School Violence

Over the last ten years, the rapid increase in school violence has captured the attention of policymakers, educators and even the students. According to a 1996 Children's Institute International Poll of American Adolescents, 47 percent of the respondents asserted that schools were becoming increasingly violent. Ten percent of the respondents stated that they were fearful of being victimized by violence and over 20 percent were wary of going to restrooms or other areas where students were frequently victimized (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1998a).

School violence also occurs at the elementary school level. The NCES (1998b) reported that one or more violent incidents occurred at 45 percent of elementary schools during the 1996-97 school year. Moreover, four percent and 41 percent of elementary schools reported one or more serious violent crimes and less serious or nonviolent crimes respectively. In their report commissioned by the Department of Education, Sinclair, Hamilton, Gutmann, Daft and Bolcik (1998) found that elementary schools accounted for nine percent of the expulsions that resulted from students bringing firearms to school. During the Fourth Phi Delta Kappa Poll of Teacher's Attitudes toward the Public Schools, Langdon (1997) reported that 12 percent of elementary school teachers highlighted the occurrence of school violence such as racial fights, physical attacks on the teachers and theft by force in their scho

ers. As school occupies an increasingly part of their lives, children's aggression may also represent ways for them to fit in or result from their rejection by their peers. Development of Aggressive and Violent Behaviors in Middle Childhood Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber (1998) reviewed and critiqued important positions and research associated with important tenets concerning the development of juvenile aggression and violence. In establishing the rationale for their work, Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber (1998) noted the societal importance of the issue of juvenile aggression and violence and observed that a high-level of controversy surrounds many of the major theoretical explanations of the development of juvenile aggression and violence. According to some theories, serious forms of violence and aggression emanate from early childhood (cited in Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998). Early development and persistent displays of aggression are attributed to personality traits that cannot be easily reshaped (cited in Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1998). To refute this line of reasoning, Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber (1998) cited evidence that (a) all individuals who become violent in adulthood do not have a history of aggression in chil