Criminal anti-social behavior on the part of youth in the in the 1990s is shockingly high and increasing in frequency. Persons under the age of 18 years old are responsible for approximately 32 percent of serious property crimes which are cleared by arrest and for approximately 17 percent of violent crimes cleared by arrest. In the instance of serious crime committed by young offenders, the types of crimes and the characteristics of the individuals committing the offenses are largely known. Approximately seven-percent of all juvenile delinquency referrals to juvenile courts involved violent crime. More than one-half of all serious offenses committed by juveniles were committed by approximately eight-percent of the juvenile population (Fraser, 1996). This general level of violent behavior by adolescents has spread to secondary schools in all parts of the country (Coben, et al., 1996).
Coben, et al. (1994) reported that schools that experience the daily threat of potential student violence, according to the author, have their primary mission of education eroded at great cost to students and the community. This impact testifies to the importance of this topic.
The focus of this research is on how to suppress disruptive student behavior in secondary schools. In order to learn how such disruptive behavior can be suppressed effectively, it also is necessary to learn how and why such behavior occurs. Thus, these latter issues also are included in the scope of the research.
Disruptive behavior is defined for the purposes of this research as any behavior that distracts the attention of teachers and students in a classroom from the process of education. Such behavior may be violent, it may consist of talking among the students while the teacher is attempting to conduct class, it may involve the use of profane language by students, or it may be any one of a number of actions that hold the potential to distract the class from l...