of the variables examined are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored. Due to the large sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant; thus, only differences of 5 percentage points or more between groups are mentioned in the findings. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011. 85p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 15, 2012 at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011320.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011320.pdf Shelf Number: 124948 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Cantor, David Title: A closer Look at Drug and Violence Prevention Efforts in American Schools: Report on the Study on School Violence and Prevention Summary: As part of the 1994 reauthorization of SDFSCA, Congress mandated that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) collect information on efforts to prevent violence in schools nationally. Consequently, ED initiated the Study on School Violence and Prevention to describe the level of problem behavior, including violence, in schools; to learn about the measures that schools are taking to prevent problem behavior and promote school safety; and to examine the use of funds allocated through SDFSCA. The Study on School Violence and Prevention was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (NIJ). At the same time that ED commissioned the Study on School Violence and Prevention, NIJ awarded a grant to conduct the National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. To maximize resources and minimize the burden to schools, the agencies and external researchers agreed to merge many of the study activities. In this report, we refer to the project as the Study on School Violence and Prevention; in NIJ and other publications, the project is called the National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools. This report focuses on one of three study components, referred to as the “intensive level.” It is the first study in over 20 years to examine in detail what schools are doing to promote school safety. While the intensive level component is an in-depth examination of a limited number of schools, the two other study components (national and intermediate level components) are based on broad surveys of national probability samples of schools. This report is organized in accordance with the topics covered by the study questions: • Extent of problem behavior in schools, including the types of victimization experienced by students and teachers, and how students and teachers perceive the safety of their schools. Also included is a description of incident reporting systems. • Efforts used by schools to prevent problem behavior and the quality of their implementation. These efforts include formal curricular programs as well as disciplinary practices and policies, and security measures. Observations on school climate are presented here. • Planning processes used by schools and districts for prevention activities and the use of information (e.g., on effectiveness) in doing so. • Results of efforts to compare schools that differed on the extent of problem behavior. These results allowed us to consider the characteristics and processes that distinguish safe and unsafe schools. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Planning and Evaluation Service, 2001. 102p. Source: Internet Resource: U.S. Department of Education DOC #2001-36; Accessed April 19, 2012 at: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf Year: 2001 Country: United States URL: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/closer-look.pdf Shelf Number: 125032 Keywords: School Crime (U.S.)School SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Cantor, David Title: School Crime Patterns: A National Profile of U.S. Public High Schools Using Rates of Crime Reported to Police. Report on the Study of School Violence and Prevention Summary: This report profiles violence in U.S. public high schools. It is based on analysis of data from a U.S. Department of Education survey of school principals that asked about the number and types of crimes they reported to police for the 1996-97 school year. The analysis shows that violence is clustered within a relatively small percentage of locations, with about 60 percent of the violence occurring in 4 percent of the schools. This is about four times higher than would be expected based on national rates of crime. High schools are grouped by the nature and level of crimes occurring in the school. Four patterns emerge from this grouping: 1) No Crime, 2) Isolated Crime, 3) Moderate Crime and 4) Violent Crime. High schools in each group are described in terms of their student population characteristics, community characteristics, and school violence prevention efforts. The results indicate that the characteristics (size, location, socio-economic make-up) of high-violence schools differ markedly from the other schools. High schools with the highest levels of violence tended to be located in urban areas and have a high percentage of minority students, compared to high schools that reported no crime to the police. They also tended to be located in areas with high social disadvantage and residential mobility. It should be noted, however, that a relatively large minority of the schools in the Violent Crime group were located in rural areas (36%), so that the image of school violence being solely restricted to central cities is not accurate. The types of violence prevention programs differed between crime groups. The schools that experience a high level of serious violence also reported high use of prevention measures and programs that were specifically aimed at controlling violence. Schools in the Violent Crime group appeared to put more emphasis on programs geared toward changing individual behavior, such as behavioral modification or other types of individual attention. This contrasted with high schools in the other three crime groups, which tended to place a higher priority on prevention instruction or counselors within the school. Similarly, the Violent Crime group was more likely than the other groups to adopt a variety of security measures to reduce risk of crimes, particularly random metal detectors, used by about one-third of the Violent Crime group (compared to 10% or less in the other groups). The crime groups also differed in their use of law enforcement and security personnel. The schools in the Violent Crime group were more likely to use this as a measure to control disorder than were schools with lower levels of crime. These observations indicate that schools with the greatest need (i.e., highest rate of violent crime) took action at a fairly high rate (e.g., around two-thirds of the schools reported using many of the programs/activities). A follow-up question is whether these programs are effective at reducing violence. The current analysis did not allow for assessment of whether programs were implemented in an effective way and/or significantly reduced the amount of violence in the school. The report suggests that methods to prevent school violence be tailored to the level and type of crime problems that schools are experiencing. Also, future evaluation of prevention methods should put some emphasis on schools experiencing the most severe problems. Comparing these schools to those with a similar profile but lower levels of disorder would be especially useful. This would provide an efficient and cost-effective way to better understand how to significantly reduce crime in the nation’s high schools. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Planning and Evaluation Service, 2002. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: U.S. Department of Education DOC #2001-37: Accessed April 19, 2002 at: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/school-crime-pattern.pdf Year: 2002 Country: United States URL: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/school-crime-pattern.pdf Shelf Number: 125033 Keywords: High SchoolsSchool Crime (U.S.)School SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Hanson, Thomas Title: A Randomized Experimental Evaluation of the Tribes Learning Communities Prevention Program Summary: School-based violence prevention programs are often designed to reduce aggressive, violent or otherwise disruptive behavior in school, and to ameliorate risk factors for later violence or promote protective factors enhancing resiliency. Tribes is an intensive universal prevention strategy implemented in the class for the entire academic year, with children organized into smaller learning groups (i.e., ―tribes‖) and teachers trained to facilitate positive classroom climate, respect for others, teamwork, building of relationships, and accountability. The Tribes program has been listed as a promising prevention program by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and by a number of other ―best practice lists.‖ Almost no rigorous, experimental research has been conducted on the impact of Tribes on risk or protective factors or on longer-term child and classroom outcomes. To respond to this need, WestEd conducted a randomized trial to evaluate the impact of Tribes on 1st-4th grade classrooms and students. We examined program impacts on the classroom environment and teacher practices, student protective factors against violence, and disruptive and disorderly behavior. Impacts on student outcomes were assessed immediately after one academic year of exposure to Tribes and six months after students left their Tribes’ classrooms. The results provided little evidence that Tribes impacted teacher reports about the classroom environment or instructional practices. None of the estimated impacts on teacher survey measures were statistically or substantively significant. For the outcomes based on classroom observations, however, the analyses indicated that Tribes classrooms manifested more opportunities for small-group work, student collaboration, and student reflection; and students in Tribes classrooms appeared to be more engaged and exhibited more sharing behavior. The impact evaluation provided a mixed picture of the effects of Tribes on student outcomes, with beneficial effects observed for some outcomes and students, and detrimental effects observed for others. Little evidence was provided that Tribes had sustained impacts on student outcomes six months after leaving a Tribes classroom. In the short-term, however, Tribes appeared to have more beneficial impacts for boys and more detrimental impacts for girls. Boys in Tribes classrooms exhibited higher scores than those on control classrooms on teacher reports of intrapersonal and affective strengths and parent reports of intrapersonal strengths. Boys also had lower scores on parent reports of rule-breaking behavior. Few significant impacts of Tribes were detected for girls, with the exception that deleterious effects on student test scores were found. Details: San Francisco, CA: WestEd, 2011. 163p. Source: Final Report: Internet Resource: Accessed April 24, 2012 at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237958.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/237958.pdf Shelf Number: 125058 Keywords: Crime Prevention ProgramsEvaluative StudiesSchool Violence |
Author: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children Title: Tackling Violence in Schools: A Global Perspective. Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Practice Summary: Education has a unique potential to create a positive environment in which non-violent behaviour can be learned, to provide skills that enable people to communicate, negotiate and support peaceful solutions to conflicts. However, in reality, within and around educational settings, both girls and boys continue to be exposed to violence, including verbal abuse, intimidation and physical aggression and, in some cases, sexual abuse. A new publication entitled Tackling Violence in Schools: A Global Perspective was launched at the event. The objectives of the panel discussion were to raise awareness about the global reality, causes and consequences of violence faced by children in and around schools; to share good practices and strategies on how to prevent and address violence in and around schools and to discuss the importance of cooperation at local, national, regional and international levels. Details: New York: Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, 2012. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 18, 2012 at: http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/publications/Tackling%20Violence%20in%20Schools%20final.pdf Year: 2012 Country: International URL: http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/publications/Tackling%20Violence%20in%20Schools%20final.pdf Shelf Number: 125672 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimeSchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Moll, Jeanette Title: Expelling Zero-Tolerance: Reforming Texas School Discipline for Good Summary: It is universally acknowledged that children will misbehave. Thus, so long as institutionalized education exists, so too will disciplinary problems. Both school discipline practices and the prevailing societal norms evolved with the educational institutions, which created the present-day system of zero-tolerance discipline: a system of mandatory punishments for specified behavior with little discretion and few alternatives. Zero-tolerance policies today extend to cover drugs, alcohol, violence on and off campuses, and sometimes even relatively minor infractions. Zero-tolerance policy supporters claim that this method of discipline is forceful enough to eliminate school violence through deterrence and removal from the classroom. Advocates also argue that zero-tolerance policies are clear-cut and uniform, and can provide peace of mind to parents. The data, however, reveals that the intended results of zero-tolerance measures were not necessarily achieved. Many studies have been conducted on zero-tolerance policies that cast doubt on their effectiveness. Furthermore, current crime and victimization rates do not indicate that zero-tolerance policies have produced increases in school safety. On top of that, these programs have been found to cost millions in taxpayer dollars each year through costly alternative programs for suspended students, while other costs compound the taxpayer investment, including lost educational hours for students and lost wages for parents taking time off work to deal with a suspended child. This evidence indicates that alternatives to zero-tolerance policies may lead to a more effective system of school discipline for students by keeping them in school and reducing overreliance on the justice system for school-based discipline. A tiered response to most low-level school discipline issues could create a far more effective approach to discipline via effective, targeted intervention into minor misbehavior, while ensuring that the most serious of oncampus offenses are still dealt with immediately, appropriately, and strictly. Details: Austin, TX: Texas Public Policy Foundation, Center for Effective Justice, 2012. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Policyi Perspective: Accessed April 4, 2013 at: http://www.texaspolicy.com/sites/default/files/documents/2012-08-PP18-ExpellingZeroTolerance-CEJ-JeanetteMoll.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.texaspolicy.com/sites/default/files/documents/2012-08-PP18-ExpellingZeroTolerance-CEJ-JeanetteMoll.pdf Shelf Number: 128211 Keywords: School Crimes (Texas)School SafetySchool ViolenceStudent DisciplineZero-Tolerance Policies |
Author: Pana, Artemis Title: Youth4Youth: A Manual for Empowering Young People in Preventing Gender-Based Violence through Peer Education Summary: The Youth4Youth training manual is the culmination of a series of initiatives undertaken in several European countries that aimed at shedding more light on the issue of gender-based violence among adolescents. A number of projects funded by the European Commission’s Daphne Programme have created a wealth of information on how young people think and act in relation to their gender identity and within romantic relationships, forming the basis for the work undertaken in the Youth4Youth project, a deliverable of which is this manual. Most importantly, they have provided the foundation upon which interventions such as this manual can be developed and implemented in schools and in youth centres to prevent gender-based violence, and violence against women in particular, by addressing its root causes as early as possible. Emerging evidence suggests that patterns of violence and victimization may develop in early adolescence, and soon become difficult to reverse. Hence, primary prevention measures have an essential role in combating gender based violence since schools and other education centres are a critical component of adolescents’ lives and one of the main contexts where gender socialization takes place, as well as where attitudes toward oneself and others are formed and reinforced. This type of work goes on to stress the importance of funding programmes within the EU that prioritize gender equality and the fight against gender-based violence, including primary prevention programmes that aim to provide young people across Europe with the knowledge and skills to live healthier, more empowered lives. Details: Nicosia, Cyprus: Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS), 2012. 94p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 6, 2013 at: http://www.medinstgenderstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/Y4Y-Manual_digital_v12.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Europe URL: http://www.medinstgenderstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/Y4Y-Manual_digital_v12.pdf Shelf Number: 128299 Keywords: BullyingDelinquency PreventionEducationGender-Based ViolencePeer GroupsSchool ViolenceSexual ViolenceViolence PreventionYouth Violence |
Author: Welch, Edward Title: Preventing School Shootings: A Public Health approach to Gun Violence Summary: Gun violence in America must be addressed at the highest levels of society. Newtown, Aurora, and Virginia Tech were attacks on the very fabric of America. School shootings represent attacks on our nations' future. A public health approach to gun violence focuses on prevention. Public safety professionals, educators and community leaders are squandering opportunities to prevent horrific acts of extreme violence. Preparedness is derived by planning, which is critical to mobilizing resources when needed. Rational public policy can work. Sensible gun legislation, which is accessible through a public health approach to gun violence, neither marginalizes nor stigmatizes any one group. University administrators must fully engage the entire arsenal of resources available to confront this pernicious threat. The academic community can create powerful networks for research, collaboration and information sharing. These collective learning environments are investments in the knowledge economy. In order for the police to remain relevant, they must actively engage the community they serve by developing the operational art necessary to cultivate knowledge, relationships and expertise. Police departments must emphasize strategies that improve performance. Police officers must understand the mission and meaning of "To Protect and Serve" and the consequences of public safety, which often comes at their personal peril. Gun violence in America is a public health epidemic and preventing it requires a collective responsibility Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2013. 171p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 28, 2013 at: Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=736339 Shelf Number: 131398 Keywords: Colleges and UniversitiesGun ControlGun ViolenceSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Youth Justice Board for England and Wales Title: National Evaluation of the Restorative Justice in Schools Programme Summary: In May 2000, the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales launched a pilot initiative to test the impact of restorative justice conferences in two Lambeth schools. Following early signs that restorative justice conferences showed promise in addressing bullying and other forms of anti-social behaviour, the Board was successful in attracting funding for three years from the Treasury's Invest to Save fund to extend the programme to other areas of London in April 2001. Borough partnerships were invited to tender for these initiatives through the local Youth Offending Teams (Yots). By the end of May 2001, three other boroughs joined the initiative, following the tender process: Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Islington. However, by the summer of 2002, only one of the new boroughs (Hammersmith and Fulham) had made any progress towards implementing a programme of restorative justice work in schools, and the Board decided to take back the funds that had been allocated to Hackney and Islington. The remaining funding was repackaged into a national programme, and Yots in England and Wales were invited to apply for funds to implement restorative projects within schools in their local area. Due to the lack of progress in implementing projects in Hackney and Islington, bids had to demonstrate that Yots already had relationships with the schools in their area. Seven Yots were successful in this bidding process: Barnet, Blackpool, Medway, North Lincolnshire, Oxford, Rhondda Cynon Taff and Somerset. The projects spanned a range of different approaches to introducing restorative practices into schools, including restorative justice conferences. Chapter 3 of this report details these approaches. The newly recruited Yots had only 18 months to develop and implement their projects (because of considerably smaller budgets, ranging between $15,000 and $44,000, and the timespan of the Treasury grant) rather than the three years that the Hammersmith and Fulham, and Lambeth projects had had to implement their projects. As such, the Restorative Justice in Schools programme consisted of nine local Yots working across 26 schools (20 secondary and 6 primary). The contract to evaluate these initiatives was awarded to Partners in Evaluation, a specialist agency with a multi-ethnic team of researchers and a national reputation for conducting evaluations in the fields of health, education, social exclusion and regeneration. The evaluation was intended to explore the following research questions: 1. What are the levels of victimisation, bullying and robbery in the schools in the study? 2. How are restorative justice approaches introduced into the schools? 3. To what extent are participants in restorative justice conferences (victims and offenders) satisfied with the process at the time of the conference? Details: London: Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, 2004. 99p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 24, 2014 at: http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/resource/national_evaluation_of_the_restorative_justice_in_schools_programme/ Year: 2004 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/resource/national_evaluation_of_the_restorative_justice_in_schools_programme/ Shelf Number: 131797 Keywords: BullyingDelinquency PreventionJuvenile OffendersRestorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool Violence |
Author: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Title: School-Related Gender-Based Violence in the Asia-Pacific Region Summary: Gender-based violence (GBV) is a fundamental violation of human rights. It is one of the worst manifestations of gender-based discrimination, disproportionately affecting girls and women. GBV is a global phenomenon that knows no geographical, cultural, social, economic, ethnic, or other boundaries. It occurs across all societies, and is a major obstacle to the achievement of gender equality. Governments have signed onto international frameworks1 to protect children from all forms of violence. Despite these frameworks, recent reviews and initiatives have highlighted the extent to which children are exposed to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) and the significance of education to prevent and eliminate this form of violence. In the region, GBV is often tolerated and sustained by social institutions, including the school - the very place where children are expected to be safe, protected and empowered. SRGBV remains not fully examined in the region, and is perhaps even overlooked in many educational environments. SRGBV continues to affect children in the Asia-Pacific region each year, and boys, girls, transgender and intersex children can be targets. In Asia and the Pacific - as elsewhere - SRGBV is a critical barrier to the right to education, not only because of its serious physical and psychological health implications, but also because it may lead to the deterioration of the learning environment as a whole. The experience or even the threat of SRGBV often results in irregular attendance, dropout, truancy, poor school performance, and low self-esteem, which may follow into their adult lives. Importantly, SRGBV is often aggravated in conflict-affected countries and during emergencies. Witnessing or experiencing violence in schools may have irreversible consequences for students in perpetrating or further experiencing violence in adult lives. Teachers, schools and education systems are fundamental in transforming practices, attitudes and values, including instilling in learners the understanding and practice of gender equality, non-violent behaviour and acceptance of difference. To do so, though, and to fulfil children's right to education, learners need safe and supportive environments. SRGBV is a serious obstacle to reaching the Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and to achieving gender equality. As we accelerate our efforts towards meeting the EFA goals and elevating our educational ambitions for girls and boys in the post-2015 development agenda, it is critical that we maintain our commitment to gender equality in and through quality education. Details: Bangkok: UNESCO, 2014. 71p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 18, 2014 at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002267/226754E.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Asia URL: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002267/226754E.pdf Shelf Number: 131960 Keywords: Gender-Based ViolenceSchool ViolenceViolence Against Women, Children |
Author: Blaya, Catherine Title: Expel Violence! A Systematic Review of Interventions to Prevent Corporal Punishment, Sexual Violence and Bullying in Schools Summary: School violence and peer victimization have become a focus concern due to isolated single, extremely violent events (e.g. school shootings). Even in its less serious forms, the issues of violence and behaviour management in schools trigger a great deal of stress for both pupils and school staff. More broadly, school victimization is a predictor of school drop out; criminality; as well as social exclusion for both victims and perpetrators (Olweus, 1991; Farrington, 1993; Smith, 2004). It is also damaging to the general school climate and quality of education (Debarbieux, 1999). School bullying has become one of the main concerns in Northern Europe (Olweus,1978), England (Smith and Sharp, 1994), Spain (Ortega, 1992) and throughout Europe and other countries such as Australia, Japan and North America (Rigby & Slee, 1991; Twemlow et al., 1996; Smith et al., 1999; Cowie, 2000). Other types of violence such as corporal punishment and sexual abuse are common in some countries. Corporal punishment, although it contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child remains legal in many countries. Research provided evidence that it remains to be considered the best solution for misbehaviour or conflicts with children by some teachers and head-teachers. This includes developed countries such as the United States, where in the late 1980's, it was estimated that corporal punishment was administered between 1 and 2 million times in schools (American Academy of Pediatrics - Committee on School Health, 2000). It is commonly administered to maintain attention and order within the classroom; for poor timekeeping or as a result of bad academic grades (Human Rights Watch: http://www.hrw.org). Sexual abuse by teachers is frequent in some countries. This is not only traumatic for the victims, but also provides a negative male role model to witnesses. In other countries, the fear of girls being sexually abused or threatened leads some ethnic minorities to exclude them from mainstream education (Blaya, 2003). Male pupils and male teachers are usually the perpetrators, with female pupils being the victims. Sexual violence has an impact not only on mental, but also on physical health and is the focus of concern of the World Health Organization and public health sectors worldwide due to sexually transmitted diseases, mainly HIV. Details: Woking, Surrey, UK: Plan Limited, 2008. 182p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 22, 2014 at: https://plan-international.org/learnwithoutfear/files/expel-violence-english Year: 2008 Country: International URL: https://plan-international.org/learnwithoutfear/files/expel-violence-english Shelf Number: 132129 Keywords: Child Sexual ViolenceCorporal PunishmentPeer VictimizationSchool BullyingSchool CrimeSchool Violence |
Author: Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services Title: The 2013 Virginia School Safety Audit Survey Results Summary: In 2005, legislation designated the Virginia Center for School Safety (now named the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety-VCSCS) of the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to prescribe the safety audit content and reporting process for the School Safety Audit program. Accordingly, the VCSCS and DCJS Criminal Justice Research Center conduct an annual on-line school safety survey that allows schools and school divisions to meet the Code of Virginia mandate to report safety audit data. Annual reports can be found on the DCJS website at ww.dcjs.virginia.gov/VCSCS/audit/index.cfm. The survey for the 2012-2013 academic school year was conducted from late July through September 2013 and covered school safety-related topics such as: crisis management plans, use of threat assessments, school climate and safety-related programs, bullying and cyberbullying, and school security practices. Major Findings from the 2012-2013 School Safety Survey - The 2012-2013 school safety survey was completed by 100% of the 1,958 Virginia public schools. This total included 1,109 (57%) elementary schools, 339 (17%) middle schools, and 304 (16%) high schools. Also included in the total were 206 (11%) other types of schools, such as alternative, technical/vocational, combined, prekindergarten (pre-K), and special education. The majority of schools (74%, 1,446) had between 251 and 1,000 students. - Just over two-thirds (68%, 1,322) of the schools report that a majority of their students live in areas with low levels of crime, while 16% (306) report moderate and 2% (47) report high levels. There were 283 schools (15%) that reported students from areas with varied levels of crime. - Schools were asked which types of critical events/emergencies they practiced with students at least annually. The top three were fire (95%, 1,861), natural disasters-including severe weather (80%, 1,561), and presence of unauthorized persons/trespassers (78%, 1,517). - About one-quarter of schools (26%, 510) activated some portion of their Crisis Management Plan (CMP) or Emergency Management Plan (EMP) during the 2012-2013 school year due to an actual emergency. The most common cause of activation was incidents related to violence or crime, including weapon carrying or use, occurring off school property (6%, 116). - Nearly three-quarters of the schools (72%, 1,404) said they shared their CMP/EMP with local first responders. This rate was higher among middle (79%) and high (84%) schools. Over three-quarters of the schools (79%, 1,549) reported that their CMP/EMP includes a reunification plan. - Schools were asked if their CMP/EMP included a Family Assistance Center (FAC). One-third of all schools (33%, 651) reported that their CMP/EMP did include a FAC. Just over half of the schools (53%, 1,033) reported that their CMP/EMP did not include a FAC, and 14% of schools (274) reported they did not know if their plan included a FAC. - A large majority of schools (85%, 1,671) reported using a formal threat assessment process to respond to student threats of violence. Of these schools, 44% (728) reported using the threat assessment guidelines developed by the University of Virginia (UVA) and 44% (728) use a division-created threat assessment model. While 90% (1,506) of the schools report having an established threat assessment team, only three-quarters of schools (76%, 1,269) reported that their staff or team had been formally trained in using their threat assessment model. - Most schools (96%, 1,879) reported having an automated Electronic Notification System (ENS) to notify parents/guardians when there is an emergency at the school. However, only 20% of these schools (383) actually activated their electronic notification system during the 2012-2013 school year because of an emergency. The most frequent cause of activation was a naturally occurring hazard such as earthquake, tornado or dangerous weather conditions (7%, 133). - Over half of all schools (57%, 1,114) reported having regular meetings with law enforcement to discuss problems in and around their school. About one-third of schools (32%, 633) reported receiving crime data reports from local law enforcement regarding crimes occurring near the school and about half of schools (51%, 994) reporting having a process in place through which they received notification from local law enforcement of certain offenses committed by students. Details: Richmond, VA: Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, 2014. 75p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 26, 2014 at: http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcscs/documents/2013SchoolSafetyReport.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcscs/documents/2013SchoolSafetyReport.pdf Shelf Number: 132542 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimesSchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Sandoval-Hernandez, Andres Title: Exploring School Resilience to Violence in Mexico and Colombia. An analysis using data from ICCS 2009 Summary: Violence and organized crime (e.g. drug trafficking and kidnaping) are among the most persistent problems across Latin American countries, especially in Mexico and Colombia. Many cities and regions in these two countries are recognized as violent places. For example according to The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, Mexico and Colombia ranked first and third place in the total recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm, respectively (UNODC, 2005). According to Reimers (2007) growing up in a society with high levels of violence has implications for the development of citizenship competencies and attitudes. Research over the past 15 years has consistently shown exposure to violence, as a witness or a victim, is strongly associated to aggressive, delinquent and violent behavior (Flannery, et al., 2007). Data from the ICCS 2009 Latin American Report (Schulz, Ainley, Friedman and Lietz, 2011) reveals that more than one third of students experienced physical aggression at school during the month prior to the survey in Colombia (33%) and Mexico (45%). According to the same report, in both countries, the promotion of peaceful relationships among students is explicitly recognized as one of the main aims of civic and citizenship education. The question is then; to what extent it is possible to prevent violence among adolescents who are immersed in a violent society? More specifically, can schools play a role in reducing the risk of violent behavior in their students? Resiliency against violence is a useful concept for exploring these questions. Details: Amsterdam: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), 2013. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 30, 2014 at: http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2013/Papers/IRC-2013_Sandoval-Hernandez.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Latin America URL: http://www.iea.nl/fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2013/Papers/IRC-2013_Sandoval-Hernandez.pdf Shelf Number: 132845 Keywords: Educational Programs Homicides Organized Crime School Crime School ViolenceViolence (Latin America) Violent Crime |
Author: Blair, J. Pete Title: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013 Summary: "A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013" contains a full list of the 160 incidents used in study, including those that occurred at Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook Elementary School, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Fort Hood, the Aurora (Colorado) Cinemark Century 16 movie theater, the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, and the Washington Navy Yard, as well as numerous other tragic shootings. Here are some of the study's findings: - Active shooter incidents are becoming more frequent - the first seven years of the study show an average of 6.4 incidents annually, while the last seven years show 16.4 incidents annually. - These incidents resulted in a total of 1,043 casualties (486 killed, 557 wounded - excluding the shooters). - All but six of the 160 incidents involved male shooters (and only two involved more than one shooter). - More than half of the incidents - 90 shootings - ended on the shooter's initiative (i.e., suicide, fleeing), while 21 incidents ended after unarmed citizens successfully restrained the shooter. - In 21 of the 45 incidents where law enforcement had to engage the shooter to end the threat, nine officers were killed and 28 were wounded. - The largest percentage of incidents - 45.6 percent - took place in a commercial environment (73 incidents), followed by 24.3 percent that took place in an educational environment (39 incidents). The remaining incidents occurred at the other location types specified in the study - open spaces, military and other government properties, residential properties, houses of worship, and health care facilities Details: Washington, DC: Texas State University; Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, 2014. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 27, 2014 at: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents/pdfs/a-study-of-active-shooter-incidents-in-the-u.s.-between-2000-and-2013 Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/fbi-releases-study-on-active-shooter-incidents/pdfs/a-study-of-active-shooter-incidents-in-the-u.s.-between-2000-and-2013 Shelf Number: 133454 Keywords: Active Shooter IncidentsGun ViolenceGun-Related Violence (U.S.)HomicidesSchool ViolenceViolent CrimeWorkplace Violence |
Author: Greene, Margaret Eleanor Title: A Girl's Right to Learn Without Fear: Working to End-Gender-Based Violence at School Summary: Education is a fundamental human right for every child but it is too often denied, especially to girls. Plan Canada's latest report, A Girl's Right to Learn Without Fear, produced in partnership with the University of Toronto's International Human Rights Program, and in collaboration with the Canadian Women's Foundation, Native Women's Association of Canada, and White Ribbon Campaign, finds that gender-based violence is a major and critical factor threatening the education of children, and particularly girls, in many countries of the world, including Canada. School-related gender-based violence School-related gender-based violence refers to acts of sexual, physical or psychological violence inflicted on children in and around schools because of stereotypes and roles or norms attributed to or expected of them because of their sex or gender identity. There are immediate and long-term consequences of school-related gender-based violence including health consequences (STDs, HIV infection, unwanted early pregnancies); psychological suffering; poor performance at school; absenteeism; and high dropout rates. - Between 500 million and 1.5 billion children experience violence every year, many in and around the institutions we trust most: our schools. - The World Health Organization ranked Canada as one of the worst countries for its bullying victimization rates. Canada was ranked 27th out of 35 comparable countries - Nearly a quarter of Canadian girls and, at least 15% of boys, have experienced sexual violence before they reach 16. - Female victims of sexual harassment report a loss of interest in school activities, increased absenteeism, lower grades, and increased tardiness and truancy. Ending the violence While violence against children is unjustifiable, it is also preventable. Therefore, the report also focuses on solutions with recommendations for all governments, including Canada's, to put an end to violence against children, with a special focus on girls. The report does not just highlight problems, but is focused on solutions drawn from the experiences of countries leading on these issues. It includes specific recommendations for the Canadian government that are consistent with recent observations on Canada made by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Details: Toronto: Plan Canada, 2012. 94p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed October 20, 2014 at: https://plancanada.ca/document.doc?id=325 Year: 2012 Country: Canada URL: https://plancanada.ca/document.doc?id=325 Shelf Number: 133781 Keywords: Gender-Based Violence (Canada)School Based ViolenceSchool BullyingSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual HarassmentSexual ViolenceViolence Against Girls |
Author: Sedensky, Stephen J., III Title: Report of the State's Attorney of the Judicial District of Danbury on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and 36 Yogananda Street, Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 Summary: The purpose of this report is to identify the person or persons criminally responsible for the twenty-seven homicides that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut, on the morning of December 14, 2012, to determine what crimes were committed, and to indicate if there will be any state prosecutions as a result of the incident. The State's Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury is charged, pursuant to Article IV, Section 27 of the Constitution of the State of Connecticut and Connecticut General Statutes (C.G.S.) Sec. 51-276 et seq., with the investigation and prosecution of all criminal offenses occurring within the Judicial District of Danbury. The Connecticut State Police have the responsibility to prevent and detect violations of the law and this State's Attorney has worked with and relied upon the Connecticut State Police since the incident occurred. Since December 14, 2012, the Connecticut State Police and the State's Attorney's Office have worked with the federal authorities sharing responsibilities for various aspects of this investigation. Numerous other municipal, state and federal agencies assisted in the investigation. The investigation materials reflect thousands of law enforcement and prosecutor hours. Apart from physical evidence, the materials consist of more than seven-hundred individual files that include reports, statements, interviews, videos, laboratory tests and results, photographs, diagrams, search warrants and returns, as well as evaluations of those items. In the course of the investigation, both state and federal law enforcement personnel received a large number of contacts purporting to provide information on the shootings and the shooter. Although many times these "leads" would go nowhere, each one was evaluated and often required substantial law enforcement time to pursue. An abundance of caution was used during the investigation to ensure that all leads were looked into, despite the fact that more than 40 such "leads" proved, after investigation, to be unsubstantiated. Information that was substantiated and relevant was made part of the investigation. It is not the intent of this report to convey every piece of information contained in the voluminous investigation materials developed by the Connecticut State Police and other law enforcement agencies, but to provide information relevant to the purposes of this report. While no report is statutorily required of the State's Attorney once an investigation is complete, it has been the practice of State's Attorneys to issue reports on criminal investigations where there is no arrest and prosecution if the State's Attorney determines that some type of public statement is necessary. Given the gravity of the crimes committed on December 14, 2012, a report is in order. On the morning of December 14, 2012, the shooter, age 20, heavily armed, went to Sandy Hook Elementary School (SHES) in Newtown, where he shot his way into the locked school building with a Bushmaster Model XM15-E2S rifle. He then shot and killed the principal and school psychologist as they were in the north hallway of the school responding to the noise of the shooter coming into the school. The shooter also shot and injured two other staff members who were also in the hallway. Details: Hartford, CT: State of Connecticut, Division of Criminal Justice, 2013. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 25, 2014 at: http://www.ct.gov/csao/lib/csao/Sandy_Hook_Final_Report.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.ct.gov/csao/lib/csao/Sandy_Hook_Final_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 134233 Keywords: Gun ViolenceHomicidesMass MurdersSandy Hook Elementary SchoolSchool Shootings (Connecticut)School Violence |
Author: Connecticut. Office of the Child Advocate Title: Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School Summary: On Friday, December 14, 2012, our state and nation were stunned by the overwhelming tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School where twenty children and six educators were shot in their school. AL, who had already shot his mother in their home, also shot himself. In the immediate aftermath of this terrible event, state and federal law enforcement agencies began investigating the circumstances leading up to the shooting. On January 30, 2013, the State Child Fatality Review Panel (CFRP)--charged with reviewing the sudden and unexpected death of children-directed the state Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) to investigate the circumstances leading to the death of the children at Sandy Hook, with a focus on any public health recommendations that may emanate from a review of the shooter's personal history. The Office of the Child Advocate, with the assistance of co-authors and consultants, reviewed numerous subjects pertinent to the charge from the CFRP, including: - The mental health, developmental and social history of AL from his birth to the days before the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. - The educational record of AL, including documentation of needs and services provided. - The medical history of AL from childhood to adulthood. - Relevant laws regarding special education and confidentiality of records and how these laws implicate professional obligations and practices. OCA began a comprehensive collection and review of records related to the life of AL-including his medical, mental health and education records, as well as un-redacted state police and law enforcement records. OCA reviewed thousands of pages of documents, consulted with law enforcement and members of the Child Fatality Review Panel, conducted interviews, and incorporated extensive research to develop the report's findings and recommendations. Details: Hartford, CT: Office of the Child Advocate, 2014. 114p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 8, 2014 at: http://www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/sandyhook11212014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www.ct.gov/oca/lib/oca/sandyhook11212014.pdf Shelf Number: 134281 Keywords: Gun Violence Mass Homicides (Connecticut)Mass MurdersSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Swayze, Dana Title: Law enforcement in Minnesota schools: A statewide survey of school resource officers. Summary: Police agencies have long had a role in service to schools. Traditional activities have included periodic patrols, responding to calls for service and criminal investigations of offenses involving youth. Only in the last 20 years has assigning law enforcement officers to schools on a full-time basis become a widespread practice. Some factors thought to have contributed to the expanded use of police in schools include the rising involvement of juveniles in crime in the 1980s and 1990s; the shift to accountability-based policies to behavior in schools, including "zero tolerance;" and new, federal funding for community oriented policing, which includes funding for law enforcement in schools. In addition, high profile school shootings in the late-1990s, coupled with the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, significantly elevated concern for schools as targets of violence. The presence of law enforcement in schools has been controversial. Proponents assert that School Resource Officers (SROs) keep students and educators safe, which in turn creates an environment conducive to learning. SROs help schools prepare for potential external threats and help reduce the internal presence of drugs, alcohol, weapons, gangs and violence. In addition, SROs can serve as mentors for youth, and educators for students and staff. Supports believe SRO programs encourage positive relationships between students and police, increasing the likelihood that youth will come to police with information about illegal activity. Those opposed to law enforcement presence in schools contend there is little evidence to demonstrate that SRO programs reduce illegal or disruptive behavior. By the time SROs became common in the late 1990s, juvenile involvement in crime was already declining both inside and outside of schools. Opponents express concern that SROs can negatively affect school climate and compromise the civil rights of youth. Of particular concern is the criminalization of certain behaviors by a justice system response - behaviors which, in the absence of an SRO, would have been addressed with school-based discipline. Furthermore, justice system responses are more likely to be applied to youth of color, special education students and low income students. The practice of school-based policing expanded rapidly in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, leaving little time for evaluation or establishment of best practices. Goals and outcome measures for SRO programs have been elusive given the tremendous variability across states and jurisdictions. Throughout the 2000s, researchers studied the effects of law enforcement in schools in an attempt to provide policy-and-practice guidelines for these unique partnerships. Details: St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs, 2014. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2015 at: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/forms-documents/Documents/SRO%20REPORT.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/forms-documents/Documents/SRO%20REPORT.pdf Shelf Number: 134478 Keywords: School Crime (Minnesota)School DisciplineSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Cornell, Dewey Title: Threat Assessment in Virginia Schools: Technical Report of the Threat Assessment Survey for 2013-2014 Summary: In 2013, Virginia passed legislation (S 22.1-79.4) which required local school boards to establish threat assessment teams for each public school. The Threat Assessment Survey was designed to gather information on the quantity and quality of threat cases in Virginia schools in order to assist them in developing effective school safety practices. Threats are broadly defined as a student's communication or behavior that indicates intent to harm someone. Schools were asked to describe their threat assessment program and report on up to five threat assessment cases. An initial summary of overall results is provided in the 2014 School Safety Audit Report. This report is a technical supplement to the 2014 School Safety Audit Report that is intended to provide information specific to elementary, middle, or high schools, excluding 196 other types of schools such as alternative, pre-kindergarten, and special education schools. Many of the analyses in this report are limited to the 810 schools that had at least one threat assessment case during the 2013-14 school year and focused specifically on cases involving threats to harm others. Readers are cautioned that these results are based on a selected sample and may not generalize to all Virginia schools. This report is concerned with describing the threat assessment process from start to finish, with information on the prevalence of threats across school levels and student populations, description of the kinds of threats, how schools responded to threats, and the outcomes for students and their intended victims. One caveat is that prevalence rates and other results obtained from this survey may change in future years as all school threat assessment teams refine their procedures and become more experienced in conducting threat assessments. Details: Charlottesville, VA: Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, 2015. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2015 at: http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcscs/documents/TechnicalReport2014ThreatAssessmentSurvey5-12-15.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/vcscs/documents/TechnicalReport2014ThreatAssessmentSurvey5-12-15.pdf Shelf Number: 135736 Keywords: School CrimeSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool ViolenceThreat Assessment |
Author: Leach, Fiona Title: School-related Gender-Based Violence A global review of current issues and approaches in policy, programming and implementation responses to School-Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) for the Education Sector Summary: Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global phenomenon that knows no geographical, cultural, social, economic, ethnic, or other boundaries. It occurs across all societies and represents a brutal violation of human rights, the worst manifestation of gender-based discrimination and a major obstacle to the achievement of gender equality. It is tolerated and sustained by social institutions, including the school, the very place where we expect our children to be safe and protected. It is a serious obstacle to the right to education and learning, with implications for the ways that people understand and enact their social lives and exercise their citizenship. The extent to which children are exposed to school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) was brought to the attention of the international community by two studies commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General in the past decade: the Global Study on Violence against Children1 and the In-depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women, both published in 2006. The global presence of SRGBV seriously compromises the ability of UNESCO's Member States and the international community to meet commitments towards the provision of human rights. Major international frameworks, such as the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the UN 4th World Conference on Women - Beijing Platform for Action denounce violence and call for measures to protect all human beings, especially women and girls, from all forms of violence. Article 19 of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) calls on State Parties to take all appropriate measures, including through education, to protect children from all forms of violence, including sexual abuse. UN Resolution 61/143 (2007) regarding the 'Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women', calls upon the international community, including the United Nations system, to enhance national efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls, including through 'the sharing of guidelines, methodologies and best practices'. Until the World Report on Violence against Children was published in 2006, however, little attention was paid to the school as a forum for violence against children. Since then, it has received increasing attention in national and international agendas. The priority theme of the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), planned for March 2013, is the 'Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls', with prevention and the provision of support services to victims/survivors being the main focus. In preparation for the CSW meeting, an experts meeting on GBV was held in Bangkok in September 2012, in order to explore ways of preventing and addressing GBV through a multi-sectoral approach with a focus on legal and policy guidelines. Education has been identified as one of the priority areas for strategic intervention. However, the transformative potential of schools to empower individuals, to champion gender equality and challenge violence against women and girls depends on a school environment that is itself safe and violence free. This review of current issues and approaches in policy, programming and implementation responses to SRGBV has been commissioned by the HIV and Health Education section in the Education Sector at UNESCO to contribute to the development of comprehensive evidence-informed policy guidelines for the prevention and elimination of SRGBV in and through education. Despite the call for action and the increasing awareness among governments, civil society and the international community of the scale of SRGBV, efforts to address it have been patchy and largely ineffective. The evidence base for the global scale and nature of the problem is limited and there is little collective intelligence to date on best practice in either prevention or response, e.g. on what makes intervention successful, how to measure success and how to scale up promising initiatives. Yet, we know that SRGBV continues to be a serious barrier to educational participation, especially of girls, and casts doubt on the school as an appropriate forum for educating young people about gender equality, non-violent behaviour and sexual and reproductive health. Schools have the potential to bring about change but this cannot be effective if they are simultaneously sites of gender inequality and violence. This review seeks to advance our knowledge and learning in this field, both in terms of what we know about the phenomenon and its impact on individuals, and on how best to address it, including through education. We start the review with a brief explanation of the conceptual framework and of the problematic nature of definitions of GBV, followed by a brief note on our methodology. The substance of the review follows, first summarising the research evidence on SRGBV by region, and then outlining approaches to policy, programming and implementation, with key messages for the education sector and for UNESCO's role in the post-MDG era. Details: Paris: UNESCO, 2014. 101p. Source: Internet Resource: Background research paper: Accessed July 15, 2015 at: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/HIV-AIDS/pdf/SRGBV_UNESCO_Global_ReviewJan2014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/HIV-AIDS/pdf/SRGBV_UNESCO_Global_ReviewJan2014.pdf Shelf Number: 136059 Keywords: Gender-Based ViolenceSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool ViolenceViolence Against Women, Children |
Author: Global Women's Institute Title: School-Based Interventions to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls Summary: Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human rights violation that affects millions of women worldwide. According to the most recent estimates from the World Health Organization, more than one in three women globally have experienced physical and/or sexual partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lifetime. Historically, the international community has focused heavily on responding to VAWG by providing support services for survivors. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in attention to interventions that aim to prevent violence before it starts. While the evidence base is still in a relatively early stage, rigorous evaluations have been conducted that demonstrate sustainable ways to reduce VAWG. Existing reviews suggest that there are common elements to these effective interventions: 1. Collaborating with entire communities (both men and women, boys and girls) in an interactive and participatory way during all phases of the intervention; 2. Engaging communities in a culturally sensitive and relevant manner to address structural drivers of violence, such as deeply entrenched social norms that perpetuate gender inequalities; 3. Using a multi-sectoral approach that is both comprehensive and integrated; 4. Exposing participants to subject matter through multiple intervention components over a sustained period (at minimum six months); 5. Conducting rigorous evaluations using mixed-methods approaches and disseminating results widely to inform current and future prevention programs. One of the most important sectors in the efforts to prevent VAWG is that of education. The intersection of education and VAWG is particularly relevant as schools are environments where children and adolescents learn and develop social and behavioral norms. By working with the education sector at multiple levels, we are presented with a unique entry point to help shape future generations' (both boys and girls) ideas of healthy relationships and balanced power dynamics. At the highest level, policy makers can develop and enforce laws and policies that outline how education systems will work in an integrated manner with other sectors to prevent VAWG. At the institutional level, administrators can implement training curricula for teachers and students that focus on fostering gender equitable attitudes and norms. Reforms can be instituted to create a safe environment for VAWG survivors to access necessary counseling and referral services. Finally, at the community level, teachers and school administrators can work with other influential community members to hold conversations, workshops, and other activities that will strengthen community knowledge and capacity to respond to and prevent VAWG, potentially leading to broader social change. It is important to recognize that in order for schools to be sites of social and intellectual empowerment, they, themselves, must be free of violence. Too often, schools are sites where violence is perpetrated, whether as corporal punishment on behalf of a teacher, dating violence among classmates, sexual assault, or bullying, among others. Girls are particularly vulnerable to violence. As of 2012, it was estimated that approximately 60 million girls are sexually assaulted on their way to or at school every year. In some countries, this translates to a higher probability for a girl to experience sexual violence than to become literate. Within the United States, a report for the National Institute of Justice revealed that approximately 14% of female students (aged 18-25) had experienced sexual violence during her time at university. Violence against women and girls at school is a pandemic issue that must be resolved globally in order to avoid and alleviate the detrimental effects of violence on individuals and communities. Concerted efforts must focus on breaking the intergenerational cycles of violence, poor education, ill health, and poverty. Details: Washington, DC: Global Women's Institute, The George Washington University, 2015. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Evidence Brief: Accessed August 3, 2015 at: https://globalwomensinstitute.gwu.edu/sites/globalwomensinstitute.gwu.edu/files/FINAL%20EDUCATION%20BRIEF%20v6_24_15%20uneditable2.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://globalwomensinstitute.gwu.edu/sites/globalwomensinstitute.gwu.edu/files/FINAL%20EDUCATION%20BRIEF%20v6_24_15%20uneditable2.pdf Shelf Number: 136287 Keywords: Child Sexual Abuse Community-Based Programs Gender-Specific Responses Interventions School Crime School ViolenceSchool-Based Programs Violence Against Women, Girls Violence Prevention |
Author: Langberg, Jason Title: Protecting Childhood: A Blueprint for Developmentally Appropriate School Policing in Virginia Summary: School security personnel are increasingly commonplace in Virginia's public schools. There are two types. School resource officers (SROs) are certified law enforcement officers who are typically employed by local law enforcement agencies and assigned to provide coverage to public schools. School security officers (SSOs) are individuals employed by school divisions to maintain order and discipline in their assigned schools. To date, little analysis of school policing in the Commonwealth exists. This report aims to change that. The pages that follow describe the problems with school policing in Virginia and then provide recommendations for reforms. The appendices include tools for lawmakers and policymakers, such as a model memorandum of understanding (MOU) that school divisions and law enforcement agencies can use to incorporate best practices. The goals of this report are two-fold: 1) to stress the acute need for reform and create a more nuanced understanding of specific problems related to school policing; and 2) to advance proven reforms. Details: Charlottesville, VA: JustChildren Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, 2016. 107p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2016 at: https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/School-Policing-Report-Full.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/School-Policing-Report-Full.pdf Shelf Number: 137474 Keywords: Police Resource OfficersSchool CrimeSchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Babacan, Hurriyet Title: The Community safety of international students in Melbourne: A Scoping Study Summary: The report presents findings of a multi-method exploratory research project implemented by ICEPA. The study draws on data gathered through an on-line survey of 1,013 international and domestic students, in-depth interviews with 35 international students and interviews with 29 stakeholders from across government and non-government organisations concerned with the safety of international students. The report analyses this data and identifies key priorities in order to inform future research, policy and program development. Key findings - The vast majority (82%) of students surveyed, both international and domestic, felt Melbourne overall was a safe place to live; believed they lived in a safe part of Melbourne (81%); felt safe at their workplace (93%) and, felt safe when attending college or university (92%). - Differences did exist, however, between the two student groups. Fewer international students (78%) agreed Melbourne was a safe place to live than local students (86%) and were more likely to report that when safety is threatened, there is a racial, religious or cultural element to that threat (50% vs 17%). - A key theme expressed by all respondents was that issues relating to violence against international students are complex. This is due to the diversity of the international student body as each individual experiences different risk factors according to a range of factors including gender, religion, class, educational institution, age and English language skills. Nevertheless, interview and survey data indicates that violence motivated by racism is perceived by a significant proportion of international students as a pervasive element in the cocktail of factors that produce risks to their safety. - Both international and domestic students and stakeholders said that the key threats to safety included a combination of four main environmental factors, including higher risk of violence at night, being on public transport or in public spaces, particular localities that are unsafe and the use of alcohol and drugs. Details: Melbourne: Institute for Community, Ethnicity and Policy Alternatives, Victoria University, 2010. 131p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 6, 2016 at: http://vuir.vu.edu.au/15491/1/The_Community_Safety_of_International_Students_in_Melb_A_Scoping_Study.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Australia URL: http://vuir.vu.edu.au/15491/1/The_Community_Safety_of_International_Students_in_Melb_A_Scoping_Study.pdf Shelf Number: 138047 Keywords: Campus CrimeCampus SafetySchool CrimeSchool SecuritySchool ViolenceStudent SafetyUniversities and Colleges |
Author: Safe Havens International Title: Arapahoe High School Active-Shooter Incident Summary: On December 13, 2013, an aggressor who was a current student at Arapahoe High School (AHS) entered the school via an unsecured entrance and fatally shot seventeen-year-old student Claire Esther Davis before killing himself (McCauley, n.d., p. 2). Like other school attacks, this incident caused immense emotional suffering for many people. As the victim's family stated in their letter to the public on October 10, 2014: The result was a terrible tragedy for all of us - not only our family, but for all the kids and staff at Arapahoe High School, our entire community, the State of Colorado, the [aggressor's] family, and all the persons across the country and around the world that have sent us their condolences and have held us up in their thoughts and prayers. (Davis, 2014) As this report will demonstrate, there were missed opportunities that might have prevented the death of Claire Davis. The report will also demonstrate that since the incident, the LPS has taken many steps in an effort to draw lessons from the AHS incident for the LPS community as well as the surrounding community. For example, the District conducted multiple internal post-incident evaluations, formed a Safety and Mental Health Advisory Committee (SMHAC), and sought nationally recognized experts in school safety and mental health to conduct thorough evaluations of the District's strategies, policies and procedures prior to, during, and after December 13, 2013. Based on the site visit to AHS during a trip to present for the SMHAC in February 2015 and an initial review of the incident with LPS officials, Safe Havens International (SHI) Executive Director Michael Dorn offered to discuss the possibility of SHI conducting an evaluation with SHI's senior leadership team. During this discussion, the SHI leadership team approved SHI performing a review of this incident as a pro-bono effort with no costs for the LPS aside from actual travel expenses for any analysts who had to travel to the District for the review, report findings, etc. Our primary purpose of conducting this in-depth review of the case is to compile lessons that LPS and schools around the nation can study to further improve the safety of their schools. An important secondary rationale for SHI to perform this review is to help our analysts learn more about school safety and apply these lessons to improve our ability to make schools safer. As a non-profit school safety center, a significant part of our mission is to help further the cause of school safety via pro-bono projects. SHI frequently performs pro-bono projects for a variety of educational, state, federal, and non-profit organizations as a way to provide our knowledge and expertise to help improve safety and security in the school environment. Eleven SHI analysts and one support staff member agreed to donate their time, talent, and energy to perform more than a thousand hours of work for this evaluation without any compensation. These analysts are from a variety of disciplines with extensive experience working in the K12 school environment. Details: Macon, GA: Safe Havens International, 2016. 81p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 8, 2016 at: http://www.littletonpublicschools.net/sites/default/files/Safe%20Havens%20Intl%20Report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.littletonpublicschools.net/sites/default/files/Safe%20Havens%20Intl%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 138125 Keywords: School CrimeSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Wolff, Russell Title: School / Police Partnerships: Best Practices and Lessons Learned. Innovative Practices from the Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative Series Summary: Concerns about gang violence, school shootings, bullying, bias- or hate-related threats or violence, and vandalism have led schools to focus increasingly on school safety. Schools bring children and teenagers together with various risk factors, providing opportunities for conflicts to erupt. But, for the same reason, schools provide a centralized location to engage students at-risk for involvement in gangs and violence in prevention and intervention programming (Gottfredson, 1997). Research shows that gang membership and delinquency more generally have largely the same causes (Sherman, 1997) and that schools cannot be separated from the community context (Gottfredson, 1997). It is therefore vital to include schools in anti-gang efforts. There are numerous risk factors for gang membership and delinquency in schools. Research indicates that victims of bullying are more likely to be truant, be involved in fights, carry weapons to school, and have lower academic achievement (Bauer et al., 2008; DeVoe et al., 2005). Association with delinquent peers is linked with involvement in gangs and violence (Thornberry, 1998). Even the perception of school safety is a risk factor (Crooks et al., 2007). On the other hand, a strong school bond has been found to be protective against involvement in violence across a number of risk factors (Sprott et al., 2005). Many municipalities in the United States have established partnerships between schools and law enforcement as a strategy to enhance school safety and reduce gang violence in schools. The vast majority of sites that are part of the Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative (CSI) 1 include some form of school-based law enforcement effort. The purpose of this resource guide is to describe the history and best practices associated with school/police partnerships in the United States, discuss the recent partnerships within the Shannon CSI communities, present lessons learned, identify some common challenges, and offer recommendations about how Shannon CSI communities might enhance their current initiatives. Details: Boston: Northeastern University, Institute on Race and Justice, 2008. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 25, 2016 at: http://www.mass.gov/eopss/funding-and-training/justice-and-prev/grants/shannon-csi/shannon-pub-5.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.mass.gov/eopss/funding-and-training/justice-and-prev/grants/shannon-csi/shannon-pub-5.pdf Shelf Number: 139152 Keywords: Police-Community Relations Police-School Partnerships School Crime School Safety School Violence |
Author: Towers, Sherry Title: Contagion in Mass Killings and School Shootings Summary: Abstract Background Several past studies have found that media reports of suicides and homicides appear to subsequently increase the incidence of similar events in the community, apparently due to the coverage planting the seeds of ideation in at-risk individuals to commit similar acts. Methods Here we explore whether or not contagion is evident in more high-profile incidents, such as school shootings and mass killings (incidents with four or more people killed). We fit a contagion model to recent data sets related to such incidents in the US, with terms that take into account the fact that a school shooting or mass murder may temporarily increase the probability of a similar event in the immediate future, by assuming an exponential decay in contagiousness after an event. Conclusions We find significant evidence that mass killings involving firearms are incented by similar events in the immediate past. On average, this temporary increase in probability lasts 13 days, and each incident incites at least 0.30 new incidents ( p = 0.0015). We also find significant evidence of contagion in school shootings, for which an incident is contagious for an average of 13 days, and incites an average of at least 0.22 new incidents ( p = 0.0001). All p -values are assessed based on a likelihood ratio test comparing the likelihood of a contagion model to that of a null model with no contagion. On average, mass killings involving firearms occur approximately every two weeks in the US, while school shootings occur on average monthly. We find that state prevalence of firearm ownership is significantly associated with the state incidence of mass killings with firearms, school shootings, and mass shootings. Details: PLoS ONE 10 (7): e0117259. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0117259. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 1, 2016 at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/asset?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0117259.PDF Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/asset?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0117259.PDF Shelf Number: 139930 Keywords: ContagionCopycat EffectGun-Related ViolenceMass HomicidesSchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Schwartz, Heather L. Title: The Role of Technology in Improving K-12 School Safety Summary: Violence in schools negatively affects children's future life outcomes and the culture and performance of the school. For these reasons, promoting school safety is a national priority for many federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice. This report focuses on school safety technologies as one among many approaches to prevent and respond to school violence. In the report, the authors summarize existing research on school violence, categorize school safety technologies and describe the available research about them, present six case studies of innovative technologies as used in schools, summarize experts' views of technologies and safety problems based on interviews, and present experts' rankings of technology needs to improve school safety produced during two day-long panels. These activities revealed that some of the most pressing safety needs that technology could address relate to (1) enabling two-way communication between teachers and emergency responders; (2) "all-in-one" applications that would integrate currently fragmented and outdated school safety policies, procedures, and training for school staff and parents; (3) advances in social media monitoring; and (4) improved tip lines to make them more robust and effective. Results should be of interest to organizations and individuals involved with K-12 school technology planning, research funding, and product development. Key Findings Violence in Schools Is Not Uncommon - In the 2009-10 school year, 74 percent of public schools recorded at least one incident of violence, including serious violence, fights, physical attacks, and threats. Many Factors Affect the Likelihood of Violence Occurring in a School - School climate is one element that affects the likelihood of violence occurring in a school. Also, violence is more common in places with the least adult supervision, such as hallways, bathrooms, and stairwells. Males are more likely than females to be victims, as are Hispanic and black students. Other important factors include student behavior and activities, such as substance abuse, mental health symptoms, belief in violence, school misbehavior, and prior exposure to violence. The Authors Identify 12 Types of School Safety Technologies - The technologies identified include employing entry control equipment, ID technology, video surveillance, and school-site alarm and protection systems. Other technologies identified were metal detectors and X-ray machines, anonymous tip lines, tracking systems, mapping schools and bus routes, using violence prediction technology, and social media monitoring. Recommendations The authors identify several areas with the potential for improving safety in U.S. schools. These include investments in communication strategies, comprehensive school safety plans, improved tip lines, and improved upkeep of technology. Schools need better information on what works; technology developers should test their technology solutions in real-world settings; and schools should develop an all-hazards safety plan, examine the underlying psychological and social problems that lead to school violence, make sure that the technology being considered will integrate with the school's current system, and identify the school's needs, budget, and community values before selecting a technology. Details: Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2016. 148p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 27, 2016 at: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1400/RR1488/RAND_RR1488.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1400/RR1488/RAND_RR1488.pdf Shelf Number: 140059 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimesSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Lapointe, David Audet dit Title: Teacher Perception of School Safety Between Mississippi Secondary Schools With School Resource Officers And School Safety Officers Summary: The purpose of the study was to determine if there was a significant difference in the perception of school safety by teachers between secondary schools that employ School Resource Officers (SROs), who are armed, and School Safety Officers (SSOs), who are unarmed or a combination of SROs and SSOs. The School Resource Officers and School Climate Teacher Survey, created by Dr. Amy Oaks (2001), was utilized to gather data. The 193 participants of the study included certified teachers at secondary schools in the Jackson Public School District, the Jackson County Public School District, and the Ocean Springs School District. A Pearson Chi-Square test was conducted to determine if there was a significant difference in the perception of safety between the two groups. In all items analyzed, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in the perception of school safety with the SRO group perceiving their schools as being safer than the teachers in the SRO/SSO group. In an environment in which the issue of school safety is becoming an increasingly important topic, the perception of teachers working in these schools is vital. Details: Hattiesburg, MS: University of Southern Mississippi, 2016. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 8, 2016 at: http://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357&context=dissertations Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357&context=dissertations Shelf Number: 145080 Keywords: School CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Parkes, Jenny Title: A Rigorous Review of Global Research Evidence on Policy Summary: This rigorous literature review was commissioned by UNICEF, with the aim of examining research evidence on approaches to addressing school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV). While the scope of the review was global, an emphasis was placed on research in low- and middle-income countries. The review addressed the following questions: 1. What does research evidence tell us about the kinds of policies and practices being used to address SRGBV, and in what contexts, around the world? What concepts and ideas underpin these interventions, and what are the implications for addressing SRGBV? 2. What is the evidence on how interventions on SRGBV engage with education policy processes at and across national, district and local levels, and with contextual features, including political, economic and social conditions? 3. How can research evidence and data-gathering tools be used effectively to inform policy and practice on SRGBV across a range of settings? The conceptual approach taken viewed SRGBV as multi-dimensional, including physical, sexual and psychological acts of violence that are underpinned by norms, stereotypes and inequalities and shaped by institutions. Details: London: University College London, Institute of Education, 2016. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 13, 2016 at: http://www.unicef.org/education/files/SRGBV_review_FINAL_V1_web_version.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://www.unicef.org/education/files/SRGBV_review_FINAL_V1_web_version.pdf Shelf Number: 145893 Keywords: Gender-Related ViolenceSchool ViolenceSexual ViolenceViolence Against Girls |
Author: University of Cincinnati. Office of Safety and Reform Title: Final Report for the Comprehensive Review of the University of Cincinnati Police Department Summary: The shooting death of Samuel DuBose is a tragedy that shook the University of Cincinnati (the "University" or "UC"), its Police Department (the "Department" or "UCPD") and the Cincinnati community to their core. In the wake of that tragedy, the University Administration has commendably taken a series of steps to determine what led to the shooting and how to best ensure that mistakes of the past are never repeated. One such step was the engagement of the Exiger team to perform a comprehensive review of UCPD. Over the last four months the Exiger team has spoken to a significant number of members of the University faculty, staff, administration, student body, as well as numerous Cincinnati residents and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in an effort to fully understand the improvements that are necessary to help transform UCPD into a model law enforcement agency by combining best practices of urban, university and community policing. This is the Exiger team's final report in which we present our findings and recommendations for remediation and reform of the organization. Many of the recommended reforms are significantly underway, some being undertaken even prior to our arrival. Our report consists of this Introductory Section, an Executive Summary including the "Fundamental Recommendations" which form the foundation for UCPD to become the model agency toward which it strives; a background section that covers the history of the UCPD, and the incident that gave rise to this assignment; a section outlining the scope of the assignment; followed by a section on the methodology utilized for completion of the assignment; and finally, a section containing the biographies of the members of the Exiger team. This is followed by a series of sections that cover each of the subject matter areas specified in the Request for Proposal. All told, there are 14 Fundamental Findings with 25 corresponding Recommendations, and there are 115 additional findings with 251 specific recommendations which the team believes, if implemented, will collectively transform the Department. Details: Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati, 2016. 136p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/safety-reform/documents/FINAL%20REPORT.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/safety-reform/documents/FINAL%20REPORT.pdf Shelf Number: 145872 Keywords: Campus PoliceCampus SecurityColleges and UniversitiesSchool Violence |
Author: Leoschut, Lezanne Title: Carrying it Forward: Overcoming Violence as a Barrier to Education in Mozambique Summary: Mozambique has been described 'as a dialectic between forces of integration and those of disintegration'. This is perhaps because Mozambique's past has been fraught with colliding ecological, social and political challenges that have left much of the population fractured by violence. The country's long civil war (1977-9), which started shortly after independence, had a devastating effect on the population. Some 4-5 million civilians were displaced and fled to refugee camps in Zambia and Malawi. At least a million people were killed as a result of the war, and even more children were orphaned. A further feature of the war was the systematic destruction of Mozambique's economic infrastructure. The country's education system did not escape this devastation. Half of all primary schools in rural areas were damaged; 840 schools were destroyed or closed, which affected more than 150,000 children. Following the war, Mozambique has embarked on several reform processes in an attempt to stabilise the economy and alleviate poverty. In addition, the realisation that education is critical to national development has resulted in the creation of key pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the quality and accessibility of education in the country. Despite these achievements, however, many problems persist. Even though the Constitution of Mozambique declares education a right and a duty of every citizen, less than half the population are literate, with the illiteracy rate for women estimated at 71%. Since the Millennium Development Goals and Education For All objectives were established in 1999, donors to Mozambique have increased their contributions to the expansion and reform of the country's education system. Funding, however, still falls short of meeting all the educational needs of children in Mozambique, specifically girl children. The right of children to education is arguably one of the most significant of all human rights. All children have the right to education - but this education must be provided in a safe context, free of violence. If not, their right to dignity and security, and to live in safety, free from violence, also becomes unobtainable. Children's right to education is of critical importance in countries characterised by poverty, under-development and high levels of inequality. When this right is denied, a great number of opportunities for self-advancement are inevitably also denied. Recent experience in South Africa has drawn attention to the importance of addressing school-related violence by adopting an evidence-based approach that takes into consideration the local context. However, little nationally representative data on the experiences of violence against children as a barrier to education and as an infringement on human rights exists in the region, with the exception of South Africa and Malawi. This monograph details the findings of a study aimed at bridging this statistical gap. To this end, the study was designed to: - collect scientifically based, reliable quantitative and qualitative data on the extent, nature and implications of school-related violence against children in three Southern African Development Community countries; - add substantially to the local and regional body of knowledge on children, young people, violence and education within each country; - contribute to the sharing of research skills and capacity building within each country; and - further regional and international advocacy efforts focusing on the prevention of violence against girls. For the purpose of the study, the term 'violence' was used to encompass structural, direct and indirect forms of violence, as well as cultural practices that may be harmful to children and inhibit their access to education. In Mozambique, 499 youths aged 12-9 years were randomly selected from areas in and around Maputo. Since the study was exploratory in nature it was not designed to be generalisable to all children in Mozambique. Thus, although the results presented in this monograph provide a glimpse of the violence experienced by young people in the country, it needs to be remembered that the findings are specific to the capital city, Maputo. In line with recent increases in Mozambique's school enrollment rates, school attendance was high among those surveyed. However, the quality of learning was often found to be compromised due to violence within the school environment - an international phenomenon that is not peculiar to Africa. The study results show that some learners in Mozambique are directly victimised at school, while others, although not personally affected by violent incidents at school, are keenly aware of such victimisation and often witness it. Actual or direct victimisation reported in the study encompassed threats of harm or violence (36.4%), verbal insults or teasing (33.1%), physical attacks (19.6%), sexual assaults (being forced to do things with their body against their will) (4.2%) as well as being forced to do other things they felt were wrong and did not want to do (7.1%). In addition to direct experiences of violence, learners often had to contend with other school-related issues that make it nearly impossible to receive quality education. These included poor resource allocation, lack of physical infrastructure, high learner-teacher ratios, overcrowded classrooms, lack of textbooks and other school materials, and a high percentage of unqualified educators. Despite these issues, learners generally demonstrated a favourable attitude towards their schooling. The violence occurring at schools was often a reflection of what was happening in these young people's homes and communities. Addictive substances such as alcohol (67.8%), marijuana (27.4%) and other drugs (25.6%) were found to be easily accessible by those interviewed. This is concerning given that such access tends to increase the likelihood of violence occurring within a community. Not surprisingly, violence exposure in the areas in which the participants live was common. One in two youths had personally witnessed someone being hit or punched one or more times in their community. Nearly two-thirds had witnessed people in their community being pushed, grabbed or shoved one or more times, while more than a tenth of the sample had observed someone in their community being threatened or assaulted with a weapon, shot, sexually harassed or kidnapped by armed forces one or more times. Young people were also subjected to violence in the home, both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, cultural beliefs and traditions pertaining to gender were found to contribute to gender-based violence in the home. These beliefs also impacted on children's access to education, particularly for young girls who tend to be kept out of school to assist with household responsibilities and because parents fail to see the significance of educating girls. Violence infringes on children's right to learn in a safe and protected environment. The study demonstrates that children in Mozambique have very few spaces where they are safe and free from the threat of violence. Mozambique does have an extensive legislative framework in place to address issues related to education and violence. In addition to the Constitution and various national policies, Mozambique has ratified several international laws and conventions; however, these laws are not enforced at a practical level. Based on the study findings, several recommendations are made herein, which, if implemented, would go some way towards ensuring that education -and more specifically, quality education -becomes a reality for all in Mozambique. Details: Cape Town, South Africa: Centre for Justice and Criminal Prevention, 2011. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Monograph Series, No. 9: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: http://www.cjcp.org.za/uploads/2/7/8/4/27845461/monograph_9_-_carrying_it_forward_mozambique.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Mozambique URL: http://www.cjcp.org.za/uploads/2/7/8/4/27845461/monograph_9_-_carrying_it_forward_mozambique.pdf Shelf Number: 140819 Keywords: School CrimesSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Fisher, Benjamin W. Title: School Resource Officers, Exclusionary Discipline, and the Role of Context Summary: In recent years, students have been excluded from school at consistently high rates, even as school crime rates have declined. Moreover, students of color are excluded at disproportionately high rates compared to their White peers. Although researchers have found these patterns across a variety of contexts, there has been little research that examines school-level mechanisms that may contribute to the high overall rates of exclusionary discipline and the attendant racial disparities. This dissertation focuses on two possible mechanisms that have been theoretically linked to increased rates of exclusionary discipline: school resource officers (SROs) and zero-tolerance approaches to discipline. Study 1 used 14 years of data from Tennessee high schools to model trends in suspension rates before and after the implementation of SROs using a latent growth curve modeling approach. The findings indicated that SRO implementation was associated with lower overall suspension rates and lower suspension rates for Black students, and no changes for White studentsâ suspension rates or racial disparities in suspension rates. Study 2 examined the relation between the combination of SROs and a high zero-tolerance approach and schoolsâ rates of exclusionary discipline using a nationally representative sample of public high schools. A series of three-way interaction models with an ordinary least squares regression framework indicated that schools that had SROs in combination with a high zero-tolerance approach to discipline had higher overall rates of exclusionary discipline in schools characterized by higher proportions of racial minority students and other indicators of disadvantage. Together, these studies suggest that SROs and zero-tolerance approaches to discipline may not be universally appropriate mechanisms for reducing rates of exclusionary discipline. Instead, school context is an important consideration when forming strategies to reduce student exclusions. Details: Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, 2016. 144p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed February 17, 2017 at: http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04112016-110120/unrestricted/Benjamin_W_Fisher.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04112016-110120/unrestricted/Benjamin_W_Fisher.pdf Shelf Number: 141077 Keywords: Racial Disparities School Crime School Discipline School Resource Officers School Security School ViolenceZero Tolerance |
Author: Nguyen, Thi Thu Hang Title: School Violence: Evidence from Young Lives in Vietnam Summary: The issue of school violence in Vietnam has previously been addressed in some papers, but only with reference to a specific locality or combined with other issues under the broader theme of child abuse. However, news about school violence is now appearing in Vietnam's national daily media at an increased frequency and intensity, and attracting general public attention. Despite the existence of legal regulations related to child protection in general and prohibiting school violence in particular, cases of school violence still appear regularly in the media. This raises questions about the enforcement of current legislation and whether the key causes of violence have been properly addressed. There is no generally applicable definition of school violence but the term "school violence" used in this paper includes both acts of violence and bullying among students and those performed by teachers on students within the school grounds. In terms of physical violence, quantitative evidence from the Young Lives study shows a higher level of fighting reported by 8-year-olds in 2009, as compared with children of the same age in 2002. Such incidents were common among students in the sample, regardless of their economic status. The data from Young Lives also allow us to track changes in the rate of physical violence as the same group of children grow up (so picking up differences by child age). The rate of children beaten by other children more than tripled between Rounds 1 and 2 (when the Older Cohort were aged 8 and 12). In contrast, cases where teachers beat students dropped from 3.84 per cent in Round 1 to an insignificant level in Round 2. However, when comparing 8-year-old children at two different times (2002 and 2009), we see an increasing trend in physical violence across the board. Analysis of emotional violence was more difficult because the data recorded both answers by caregivers and by students themselves. It is interesting that students reported a lower rate of peer bullying (19.7 per cent) than that reported by caregivers (24.8 per cent). Results from the qualitative data collected from interviews with 36 of the Young Lives children uncovered the long-term impact of school violence as well as its causes. Causes of violence among students vary greatly, and sometimes there is no explicit reason. Therefore, more weight should be given to preventative measures such as improving children?s life skills or raising their awareness about the impacts of school violence. Responses from parents and school to violence among students are very important. The ways in which violence is addressed and disputes are settled can have long-term, even lifelong, impacts on children's futures. The right intervention, therefore, requires effort and closer co-operation between families and schools. Key policy implications of this paper include closer cooperation between the school, family, community and police, accompanied by the introduction of life skills for children into the school curriculum, training in positive discipline for teachers and better data collection. Details: Oxford, UK: Young Lives, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Young Lives Vietnam Policy Paper 1: Accessed March 29, 2017 at: http://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-Vietnam-PP1.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Vietnam URL: http://www.younglives.org.uk/sites/www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-Vietnam-PP1.pdf Shelf Number: 144624 Keywords: Child ProtectionSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Kelly, Brian P. Title: K-12 and the Active Shooter: Principals' Perceptions of Armed Personnel in New Jersey District Factor Group GH Public Schools Summary: The purpose of this study was to explore the predicament school principals face when formulating the best methodology to provide a safe environment for their students and faculty, while simultaneously creating an atmosphere that is conducive to education. This multiple-case study is a replication of a dissertation published in 2014 which explored a unique phenomenon containing multiple variables within an urban public school district. Conversely, this research study examined suburban public school districts within communities that possessed a median household salary ranging between $86,000 and $105,000, where the socioeconomic status of these schools is identified and delineated by New Jersey District Factor Group GH, as designated by the New Jersey Department of Education. Twenty-one school principals were interviewed to collect evidence of their perceptions in relation to utilizing armed personnel in their schools. The literature on school shootings and armed personnel in schools was thoroughly reviewed. This literature consisted of peer-reviewed articles and federal and state laws, as well as books and ancillary studies and articles depicting the contemporary climate of school shootings in our nation. Through the face-to-face interviews I conducted with the school principals, this research study examined the perceptions of the principals as they related to school safety, armed personnel, policies and procedures, mental health, and communications safety, armed personnel, policies and procedures, mental health, and communications among all stakeholders within the scope of their employment as administrators. The results of this study provided valuable information, which I was able to vividly articulate into recommendations for future research, policy, and practice. Details: South Orange, NJ: Seton Hall University, 2016. 203p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 21, 2017 at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1820870493/fulltextPDF/6A02C956DAB84BF7PQ/1?accountid=13626 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1820870493/fulltextPDF/6A02C956DAB84BF7PQ/1?accountid=13626 Shelf Number: 146802 Keywords: School AdministrationSchool SafetySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Irwin-Rogers, Keir Title: Safer Schools: Keeping gang culture outside the gates Summary: All children and young people are entitled to be educated in a safe and nurturing environment. When youth gang culture enters a school, this can put the safety of pupils and staff at risk and create challenging environments for teachers to educate their pupils. Schools with a gang presence are more likely than other schools to experience high rates of violence, a decline in pupils' educational engagement and school attachment, and challenges around the possession of weapons and the use and distribution of drugs. There is nothing inevitable, however, about gang culture permeating through a school's gates. This report provides a first-of-its-kind insight into pupil gang involvement in Alternative Provision (AP) schools, presenting the findings of research conducted in five AP schools across three UK cities. It sets out a positive vision for the future, highlighting AP approaches to addressing pupil gang involvement, and revealing the successful steps that schools can take to improve the safety and security of their schools. Pupils are typically referred to AP because of behavioural, emotional and social difficulties, and a general disengagement from mainstream education. The most up-to-date UK statistics show that there were around 20,500 young people in AP in 2015, with projected figures set to remain stable until 2020. The research had two main aims: (1) to explore the extent and ways in which pupil gang involvement raises challenges for schools; and (2) to identify best practice for schools in responding to these challenges. Details: London: Catch 22, 2016. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 28, 2017 at: https://www.catch-22.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Catch22-Dawes-Unit-Safer-Schools-Full-Report.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.catch-22.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Catch22-Dawes-Unit-Safer-Schools-Full-Report.pdf Shelf Number: 146920 Keywords: Gangs School Crime School Security School ViolenceYouth Gangs |
Author: Goodrum, Sarah Title: Report on the Arapahoe High School Shooting: Lessons Learned on Information Sharing, Threat Assessment, and Systems Integrity Summary: To better understand how the December 13, 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School, in which senior Karl Pierson (hereafter, referred to as KP3 ) shot and killed Claire Davis and then himself, might be prevented, the Arapahoe High School Community Fund Honoring Claire Davis, a donor-advised fund of The Denver Foundation, approached the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado Boulder to assist with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data obtained from an arbitration proceeding in the case. The purpose was to understand the school's threat and risk assessment procedures and responses, and the lessons that might be learned from this incident that could improve youth violence prevention in school settings in Colorado and the U.S. The data for the report came from the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office's (ACSO) investigation materials, Littleton Public School's (LPS) interrogatory responses, deposition exhibits, and deposition testimony. The principal investigators attended most of the depositions and reviewed all of the documents produced by ACSO and LPS. The findings revealed three major failures within AHS and LPS in the months and years leading up to the shooting: (1) a failure of information sharing, (2) a failure of threat assessment, and (3) a failure of systems thinking. While not the focus of this report, preliminary evidence indicates that AHS staff and LPS administrators have made several changes in their approach to school safety since 2013, and those changes represent important steps in the right direction To better understand how the December 13, 2013 shooting at Arapahoe High School, in which senior Karl Pierson (hereafter, referred to as KP3 ) shot and killed Claire Davis and then himself, might be prevented, the Arapahoe High School Community Fund Honoring Claire Davis, a donor-advised fund of The Denver Foundation, approached the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado Boulder to assist with the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data obtained from an arbitration proceeding in the case. The purpose was to understand the school's threat and risk assessment procedures and responses, and the lessons that might be learned from this incident that could improve youth violence prevention in school settings in Colorado and the U.S. The data for the report came from the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office's (ACSO) investigation materials, Littleton Public School's (LPS) interrogatory responses, deposition exhibits, and deposition testimony. The principal investigators attended most of the depositions and reviewed all of the documents produced by ACSO and LPS. The findings revealed three major failures within AHS and LPS in the months and years leading up to the shooting: (1) a failure of information sharing, (2) a failure of threat assessment, and (3) a failure of systems thinking. While not the focus of this report, preliminary evidence indicates that AHS staff and LPS administrators have made several changes in their approach to school safety since 2013, and those changes represent important steps in the right direction leading the school staff to believe that they would be more liable if they had shared information about KP's concerning behaviors, than if they had not. Second, the Sheriff's Report clearly states that at least ten AHS students had substantive concerns about KP's anger problems and gun ownership prior to the shooting, but only one student reported their concern to a counselor and no students reported their concerns to Safe2Tell (see ACSO Report, pp. 10-11). If just one student or teacher, had called Safe2Tell, this tragedy might have been averted. At the time of the shooting and as of July 2015, LPS and AHS administrators did not have a policy regarding Safe2Tell training and did not require that students or staff receive training on the Safe2Tell system. In fact, the information shared about Safe2Tell at AHS was limited to a sticker on the back of student identification cards, posters displayed in the school hallways, and a PowerPoint slide displayed in the cafeteria. Third, AHS and LPS failed to implement an Interagency Information Sharing Agreement to facilitate the sharing of vital information about an individual's safety concerns with law enforcement, juvenile justice, and social services agencies, which is recommended by Colorado statute (SB 00-133), the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV), and the Colorado School Safety Resource Center (see the CSSRC's Essentials of School Threat Assessment: Preventing Targeted School Violence, LPS 03421-03443). Details: Boulder, CO: Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV) at the University of Colorado Boulder, 2016. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 6, 2017 at: http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/publications/AHS-Report/Report_on_the_Arapahoe_High_School_Shooting_FINAL.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/publications/AHS-Report/Report_on_the_Arapahoe_High_School_Shooting_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 147035 Keywords: Information SharingSchool SafetySchool ShootingsSchool ViolenceThreat AssessmentViolence Prevention |
Author: U.S. National Institute of Justice Title: Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Out Nation's Schools Safe! Volume V Summary: In this fifth volume of Sharing Ideas and Resources To Keep Our Nation's Schools Safe, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Justice Technology Information Center (JTIC), part of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System, present a new compilation of articles posted on the SchoolSafetyInfo.org website in the past year. While at first glance these articles seem to profile a wide variety of projects and programs, all of them have at least one thing in common. That is, their planners, coordinators and organizers told us the same thing: We want to help other schools. We want them to know what we're doing, and we want them to feel free to call us with questions, to help them start similar projects of their own. In 2017, schools, law enforcement agencies and communities keep on coming together across the United States as they create innovative and groundbreaking solutions to the persistent problems of violence, bullying, security breaches, gang tensions and social media abuse. For the past five years, SchoolSafetyInfo. org has worked toward ensuring that schools and school administrators, local law enforcement agencies and school resource officers know that they're not alone in their quest to make their schools safer, that others are working toward the same goal. We reach out to small rural school districts and to federal government agencies, and we always get the same answer: "We're taking a proactive approach here, and we want the rest of the country to know about it." These are just some of the projects you'll read about in this fifth volume: - Training for school bus drivers that emphasizes good communications skills and situational awareness. - A free video on how to handle bomb threats. - A simple reverse checkout procedure initiated by a school in rural Alabama. - A New Jersey program for a new class of Special Law Enforcement Officers. - A wide-ranging bullying prevention program that started with a group of concerned students. Details: Washington, DC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center, 2017. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: https://justnet.org/pdf/Sharing-Ideas-and-Resources-Schools%20Safe_Vol5.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://justnet.org/pdf/Sharing-Ideas-and-Resources-Schools%20Safe_Vol5.pdf Shelf Number: 147394 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: U.S. National Institute of Justice Title: Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Our Nation's Schools Safe! Volume IV Summary: Apps. Databases. Tiplines. Videos. Educational campaigns. Throughout the United States, schools, law enforcement agencies and communities keep on coming together, continuing to create innovative and groundbreaking solutions to the persistent problems of violence, bullying, security breaches, gang tensions and social media abuse. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Justice Technology Information Center (JTIC), part of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System, bring you more of these solutions in this fourth volume of Sharing Ideas and Resources to Keep Our Nation's Schools Safe. We want you to know about the people who are searching for, and finding, positive ways to address these problems. We want to tell you about the technologies and strategies that are working across the country, and we want to hear from you about what's going on in your area. In addition to the success stories that fill the three previous volumes in this series, we continually post new ones on SchoolSafetyInfo.org, the JTIC website dedicated to school safety news, information and technology. In addition to downloadable files of Volumes I, II and III, our site includes links to a wide range of resources and materials produced at the federal, state and association levels, and provides access to school safety-related publications and videos from NIJ and the NLECTC System. You can also learn about School Safe - JTIC's Security and Safety Assessment App for Schools, and obtain instructions on how to download it. In this fourth volume, you will read about an educational video on cybersafety produced by a concerned law enforcement officer in Georgia; new approaches to training implemented by the Indiana State Police and the campus police at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst; a free campus safety app developed by a team of students at the University of Michigan; an educational campaign produced by high school students in Connecticut; and a number of other school-community-law enforcement collaborative projects. Details: Washington, DC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center, 2016. 104p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: https://justnet.org/pdf/00-Sharing%20Resources_Vol4_FINAL_508_06282016.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://justnet.org/pdf/00-Sharing%20Resources_Vol4_FINAL_508_06282016.pdf Shelf Number: 147395 Keywords: CybercrimeCybersecuritySchool Bullying School Crime School Resource Officers School Safety School Security School Violence |
Author: U.S. National Institute of Justice Title: Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Out Nation's Schools Safe! Volume III Summary: From the blue-jacketed volunteers helping to de-escalate tension in Pennsylvania to the teens taking a stand against bullying in Tennessee - and throughout the rest of the United States - schools, law enforcement agencies and communities continue to come together to create innovative and groundbreaking solutions to the persistent problems of violence, bullying, security breaches, gang tensions and social media abuse. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System bring you more of these solutions in this third volume of Sharing Ideas and Resources to Keep Our Nation's Schools Safe. We want you to know about the people who are searching for, and finding, positive ways to address these problems. We want to tell you about the technologies and strategies that are working across the country, and we want to hear from you about what's going on in your area. In addition to the success stories that fill the two previous volumes in this series, we continually post new ones on SchoolSafetyInfo.org, the NLECTC website dedicated to school safety news, information and technology. In addition to downloadable files of Volumes I and II, our site includes links to a wide range of resources at the federal, state and association levels, and access to school safety-related publications and videos from NIJ and the NLECTC System. In this third volume, beside the stories mentioned above that open and close the volume, you will read about school safety-related programs from national agencies such as the National White Collar Crime Center, the National Crime Prevention Council and the National Center for Campus Public Safety; efforts at the state level from Illinois, Alabama and Michigan; and community efforts ranging from smartphone apps to cops in the classroom, from gunshot detection systems to job-specific school safety training. Details: Washington, DC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), 2015. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: https://justnet.org/pdf/Sharing-Ideas-and-ResourcesVol3_web%2006112015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://justnet.org/pdf/Sharing-Ideas-and-ResourcesVol3_web%2006112015.pdf Shelf Number: 147396 Keywords: School Bullying School Crime School Resource Officers School Safety School Security School Violence |
Author: U.S. National Institute of Justice Title: Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Out Nation's Schools Safe! Volume II Summary: By now you have read the headlines, watched the videos and heard the stories. Shootings and violent incidents are occurring in schools and communities across the country. While people compile, assess, verify and/or dispute statistics, the drumbeat of violence escalates and media reports show shocking details. Against this backdrop, it is easy to conclude that "Somebody needs to do something." The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) want you to know that many people are doing many positive things to address the problems. We want you to know who they are and what they are doing. Like the news media, we are sharing stories. But our stories have better outcomes. We are chronicling the success stories amid all the bad news. We are bringing you the technologies and strategies that have worked for real people across the country to prepare, respond and recover when violence occurs. These stories come straight from those who are making schools safer - the law enforcement officers and other first responders, school administrators, students and community members who can tell you what worked for them. The good news is we've got enough success stories to fill two published volumes and to continually update www.schoolsafetyinfo.org, NLECTC's website dedicated to school safety news, information and technology. That's a lot of good news to offset the bad. In this second edition of Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Our Nation's School Safe!, you will read about school safety-related programs from federal agencies such as the FBI and the U.S. Department of Education; efforts at the state level; and cooperative efforts in local communities. New projects and ideas range from smartphone apps to shared camera systems, training classes to online videos, direct radio connections to devices that secure doors. Details: Washington, DC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), 2014. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: https://justnet.org/pdf/00-Sharing%20Ideas_Vol2-JUSTNET%20508%200715.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://justnet.org/pdf/00-Sharing%20Ideas_Vol2-JUSTNET%20508%200715.pdf Shelf Number: 147397 Keywords: School Bullying School Crime School Resource Officers School Safety School Security School Violence |
Author: U.S. National Institute of Justice Title: Sharing Ideas & Resources to Keep Out Nation's Schools Safe! Volume I Summary: Tragic events lead to new prevention and response strategies. We recognize that there are dangers in our communities and in our schools. These realities call for an enhanced focus on safety. The decades-old school fire drill has evolved to active shooter/ threat drills as threats have escalated and materialized, often with tragic outcomes. Our nation is seeking new and innovative ways to keep children and adults safe in school settings. Far from simply developing techniques to respond efficiently to an active incident, public safety officials are also exploring technologies to gauge and prevent potential crises. And they are sharing their ideas and results. Across the country, entire communities are rallying and dedicating themselves to being proactive in preventing school violence. There is much talk about how existing programs can be reinvigorated, what new technologies can be created and how training tools can be distributed to school resource officers (SROs), administrators and local law enforcement agencies. Modern threats are being addressed with modern technology, strategy and resolve. The U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is a leader in identifying and sharing new training and technology with law enforcement and other first responders. Since Congress passed the Safe Schools Initiative 15 years ago, NIJ has worked collaboratively with other federal agencies on behalf of our nation's law enforcement to answer the call to develop tools and strategies to boost security in our schools. Front-line professionals are working more closely with teachers and administrators, students, parents and community leaders to create alliances that will transform our nation's schools. NIJ, through the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), is helping communities gather and share their success stories in this publication and at SchoolSafetyInfo.org. In this guide, you will read about new uses for familiar, standard-bearing technologies such as: - Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT). - NIJ's School Critical Incident Planning-Generator (SCIP-G) tool. - NLECTC System video "It Can Happen Here." - Free online training from International Association of Chiefs of Police. - School Safety Audits. In addition, you will read about new products and apps such as: - Anne Arundel County (Md.) Police Department's Speak Out app. - Tucson's Mass Casualty Trauma Kits. - SmartPhone app for students to communicate with police. - See-Hear-Report text a tip program. - Real Time Location Systems (RTLS). This guide also reports on unique collaborative community efforts that are succeeding in cities and rural areas alike. Details: Washington, DC: National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), 2013. 82p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 19, 2017 at: https://www.justnet.org/pdf/SharingResources_508.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.justnet.org/pdf/SharingResources_508.pdf Shelf Number: 147398 Keywords: School Bullying School Crime School Resource Officers School Safety School Security School Violence |
Author: U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Bureau of Investigation Title: Active Shooter Incidents in the United States from 2000-2016 Summary: This document contains a list of active shooter incidents in the United States that have been identified by the FBI from 2000 through the end of 2016. Details: Washington, DC: FBI, 2017. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 31, 2018 at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/activeshooter_incidents_2001-2016.pdf/view Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/activeshooter_incidents_2001-2016.pdf/view Shelf Number: 148945 Keywords: Active Shooter IncidentsGun ViolenceGun-Related Violence (U.S.)HomicidesMass HomicidesSchool ViolenceViolent CrimeWorkplace Violence |
Author: Corboz, Julienne Title: Children's Experience of and Perpetration of Violence in Schools: Baseline Evaluation of a Peace Education and Prevention of Violence Program in Jawzjan province, Afghanistan Summary: This report presents the findings of a baseline study conducted to evaluate a peace education and prevention of violence intervention implemented by Help the Afghan Children (HTAC) in Jawzjan province, Afghanistan. This intervention is being implemented and evaluated as part of the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls? Global Programme, funded by UK aid. HTAC's intervention aims to prevent violence perpetrated against children and between children by implementing peace education programming in schools and communities based on a comprehensive peace education curriculum and complemented by interventions aimed to reduce teacher use of corporal punishment, and work with families and communities to promote more equitable gender norms and reduce the use of violence against women and children. The baseline study involved surveying 770 students (350 boys and 420 girls) in grades seven and eight, and 400 teachers (85 male teachers and 315 female teachers), in 11 schools in Jawzjan province where HTAC is implementing its peace education curriculum The baseline findings indicate that children's experience of violence at home and at school is highly prevalent. A fifth of girls and a slightly smaller proportion of boys reported having experienced any physical beating at home in the past month, and more than a third of girls and an even higher proportion of boys reported having experienced corporal punishment by teachers at school in the past month. Although a large proportion of teachers (35.5%) also reported using corporal punishment in school, most reported using verbal punishment rather than physical punishment, which may indicate that teachers were more reluctant to disclose using violent methods to discipline children, particularly given the illegal status of corporal punishment in schools. The baseline study found that the most significant factors associated with teacher use of corporal punishment in schools are teachers having fewer years of teaching and their use of negative behaviours such as being unprepared for lessons, missing classes and arriving late for class or leaving early. Children's reports of peer violence at school are also highly prevalent. Very large proportions of children, including almost half of boys and a slightly smaller proportion of girls, reported having been the victims of violence perpetrated by peers in the past month. While boys are more likely to be the victims of peer violence, they are also much more likely to perpetrate violence against their peers than girls, with almost a third of boys reporting being perpetrators compared with almost a fifth of girls. Boys are also more likely than girls to play both roles as the victim and perpetrator of violence against their peers. Details: Kabal: Help the Afghan Children, 2017. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 12, 2018 at: http://www.whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/166-htac-baseline-report-final-clean/file Year: 2017 Country: Afghanistan URL: http://www.whatworks.co.za/documents/publications/166-htac-baseline-report-final-clean/file Shelf Number: 149091 Keywords: Children and Violence Corporal Punishment Educational Programs Intervention Peer Violence School Discipline School ViolenceViolence Against Women, Girls Violence Prevention |
Author: Newman, Graeme R. Title: Bomb Threats in Schools Summary: The guide begins by describing the problem and reviewing factors that increase the risk of bomb threats in schools. The guide then identifies a series of questions that might assist you in analyzing the local problem of bomb threats in schools. Finally, the guide reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice. The scope of this guide is limited to bomb threats in schools, public or private, kindergarten through 12 th grade. Colleges and universities are excluded because they generally differ from schools. Their organization and administration differ; they have their own police within the university community; and many universities do not have a physically identifiable perimeter as schools do. In fact, college campuses have much more in common with other public service organizations, such as health services, entertainment venues and, to some extent, shopping malls. While there are a number of common responses to bomb threats that apply to almost any setting, the environment of schools is sufficiently different to warrant separate consideration. The feature that distinguishes a bomb threat from other kinds of assaults and threats is that it is primarily a furtive crime - or at least a crime that can be committed from a distance. Modern communications make it possible for offenders to communicate their threat without having to physically confront the targets at the time of the threat or even at the time of the assault. Many assaults or destructive acts in schools follow threats, or constitute threats in themselves. The reason why an offender might choose a bomb as the carrier of the threat over some other item or implement of destruction and injury (e.g., assault weapons, arson) is unknown, though the immediate, disruptive action it causes is surely part of the reason. Certain kinds of injury and damage may also be enhanced by a bombing, such as arson achieved through an explosive device. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2005. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Problem-Specific Guides Series; Problem-Oriented Guides for Police No. 32: Accessed March 1, 2018 at: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/pdfs/BombThreats.pdf Year: 2005 Country: United States URL: http://www.popcenter.org/problems/pdfs/BombThreats.pdf Shelf Number: 96682 Keywords: Boom ThreatsExplosivesSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Diliberti, Melissa Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2015-16 First Look Summary: This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools,1 using data from the 2015-16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2016). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009- 10, and 2015-16, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education and supported by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, SSOCS asks public school principals about the prevalence of violent and serious violent crimes in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school security measures, disciplinary problems and actions, school security staff, the availability of mental health services in schools, and the programs and policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools. SSOCS:2016 is based on a nationally representative stratified random sample of 3,553 U.S. public schools. Data collection began on February 22, 2016, when questionnaires were mailed to principals, and continued through July 5, 2016. A total of 2,092 public primary, middle, high, and combined schools provided complete questionnaires, yielding a response rate of approximately 63 percent once the responding schools were weighted to account for their original sampling probabilities. Per NCES Statistical Standards, a unit nonresponse bias analysis was performed due to the weighted response rate being less than 85 percent. The results suggest the characteristics of nonresponding schools differed significantly from those of responding schools. However, the unit nonresponse bias analysis also provided evidence that the nonresponse weighting adjustments used for SSOCS:2016 removed the observed nonresponse bias in characteristics known for both respondents and nonrespondents. This suggests that the weighting adjustments likely mitigated nonresponse bias in the SSOCS:2016 survey estimates, although some bias may remain after adjustment. For more information about the methodology and design of SSOCS, including how response rates were calculated and the details of the nonresponse bias analysis, please see Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes in this report. Because the purpose of this report is to introduce new NCES data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information, only selected findings are presented below. These findings have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using SSOCS:2016 data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences. For a more detailed description of the variables presented in the tables, please see Appendix C: Description of Variables in this report. The tables in this report contain totals and percentages generated from bivariate crosstabulation procedures. All of the results are weighted to represent the population of U.S. public schools. The comparisons drawn in the bulleted items below have been tested for statistical significance at the .05 level using Student's t statistic to ensure that the differences are larger than those that might be expected due to sampling variation. Adjustments for multiple comparisons were not included. Many of the variables examined are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored. Due to the large sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant; thus, only differences of 5 percentage points or more between groups are mentioned in the findings. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2017. 83p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 8, 2018 at: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017122.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017122.pdf Shelf Number: 149323 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: James, Nathan Title: School Resource Officers: Law Enforcement Officers in Schools Summary: Some policymakers have expressed renewed interest in school resource officers (SROs) as a result of the December 2012 mass shooting that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. SROs are sworn law enforcement officers who are assigned to work in schools. For FY2014, the Administration requested $150 million in funding for a Comprehensive Schools Safety Program under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. The proposed program would provide funding for hiring school safety personnel, including SROs, civilian public safety personnel, school psychologists, social workers, and counselors. Funding would also be available for purchasing school safety equipment, developing and updating public safety plans, conducting threat assessments, and training crisis intervention teams. Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that the number of full-time law enforcement officers employed by local police departments or sheriff's offices who were assigned to work as SROs increased between 1997 and 2003 before decreasing slightly in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available). Data show that a greater proportion of high schools, schools in cities, and schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more report having SROs. Two federal grant programs promoted SRO programs: the COPS in Schools (CIS) program, which was funded until FY2005, and State Formula Grants under the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA), which was funded until FY2009. The CIS program provided grants for hiring new, additional school resource officers to conduct community policing services in and around primary and secondary schools. Local educational agencies could use funds they received under the SDFSCA State Formula Grant program for, among other things, hiring and training school security personnel. The body of research on the effectiveness of SRO programs is limited, both in terms of the number of studies published and the methodological rigor of the studies conducted. The research that is available draws conflicting conclusions about whether SRO programs are effective at reducing school violence. Also, the research does not address whether SRO programs deter school shootings, one of the key reasons for renewed congressional interest in these programs. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Office, 2013. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: CRS R43126: Accessed march 14, 2018 at: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43126.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43126.pdf Shelf Number: 149462 Keywords: School CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Hall, Marquenta Sands Title: Functionality of School Resource Officer Arrests in Schools: Influencing factors and circumstances Summary: School resource officer programs, characterized as a major crime control model and violence prevention program have earned the designation as an effective prevention strategy to mitigate against student misconduct and violations of the law. This study explored school resource officers' perceptions of how arrests decisions influenced order within middle and high schools. The purpose of the study was to determine if a relationship existed between factors, circumstances, and the arrest decisions in middle and high schools. It was assumed the officers' decision to arrest or not arrest were dependent upon factors and circumstances that were interconnected to the functionality of maintaining social order within the school setting. The structural-functionalism theory offered a comprehensive approach to explore the relationship between the social structure of schools, functions of school resource officers and the impact of their arrests decisions in creating balance and stability in the school environment. For this study, the dependent variable was the arrest decisions of school resource officers and the independent variables were factors, circumstances and years of experience. The study hypothesized a correlation between the dependent variable (arrests decisions) and the independent variables, which were collapsed into three facets - factors, circumstances and years of experience. Although, it was presumed years of experience would influence arrests decisions, logistic regression analysis revealed it did not influence the arrest decision as much as the facet factors. The study further revealed females were more likely to arrest than males and more students were arrested at the high school level than at the middle school level. Academic achievement and criminal records were considered at the middle school level with little consideration in high school. Details: Minneapolis, MN: Capella University, 2015. 156p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed March 27, 2018 at: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1755643157.html?FMT=ABS Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1755643157.html?FMT=ABS Shelf Number: 149599 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplilneSchool Resource OfficersSchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: Payne, Allison Ann Title: Creating and Sustaining a Positive and Communal School Climate: Contemporary Research, Present Obstacles, and Future Directions Summary: Although school-related deaths, violent victimizations, and overall school crime have declined over the past two decades, crime and victimization in schools are still a cause for concern (Robers et al., 2015). As attention to school safety has increased over the past two decades, research has highlighted a variety of school-related factors shown to influence school disorder. Among these is school climate, the importance of which has been recognized for over a century (Perry, 1908; Dewey, 1916). Interest in school climate continues to grow, particularly as recent federal initiatives reflect increased recognition of the importance of school climate for positive youth development (U.S. Department of Education, 2010, 2014). School climate has a clear impact on all members of the school community. Students in schools with a positive and communal climate demonstrate stronger academic achievement and engagement, better socio-emotional health, and lower levels of absenteeism, truancy, dropping out, and victimization (Cohen and Geier, 2010; Payne et al., 2003). They also display lower levels of substance use and aggression, are subjected to fewer suspensions and expulsions, and engage in fewer deviant and criminal acts (Payne, 2008; Thapa et al., 2013). Additionally, teachers in a school with a positive and communal climate experience higher levels of efficacy, morale, and satisfaction, and lower levels of absenteeism, turnover, and victimization (Cohen and Geier, 2010; Gottfredson et al., 2005; NSCC, 2007; Payne et al. 2003). It is clear that this type of school climate has great influence on the safety and success of a school and the behavioral and academic outcomes of its students. Unfortunately, the benefits resulting from a positive and communal school climate have not been translated into effective educational practices. This "translation gap" - the gap between school climate research and policy - stems from several problems. One is the lack of an agreed-upon definition of school climate (NSCC, 2007). Researchers define school climate in countless ways and continue to debate the key components of a positive and communal school climate. While many focus on the relationships among school community members and the commonality of the school's goals, norms, and values, there is no consensus on a universal definition. Without a clear definition that fully articulates exactly what constitutes school climate, school leaders are left without a roadmap for school climate improvement, and the translation gap continues to widen. A second matter that contributes to the gap between research and policy stems from this lack of a universal definition. Because there is disagreement on what constitutes school climate, there is also disagreement on how it can best be assessed. This has led states, districts, and schools to use tools that have not been tested for reliability and validity or have come up short in this area, and that do not capture the comprehensive nature of school climate, either in terms of components or in terms of school community members (Cohen, 2013). It is imperative that school climate is assessed using reliable and valid instruments that capture all elements of school climate and recognize the voices of all school members. Results from such an assessment can provide useful and accurate data to inform the school improvement process. Another area that has not been fully explored is the process that links school climate to its beneficial outcomes. Some have proposed that a positive and communal school climate leads to a greater sense of belonging, which, in turn, leads to more prosocial behaviors: Schools with such climates meet the needs of both teachers and students, who therefore become more attached to other school community members, more committed to the school's mission and goals, and more likely to internalize school norms and rules (Payne, 2008). This process is key for schools because students who are well integrated are not only more likely to have a positive learning experience but are also less likely to engage in deviance and crime. Although research has begun to document the relationship between positive and communal school climates and school bonding, more work is needed. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie this relationship is vital as school leaders work to develop successful school improvement plans. A lack of school climate leadership also plays a role in the gap between school climate research and policy. Having strong and defined leadership roles at the state, district, and school levels is integral for school climate policies and practices to be effectively developed and implemented (NSCC, 2007). In addition, many school climate improvement efforts are generally isolated within a narrower focus, such as student health or school safety, rather than holistically implemented into larger school-wide changes that include a focus on accountability, school community norms and beliefs, and other dimensions of school climate (NSCC, 2007). It is abundantly clear that creating and sustaining a positive and communal school climate would lead to beneficial improvements in students' academic and behavioral success. By engaging in a school climate improvement process, education leaders at the state, district, and school levels can increase the safety and success of all members of the school community. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2018. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 10, 2018 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/250209.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/250209.pdf Shelf Number: 149755 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Advancement Project Title: Police in Schools Are Not the Answer to School Shootings Summary: Today, we are reissuing Police in Schools are Not the Answer to the Newtown Shootings, an issue brief that our organizations released in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. At the time, many of the responses to the shooting focused on placing more police officers and more guns in schools. Research and the experiences of countless students, teachers, and parents have taught us that while these proposals may create the appearance of safety, the actual effects wreak havoc on school culture and fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. After Newtown, we urged lawmakers at the local, state, and national level to resist policies that would turn even more schools into hostile environments where students, especially Black and Brown students, are more likely to be arrested, harassed, and assaulted by police. Five years later, in the wake of the tragic Parkland shooting, we have yet again seen calls to militarize and weaponize our schools, despite no evidence that these policies will protect our students. Our position remains the same: proposals that increase the presence of police, guns, and other law enforcement approaches to school safety should not be the response to school shootings. This foreword includes new evidence and experiences that demonstrate why police do not belong in schools. Police do not contribute to positive, nurturing learning environments for students. The increased presence of police officers in schools across the country discipline has been linked to increases in school-based arrests for minor misbehaviors and negative impacts on school climate. In the last five years, the evidence against placing police in schools has only grown. National School Survey on Crime and Safety data show that having a School Resource Officer at a school on at least a weekly basis increases the number of students who will be involved in the justice system. Arrest rates for disorderly conduct and low-level assault substantially increase when police are assigned to schools. The evidence does not suggest that police are the best way to improve school safety; rather, increasing their numbers comes at an unacceptable cost in the form of the criminalization and overincarceration of students. Although students of color do not misbehave more than white students, they are disproportionately policed in schools: nationally, Black and Latinx youth made up over 58% of school-based arrests while representing only 40% of public school enrollment and Black and Brown students were more likely to attend schools that employed school resource officers (SROs), but not school counselors. Black students were more than twice as likely to be referred to law enforcement or arrested at school as their white peers. Research shows that police officers perceive Black youth differently than they do white youth, and this bias, not any actual difference in behavior, leads to the over-criminalization of students of color. Police see Black children as less "childlike" than their White peers and overestimate the age and culpability of Black children accused of an offense more than they do for white children accused of an offense. Details: Los Angeles: Advancement Project, 2013. 19p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2018 at: https://advancementproject.org/resources/police-schools-not-answer-school-shootings/ Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://advancementproject.org/resources/police-schools-not-answer-school-shootings/ Shelf Number: 149870 Keywords: Mass ShootingsRacial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Madan, Gita Rao Title: Policing in Toronto Schools: Race-ing the Conversation Summary: In 2008, fully armed and uniformed police officers were deployed to thirty public high schools in Toronto to patrol the hallways on a full-time basis. The permanent assignment of police to the city's schools represents an unprecedented turn toward a disciplinary strategy rooted in a paradigm of security and surveillance. This institutional ethnography traces the chronology of the program, exploring how race-absent official discourses of safety and relationship building are used not only to legitimize the program but also to conceal how it works to produce and sustain social inequalities in schools. I argue that racial power is constitutive of the SRO program itself-that it is not simply an effect or consequence of the program's existence but the very instrument through which it operates. As such, a framework for school discipline that is rooted in equity and justice would require the complete removal of police officers from school spaces. Details: Toronto: University of Toronto, 2016. 101p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed Mary 4, 2018 at: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/71685/1/Madan_Gita_R_201603_MA_thesis.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Canada URL: https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/71685/1/Madan_Gita_R_201603_MA_thesis.pdf Shelf Number: 150047 Keywords: School CrimeSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool Violence |
Author: U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Title: Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2016 and 2017 Summary: The FBI has designated 50 shootings in 2016 and 2017 as active shooter incidents. Twenty incidents occurred in 2016, while 30 incidents occurred in 2017. As with past FBI active shooter-related publications, this report does not encompass all gun-related situations. Rather, it focuses on a specific type of shooting situation. The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Implicit in this definition is the shooter's use of one or more firearms. The active aspect of the definition inherently implies that both law enforcement personnel and citizens have the potential to affect the outcome of the event based upon their responses to the situation. This report supplements two previous publications: A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 20132 and Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2014 and 2015.3 The methodology articulated in the 2000-2013 study was applied to the 2016 and 2017 incidents to ensure consistency. Excluded from this report are gang- and drug-related shootings and gun-related incidents that appeared not to have put other people in peril (e.g., the accidental discharge of a firearm in a bar). Analysts relied on official law enforcement investigative reports (when available), FBI holdings, and publicly available resources when gathering data for this report. Though limited in scope, this report was undertaken to provide clarity and data of value to federal, state, tribal, and campus law enforcement as well as other first responders, corporations, educators, and the general public as they seek to neutralize threats posed by active shooters and save lives during such incidents. Details: Washington, DC: FBI, 2018. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-us-2016-2017.pdf/view Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-us-2016-2017.pdf/view Shelf Number: 150072 Keywords: Active Shooter IncidentsGun Violence Gun-Related Violence (U.S.) Homicides Mass HomicidesSchool Violence Threat AssessmentViolent Crime Workplace Violence |
Author: Langman, Peter Title: Five Misconceptions About School Shootings Summary: School shootings are the subject of debate in the media and in communities across the United States, and there is much discussion about prevention and the root causes of such attacks. But what does research say about these tragic events and their perpetrators? Do all shooters fit a specific profile? And what meaningful steps can schools and communities take to reduce the likelihood of these events? In concise, clear language, this research brief, produced by the WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, describes and refutes five common misconceptions about school shootings and suggests an evidence-based strategy to reduce the probability of attacks. The authors conclude that schools and communities are better served when presented with a balanced perspective informed by the wealth of available research about perpetrators, their varying motivations, and pre-attack behaviors. Details: San Francisco: WestEd, 2018. 5p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2018 at: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/JPRC-Five-Misconceptions-Brief.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/JPRC-Five-Misconceptions-Brief.pdf Shelf Number: 152854 Keywords: Gun ViolenceMass ShootingsSchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: UNICEF Title: An Everyday Lesson: #ENDviolence in Schools Summary: Nqobile is taking a stand against violence in and around her school. And she is starting by speaking up about what happened to her. At age 13, Nqobile was sexually assaulted on her way home from school in South Africa. In the aftermath, she struggled with self-confidence and feelings of shame. "In school, I never told anybody," Nqobile said. "It was so difficult. In my culture, it's such a taboo." Now a peer counsellor and Deputy President of her school, Nqobile, 18, encourages others to speak out and offers support to students who have experienced violence. One day, she hopes to study psychology so she can counsel children who have faced trauma. "I'm opening up to people about this for the first time," she said. "I knew what I needed the moment that I needed it at school," she added. "I dont want any other girl to go through what I went through at school." For millions of students around the world, the school environment is not a safe space to study and grow. It is a danger zone where they learn in fear. For Nqobile and many others, the trip to and from school is perilous. In school, they face dangers that include threatening teachers, bullying, cyberbullying, sexual assault and violence that pushes into schoolrooms from the world outside. Far too often students are forced to take cover as gunfire invades their classroom. Sometimes this violence is caused by war or community conflict; other times it is a student with a gun. A UNICEF analysis of data underscores how common violence is in schools around the world. Globally, half of students aged 13-15, about 150 million, report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and around school. This number includes students who report having been bullied in the last month or having had a physical fight within the past year. But bullying and physical fights are only two types of violence. Students routinely deal with corporal and other degrading forms of punishment, physical and sexual attacks and gender-based violence. For example, about 720 million school-age children live in countries where they are not fully protected by law from corporal punishment at school. Indeed, violence in schools puts bodies, minds and lives at risk. It causes physical injury and can lead to depression, anxiety and suicide. It has short-term effects on students' educational achievement and leaves a long-term impression on their futures. In El Salvador, 23 per cent of students aged 13-15 said they had not attended school on one or more days in the past month due to safety concerns. The impact of violence in schools places an economic burden on society. It has been estimated that the global costs of the consequences of violence against children are as high as US$7 trillion per year. Details: New York: UNICEF, 2018. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2018 at: https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/An_Everyday_Lesson-ENDviolence_in_Schools.pdf Year: 2018 Country: International URL: https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/An_Everyday_Lesson-ENDviolence_in_Schools.pdf Shelf Number: 152856 Keywords: Costs of ViolenceCyberbullyingSchool BullyingSchool CrimeSchool ViolenceSexual Assaults |
Author: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Title: Behind the numbers: ending school violence and bullying Summary: School-related violence in all its forms is an infringement of children's and adolescents' rights to education and to health and well-being. No country can achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all if learners experience violence and bullying in school.This UNESCO publication provides an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of global and regional prevalence and trends related to school-related violence and examines the nature and impact of school violence and bullying. It reviews national responses, focusing on countries that have seen positive trends in prevalence and identifies factors that have contributed to an effective response to school violence and bullying.Addressing school violence and bullying is essential in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 4, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, and SDG 16, which aims to promote peaceful and inclusive societies. Monitoring progress in this regard requires accurate data on prevalence and trends in school violence and bullying, and on how effectively the education sector is responding to it. This publication aims to contribute to monitoring progress towards the achievement of safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments.School violence and bullying can be devastating for the victims. The consequences include children and youth finding it difficult to concentrate in class, missing classes, avoiding school activities, playing truant or dropping out of school altogether. This has an adverse impact on academic achievement and future education and employment prospects. An atmosphere of anxiety, fear and insecurity is incompatible with learning and unsafe learning environments can, therefore, undermine the quality of education for all learners.This publication builds on previous UNESCO work on school violence and bullying including publication of the School Violence and Bullying: Global Status Report (UNESCO, 2017), and we trust that it will be useful to everyone who has an interest in preventing and addressing school violence and bullying. We also hope that it will make an important contribution to the Safe to Learn Campaign, which aims to end all violence in schools by 2024, by raising awareness and catalyzing action to eliminate school violence and bullying Details: Paris: UNESCO, 2019. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 24, 2019 at: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366483 Year: 2019 Country: International URL: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000366483 Shelf Number: 154394 Keywords: School BullyingSchool CrimeSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Langman, Peter Title: A Comparison of Averted and Completed School Attacks from the Police Foundation Averted School Violence Database Summary: IN 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) provided funding to the Police Foundation to initiate the Averted School Violence (ASV) project. Through this project, the Police Foundation developed a database (Police Foundation 2018) to collect, analyze, and publish (in an online library [Police Foundation 2018b]) incidents of averted and completed acts of school violence that have occurred since the attack on Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. The data are drawn from the public domain as well as from law enforcement, school officials, and others entering reports into the database. The database is intended to serve as a resource to law enforcement, schools, mental health professionals, and others involved in preventing school violence by sharing ways in which other school attacks across the country have been identified and prevented. In this report, 51 completed and 51 averted incidents of school violence, drawn from the ASV database, were analyzed to help further our understanding of averted and completed school attacks. The report also seeks to provide important lessons about how school violence can be prevented. Details: Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2019. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 7, 2019 at: https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ASV-Comparison-of-Averted-and-Completed-School-Attacks_Final-Report-2019.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ASV-Comparison-of-Averted-and-Completed-School-Attacks_Final-Report-2019.pdf Shelf Number: 154514 Keywords: Averted School ViolenceGun ViolenceMass ShootingsSchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Finland. Ministry of Justice Title: Kauhajoki School Shooting on 23 September 2008 - Report of the Investigation Commission Summary: On 23 September 2008, a school shooting took place in Kauhajoki when a student in the local polytechnic entered his school, shot nine students in his study group, a teacher, and finally himself. The perpetrator carried fuel with him which he used to start several fires in the building. Of the students who were in the classroom when the incident took place, three survived, one of whom received a gunshot wound in the head. The psychosocial damage caused by the incident was considerable. An investigation commission was appointed to look into the incident and its background, as well as the activities of the authorities, other operators involved in the incident, and the media. The main results of the investigation are presented in the 28 conclusions and 9 recommendations included in the report. The purpose of the recommendations and the entire investigation process was to enhance general security by learning from the incident. The fact that the perpetrator ended up committing this act was the result of a long process involving many factors. He had been suffering from mental health problems for approximately ten years and his condition had taken a turn for the worse. Several factors were involved during the course of the perpetrator's life which contributed to his problems. With hindsight, it seems probable that the perpetrator would have benefited from being examined by a specialist in psychiatry. In the light of the information currently available, it is impossible to establish beyond any doubt why the young man's mental health problems were channelled into an admiration for school shootings and, eventually, led to him committing the deed, which was clearly modelled on earlier school shootings. The perpetrator used a self-loading or semi-automatic firearm, which was small-calibre but still capable of inflicting serious damage. The investigation commission recommends that firearms capable of firing multiple shots in a very short period of time be made illegal, and that only guns that do not allow the easy infliction of such carnage be available for hobby purposes. With respect to other types of firearms, the investigation commission recommends that a stricter licensing policy be implemented. A dissenting opinion on firearm recommendations has been recorded, however. To enhance the mental health care services available for young people, the committee also recommends that antidepressants not be prescribed for persons younger than 23 years of age without a thorough examination by a specialist doctor. Other recommendations presented in the report concern the enhancement of student health care, particularly mental health care; the enhancement of interaction between generations in educational institutions; comprehensive security planning in educational institutions; shared command responsibility between authorities in operational situations; cooperation between authorities in preventive work; and the coordination of psychosocial support. Details: Helsinki: The Author, 2010. 194p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 8, 20-19 at: http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/76234/omso_39_2010_kauhajoki_school_shooting_194_s.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Finland URL: http://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/76234/omso_39_2010_kauhajoki_school_shooting_194_s.pdf Shelf Number: 154539 Keywords: Gun ViolenceMass ShootingsSchool SecuritySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission Title: Initial Report Summary: School safety in Florida needs to be improved. We can do more and we can do a better job of ensuring the safety of students and staff on K-12 school campuses. Not all school security changes or enhancements have financial costs, and some only require the will of decision-makers to effect change and hold people responsible for implementing best practices. Safety and security accountability is lacking in schools, and that accountability is paramount for effective change if we expect a different result in the future than what occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSDHS) on February 14, 2018. Accountability starts at the top of every organization, and all leaders have an obligation to ensure not only that the law is followed, but that effective policies and best practices are implemented. Even after the MSDHS shooting and the implementation of new Florida law requiring certain safety measures, there remains non-compliance and a lack of urgency to enact basic safety principles in Florida's K-12 schools. All stakeholders-school districts, law enforcement, mental health providers, city and county governments, funding entities, etc. - should embrace the opportunity to change and make Florida schools the safest in the nation. There must be a sense of urgency-and there is not, across-the-board-in enhancing school safety. At its core, basic, effective school safety begins with prevention. Prevention strategies not only focus on target hardening, but include early intervention when youth demonstrate indicators that should be immediately and appropriately assessed and addressed. However, equally important are harm mitigation aspects of school safety, which can be divided into a few key components: identifying the threat at the earliest possible moment; notifying others of the threat; implementing an effective response by those vulnerable to the threat; and stopping the threat as soon as possible. These harm mitigation concepts should be immediately implemented across all Florida K-12 schools. There are more complex, proactive components to school safety that will help prevent violence from occurring, but once an attack has commenced, the focus must be on immediately mitigating the harm, and these basic concepts, as set forth in this report's recommendations, are essential to that goal. Details: Tallahassee: Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 2019. 458p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 15, 2019 at: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MSDHS/CommissionReport.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MSDHS/CommissionReport.pdf Shelf Number: 154628 Keywords: Gun ViolenceMass ShootingsMass ViolenceSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool ShootingsSchool ViolenceThreat Assessment |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union of Washington Title: Students Not Suspects: The Need to Reform School Policing in Washington State Summary: Introduction In December of 2015, Tucker, a 13-year-old Black student in Washington state, was arrested as a result of an incident that started when he mumbled a curse word to himself. Tucker's teacher ordered him to go sit outside on a bench; when Tucker refused to go outside unprotected in the cold, his teacher called the school police officer. The officer grabbed Tucker, slammed him to the ground, and as Tucker flailed, put his knee of the back of Tucker's head. Tucker was then arrested and booked into juvenile detention. He was charged with the crimes of "disturbing school" and "disrupting a law enforcement officer." Thirty years ago, few schools would routinely use police to respond to such student discipline incidents. Fewer than 100 police officers patrolled public schools in the late 1970s. Today, the lines between the education system and the criminal justice system are increasingly blurred. More than 24 percent of elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools nationwide have school police officers embedded in school campuses. These numbers are even higher for predominantly Black or Latinx schools, 51 percent of which have regularly stationed school police. As the numbers of police officers regularly stationed in schools has risen, so too have arrests in school. In districts around the country, police are regularly assigned or called to schools and have the full power of the criminal law to control students and their behaviors. In Washington, this includes the power to refer children for prosecution for the crime of "disturbing school." In the 2013-2014 school year, the 100 Washington schools with the largest student enrollments reported referring over 3,400 students to law enforcement. Regular police presence increases the likelihood that students will be arrested or prosecuted for misbehavior. Arrest is an inappropriate and ineffective way to address the causes of juvenile misbehavior. In-school use of traditional law enforcement tools (including arrest) helps create a "school to prison pipeline" where students are funneled directly from their schools into the criminal justice system. The school to prison pipeline not only harms students, it harms communities. Students who are arrested are more likely to drop out of school, less likely to graduate and more likely to be further involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. School policing in Washington is largely unregulated; no state law or policy directly addresses the use of police in schools. No state agency systematically tracks police placement, program structure, or the impact on students. To investigate school policing in Washington, the ACLU reviewed public records from over 100 school districts, and spoke with parents, juvenile attorneys, police officers, educators, and community leaders. We found: - School policing is widespread. Eighty-four of Washington's 100 largest school districts have police officers assigned to schools on a daily basis. In addition, even schools without police officers assigned to campus may call police to respond to incidents of routine student misconduct. School policing is costly. Schools pay on average $62,000 (and as much as $125,000) per full-time equivalent officer per year. This money that could be more effectively spent on counselors, teachers, and other student support services. Police officers have broad discretion in almost all Washington school districts to arrest students for minor misbehavior. Having police in schools makes it more likely that students will be arrested. Washington's school police programs often lack written guidelines distinguishing between student discipline matters and crimes. This is particularly troubling because Washington law makes it a crime to disturb school, exposing students to criminal prosecution for routine misbehavior. Few of the police officers assigned to schools are required to undergo training on how to work in schools. Only 25 of the school/police contracts surveyed require police officers in schools to participate in any form of specialized training. This fails to account for the fact that schools are educational environments that should not be policed like a normal beat. Few schools collect any data on officer activities, including arrests. Only 14 school/police contracts require any form of data collection on officer activities. This makes it hard for districts to assess the impact of police in school, including the effects on students' constitutional rights and any discriminatory impact on students of color or students with disabilities. School police are rarely accountable to students, parents, and teachers. Only one school district has a clear civilian complaint process to address officer conduct in schools. In over 70 school districts, school officials have no clear role in supervising or evaluating police officers stationed in schools. In 55 districts, school officials have no input in the hiring or selection of an officer to be assigned to schools. The ACLU of Washington believes that police officers should not be a regular part of the school environment. Students, teachers, and school staff deserve safe, quality schools - but this cannot be accomplished by reliance on school policing. On the contrary, school policing as currently practiced in Washington - with few guidelines and scant oversight - may even make schools less safe by alienating students from school and contributing to the school to prison pipeline. Rather than investing in police, schools should prioritize counselors, mental health professionals, social workers, teacher training and evidence-based programs to improve the school climate, schools can help students reduce routine adolescent misbehavior and address the underlying social causes that may be contributing to it. This report documents and evaluates Washington's school policing and recommends policies that schools, law enforcement, and the legislature should adopt to protect students and ensure safe schools. Details: Seattle, Washington: ACLU of Washington, 2017. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2019 at: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state# Shelf Number: 155146 Keywords: Arrests in SchoolLaw EnforcementPolice in SchoolsPolicing in SchoolsSchool DisciplineSchool PolicingSchool SuspensionsSchool to Prison PipelineSchool Violence |
Author: Schildkraut, Jaclyn V. Title: Are Metal Detectors Effective at Making Schools Safer? Summary: With the tragedies of school violence igniting calls for increased safety and security, one popular proposal is to use metal detectors in schools. To address questions about what impact such devices may have on day-to-day safety and on what happens during school violence events, this research brief summarizes what is known about metal detectors in schools and in other settings. The brief discusses: -The prevalence of metal detectors in schools. - The (in)effectiveness of metal detectors, -The cost associated with employing metal detectors. -The potential impact on students and the learning environment as a whole. Details: San Francisco, California: WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, 2019. 5p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 31, 2019 at: https://www.wested.org/resources/are-metal-detectors-effective-at-making-schools-safer/ Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/resource-are-metal-detectors-effective-at-making-schools-safer.pdf Shelf Number: 156118 Keywords: Gun Violence Mass Shootings Metal Detectors School Safety School Shootings School Violence |
Author: Stern, Alexis Title: What do we Know about the Effects of School-Based Law Enforcement on School Safety? Summary: Public school districts and police departments in the United States often collaborate to address school-based violence and other threats to the safety and well-being of students, teachers, and staff. As a result of these partnerships, law enforcement officers have become an increasingly common presence in schools around the country, even at the elementary school level. But what does research tell us about the impact of school-based law enforcement on school safety outcomes? Developed by the WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center, this brief presents a definition of school-based law enforcement and summarizes some of the relevant research about its effects on students and schools. The authors found little rigorous evaluative research on the effects of having a police presence in schools, but they see promise in future studies that have potential to inform school and district leaders, as well as policymakers. Details: San Francisco, California: WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, 2018. 4p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 31, 2019 at: https://www.wested.org/resources/effects-of-school-based-law-enforcement-on-school-safety/ Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/JPRC-Police-Schools-Brief.pdf Shelf Number: 156119 Keywords: Gun Violence Law Enforcement Mass Shootings School Officers School Safety School Shootings School Violence |
Author: Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence Title: The Truth about School Shootings Summary: On February 14, 2018, survivors of the horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida, emerged from bullet-ridden classrooms and thrust gun violence into the national spotlight. The heightened focus on the school shooting epidemic raised important questions about the damage these shootings inflict on our nation's youth and how they can best be prevented. As the student activists called for accountability and action, the gun lobby spread dangerous myths that downplay the role of guns in school shootings. Our report, The Truth about School Shootings, seeks to dispel these myths and offers concrete recommendations for evidence-based policies that will ensure all of our students make it safely home from school. Details: San Francisco, California: Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2019. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 10, 2019 at: https://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/The-Truth-About-School-Shootings-Report.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://lawcenter.giffords.org/the-truth-about-school-shootings/ Shelf Number: 156340 Keywords: Evidence-Based Policy Gun Lobby Gun Violence Mass Shootings School Shootings School Violence |
Author: Augustine, Catherine H. Title: Can Restorative Practices Improve School Climate and Curb Suspensions? An Evaluation of the Impact of Restorative Practices in a Mid-Sized Urban School District Summary: Across the country, school districts, their stakeholders, and policymakers have become increasingly concerned about suspensions, particularly about suspending students from elementary school and disproportionately suspending ethnic/racial minority students. Suspended students are less likely to graduate, possibly because they miss the instructional time they need to advance academically. Restorative practices have gained buy-in in the education community as a strategy to reduce suspension rates. Proactively improving relationships among students and staff and building a sense of community in classrooms and schools may make students less inclined to misbehave. And addressing severe misbehavior through a restorative approach may help students realize the impacts of their actions and make them less likely to offend again. This study of the implementation of restorative practices in the Pittsburgh Public Schools district (PPS) in school years 201516 and 201617 represents one of the first randomized controlled trials of the effects of restorative practices on classroom and school climates and suspension rates. The authors examined a specific restorative practices program - the International Institute for Restorative Practices' SaferSanerSchools (trademarked) Whole-School Change program - implemented in a selected group of PPS schools under a program called Pursuing Equitable and Restorative Communities, or PERC. The researchers found that PERC achieved several positive effects, including an improvement in overall school climates (as rated by teachers), a reduction in overall suspension rates, and a reduction in the disparities in suspension rates between African American and white students and between low- and higher-income students. Details: Santa Monica, California: RAND Corporation, 2018. 132p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 10, 2019 at: https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2800/RR2840/RAND_RR2840.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2840.html Shelf Number: 156361 Keywords: In-School Suspension Juvenile Delinquency Restorative Justice School Violence |
Author: National Gang Center Title: Responding to Gangs in Schools: A Collaborative Approach to School Safety Summary: Gang affiliation is not something that students leave behind when they come to school. Gang members do not leave their behaviors, attitudes, and conflicts outside the school environment. Gangs, unchecked and unidentified in a school setting, often engage in threat and intimidation; physical and cyber bullying; fighting; recruiting; and criminal activities such as the introduction and use of weapons, assault, sex trafficking, vandalism, and illegal drug sales. The absence of a well-developed, strategic, collaborative, and effective school safety plan can lead to violence and other unsafe and disruptive activities within a school setting. It is not solely the responsibility of schools to create and maintain a safe learning environment, free from the disruption gangs can cause, for students, faculty, and staff. To develop a comprehensive plan that identifies effective, evidence-based strategies to address gang issues in the school environment requires the involvement of law enforcement, school administrators and staff, and other key sectors of the community. The OJJDP Comprehensive Gang Model highlights such a holistic approach by coordinating the roles of all agencies and organizations within a community that are responsible for addressing gang-related crime and violence. Schools are part of the larger community. Details: Tallahassee, Florida: National Gang Center, 2019. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2019 at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED594661.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Gangs-in-Schools Shelf Number: 156924 Keywords: CyberbullyingGangsSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Bradshaw, Catherine Title: Coaching Teachers in Detection and Intervention Related to Bullying Summary: Study Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop, through an iterative process, the Bullying Classroom Check-Up (BCCU) integrated coaching and guided practice strategy to aid teachers in detecting and effectively intervening with bullying behaviors (Aim 1; completed spring 2016); determine the feasibility and acceptability of the BCCU (Aim 2; completed spring 2016); and pilot test the BCCU using a small-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine its promise as an evidence-based strategy for reducing bullying and increasing safety in the classroom (Aim 3; 2016-17 and 2017-18 school year). Participants: The development process included focus groups with total of 17 student participants (6 boys, 11 girls; 4 focus groups) and total of 16 teacher participants (1 man, 15 women; 3 focus groups). We then pilot tested the intervention with six teachers in one school. The randomized testing of this intervention included 80 teachers recruited from five middle schools during the 2016-17 school year. In the second (2017-18) study year, there were 67 remaining consented teachers; all changes were due to school moves/position changes. We also completed end-of-study focus groups with 17 participating intervention teachers (12 female and 5 male) for feedback on their experiences with the coaching. Thirteen students (9 female and 4 male) in these same three schools also provided feedback on bullying and teacher responding. Project Design and Method Project Design: To develop the intervention, we used a qualitative approach. Specifically, we reviewed the literature and conducted and synthesized focus groups. For the piloting of the intervention, we used a mixed-methods approach. We employed the ADDIE model of systematic instructional design (Dick & Carey, 1996) to iteratively analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate the BCCU strategy during the pilot stage. Qualitative feedback from this process allowed for further refinement. At the end of the piloting, we collected quantitative data from teachers regarding their experience with the coaching. The efficacy testing of the intervention was conducted using a randomized controlled trial, where teachers were randomized within schools. Specifically, a within-school randomized trial design including 80 middle school teachers recruited from 5 middle schools (grades 6-8) serving urban and urban fringe communities in mid-Atlantic state. Two teachers declined to participate following recruitment, leaving a final sample of 78 teachers randomized to participate in the intervention (N = 39) or control schools (i.e., business as usual; N = 39). Details: Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virgina, 2019. 15p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2019 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/252848.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/252848.pdf Shelf Number: 156919 Keywords: Bullying Juvenile Delinquency School Safety School Violence |