INVESTIGATING SCHOOL VIOLENCE: A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The structure of the proposed research study will not expose any human subjects to any risks · emotional, physical, or privacy. The proposed research study will examine aggregated secondary data wherein (a) the secondary databases do not include the identities of specific individuals and (b) it is not possible to inter the identities of any specific individuals.
Because of the structure of the proposed research study and the protection of individual privacy rights, there will be no need to obtain the approval of an Internal Review Board (IRB) before proceeding with the conduct of the proposed research study. If, at any point in the process, the focus of the proposed research study changes in a way that exposes specific individuals to risks, work on the project will cease until the appropriate IRB approves the conduct of the proposed research.
The problem proposed for investigation is how to reduce and effectively manage violent and other criminal student behavior in public schools. High profile incidents involving the use of firearms at schools colors public perceptions of violent behavior in the nation's schools. While such incidents are deplorable and must end, they also are infrequent to the point that most students likely will never experience such an incident (United States Department of Education and United States Department of Justice, 2002).
Aside from these high profile incidents, however, more than 2.7 million crimes affecting students occur in schools in the United States each year. Of these 2.7 million crimes, more than 200,000 involve incidents classified as serious·rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault (Kaufman, et al., 1999).
While the incidence of serious crimes and lesser crimes in public schools either dropped somewhat or remained unchanged from 1993 through 1999, a higher proportion of students report feeling unsafe at school c...