Successful Strategies and Techniques
Are there successful strategies and techniques to reduce school violence? Every year three million young people in the United States fall victim to crime at school. Almost two million of these incidents involve some degree of violence (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1999). Although most school violence takes the form of minor assaults, some episodes are far more serious. Some end in bodily injury and even death. For example, in two recent academic years, a total of eighty five young people died violently in U.S schools (Dewey, 2000). A great deal of media attention has been directed to school shootings in recent years. This topic is important because our educational institutions play a very important role in shaping the minds of our children and is the training ground for tomorrow leaders.
Therefore, it is important that its environment should be conducive to learning and not be disrupted by violent acts. In the 1998-1999 less than two percent of murders of children and youth in the United Stated were school related (Dewey, 2000). A total of thirty eight related school-related homicides occurred that year, and thirty three of those deaths were homicides of school-aged children and youth. School associates student homicide rates have increased since the 1994-1995 school year, however, due to the rise in multiple-victim homicide. School related homicides are most likely to occur at the beginning of fall and spring semesters. While the media has focused on school shootings, school violence includes a range of school activities, included assaults with or without weapons, physical fights, threats or destructive acts other than physical fights, bullying, hostile or threatening remarks between groups of students, and gang violence. The data about these types of violence present a mixed picture of school safety (APA, 1999).
The research hypothesis that will be tested in this researc...