School shootings, the media, and public fear: Ingredientsfor a moral panic

Recent shootings at schools around the country have resulted in widespread fear and panic among both students and parents, prompting a myriad of responses to make schools safer. Yet, empirical data suggest that despite the recent shootings, schools remain extremely safe places for children, and school violence is lower today than it was several years ago. The present research focuses on the construction of school shootings as a moral panic, with examinations of the roles played by the media, the public, and politicians in using isolated incidents (albeit heinous offenses) to support their interests. The interactions between these groups and the resultant punitive actions directed toward juveniles are discussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Black and White School Violence

Abstract

This study examines racial, social, and contextual-environmental factors to determine what effects they have in predicting the likelihood of student victimizations in urban, suburban, and rural schools. In doing so, it seeks to answer two basic questions-Is school violence more prevalent among African-American students in urban schools? And if so, which factors predict the likelihood of one being victimized in urban schools compared to suburban and rural schools? The results of this study indicate that race was not significant in predicting victimizations among students in either urban, suburban, or rural school districts. However, the probability of student victimizations increased for students who attended school in the Western regions of the U.S. where student diversity is greater. Also, students who attended schools where gangs, drugs, weapons, and security were present were more likely to be victimized than those who did not have these elements in their schools. Finally, the regression models for school crimes did better in predicting student victimizations than the personal and property crime models.     

School Shootings and Security Lock-downs: Myths,Positive School Climates,and Safer Campuses

School shooting tragedies and the juvenile justice system’s movement toward a retributive and punitive framework gravely impacted how primary and secondary school students, disproportionately urban districts, used security measures to lock down campuses and build “fortress-like” schools. This iteration of control on school campuses emerged in tandem with the most recent generation’s zero tolerance approach to student violence and problems; a policy widely regarded as ineffective in urban, suburban, and rural districts. As school shootings continue to impact state legislative action and public reactions to school management, this paper takes a critical approach to school security policies and reviews the evidence on the risk for school violence and how to move away from student control approaches that do not improve school safety. Instead, the incorporation of prosocial education and school engagement efforts finds that school and student safety is improved. These, and related approaches to student body management, decreases campus violence and may also minimize the risk of some school shootings - as rare as these tragic incidents are across the nation’s schools. The interplay of schools, students, and the juvenile and family courts is ongoing. Knowing how school districts can best approach their campus environments, safety, and learning is important for school social workers and court personnel because of how often these systems work, or do not work, together.     

School climate and delinquency – on the significance of the perceived social and learning climate in school for refraining from offending

School is regarded as a central arena for crime prevention. This study analyses the effects of student perceptions of school contextual aspects on self-reported offending, using logistic regression with control for clustering effects. The data comprise a census of pupils in year nine in comprehensive school (15 year olds) and in year two of upper secondary school (17 year olds) in the City of Stockholm in 2006, 2008 and 2010 (n = 25,850 of which 47% are boys and 53% are girls). Besides showing that several aspects of students’ perceptions of the school setting have direct protective effects on offending, the study shows that perceiving schoolwork as meaningful appears to moderate the effect of adverse home conditions on delinquency for boys. The only aspect of school investigated in this study that was not significantly related to offending was the perception of classroom order, indicating that emotional support from teachers is more important for crime preventive implications than maintaining order in the classroom. Controlling for clustering effects shows differences in offending between classes and schools that are not produced by differences between the students.     

中小学生自我概念发展的影响因素研究

本研究对高小及初中学生自我概念发展的影响因素进行了考察。结果表明 :高小和初中学生自我概念的直接影响因素均为同伴接纳、学生成就、父子关系和师生关系 ,但它们对两阶段自我概念的影响模式有差异 :对高小学生自我概念的影响具有决定性作用的是同伴接纳 ;对初中学生自我概念影响较大的是学业成就和同伴接纳 ;父子和师生关系对自我概念的影响从高小至初中稍有降低。家庭环境变量对中小学生总体自我概念没有直接效应     

The “net” of the Internet: Risk Factors for Cyberbullying among Secondary-School Students in Greece

Cyberbullying is one of the most common threats an adolescent might face online with serious negative consequences at the social, emotional and educational level. Despite the intense study of the phenomenon over the past decade, most researchers ask for new directions in research that will focus on risk and protective factors. This study attempted to investigate the predictive effect of internet use, parental mediation, school-bullying and victimisation, gender and empathy on cyberbullying and cybervictimisation in two measurements, 4 months apart. Data collection was conducted using a self-report questionnaire. Four hundred and forty secondary school students, aged 12–14, participated in the study. The students were randomly selected from six public schools located in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki in Greece. Results showed that involvement in traditional bullying as a victim or as a perpetrator is the factor with the highest predictability for cyberbullying and cybervictimisation, which also remains stable across time. This finding points to the urgent need for designing and implementing programmes against all forms of bullying both offline and on line.     

Controlling School Crime: An Examination of Interorganizational Relations of School and Juvenile Justice Professionals

Abstract Crime in and around schools creates a climate of fear among students and teachers, and disrupts the learning environment. Effective control of school crime demands the cooperative efforts of school and juvenile justice officials. This paper examines the interorganizational relations between school principals, teachers, and juvenile probation officers by comparing survey results from three cities. Findings reveal significant differences onmethods for controlling school crime; and on due process and sharing of school and court records. School and court officials do cooperate in working with students who are under probation supervision; but the extent of their interaction is characterized by a low level of interorganizational relations.     

Youth Behavior,School Structure,and Student Risk of Victimization

Although a growing body of research on student safety focuses on school disorder, school climate, and the intersection of community/situational factors, comparatively less research has focused specifically on the individual‐ and school‐level factors that put students at risk of victimization in the immediate school environ. The present study is an attempt to broaden our understanding of the contribution of schools and school behavior to the victimization experiences of students. We compare traditional routine activity constructs to understand whether and how they differentially influence the risk of community and school victimization. Additionally, we investigate what school‐related variables (behavioral and structural) explain variation in young people’s risk for school victimization.     

论中小学生违法犯罪的学校原因及其预防

一直以来,学校教育在引导未成年学生时,尚存在空白或不完善的方面。贯彻执行教育方针不力;对差生简单粗暴,处理不当;对"好学生"的管理和教育存在偏差;管理中还存在不少漏洞等成为当前学校环境中引起中小学生违法犯罪的重要原因。在预防中小学生违法犯罪中,学校教育承担着不可缺少的重要作用。学校应该从素质教育的角度来加强未成年人违法犯罪预防工作。把德育放在学校素质教育的首位;加强对学生的法制教育;性教育课进课堂;将心理教育和辅导摆上重要位置;加强工读学校改革和建设是学校在预防中小学生违法犯罪中应该采取的重要举措。     

School Quality, Neighborhoods, and Housing Prices

We study the relationship between school characteristics andhousing prices in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, between1994 and 2001. During this period, the school district was operatingunder a court-imposed desegregation order and drew school boundariesso that students living in the same neighborhoods were oftensent to very different schools in terms of racial mix and averagetest scores of the students. We use differences in housing pricesalong assignment zone boundaries to disentangle the effect ofschools and other neighborhood characteristics. We find systematicdifferences in house prices along school boundaries althoughthe impact of schools is only one-quarter as large as the naivecross-sectional estimates would imply. Part of the impact ofschool assignments is mediated by differences in the characteristicsof the population and the quality of the housing stock thathave arisen on either side of the school assignment boundary.     

School Violence Prevention: Current Status and Policy Recommendations

The purpose of this article is to identify an array of strategies that are available to schools to address concerns school violence and to identify some of the potential school or school district policy options related to those choices. We illustrate that many promising options are available to schools to address violence and other inappropriate behavior of students. The very breadth and diversity of these options may pose a problem in attempting to develop a comprehensive local policy on this topic. While many schools have chosen increasingly punitive zero‐tolerance policies as their primary strategy of violence prevention, there is little or no research evidence documenting that such an approach can contribute to school safety. Rather, effective school violence prevention requires comprehensive planning involving documented best‐practice programs, preventive strategies, and effective responses to any violence that may occur. Since research documenting the effects of violence prevention strategies is inconsistent, it is incumbent upon schools to consider carefully which programs best meet the needs of their local situation, and to monitor the effectiveness of new programs in improving school safety and reducing disruption and incivility.     

WORKPLACE PRIVACY — FRANCE: ELECTRONIC WORKPLACE PRIVACY IN FRANCE

Electronic workplace privacy has emerged as a legal issue in France, coinciding with growth in the use of Internet, including its most popular feature, electronic mail, in the working environment. The article explores French policy towards the issue and where matters stand at present.     

Opportunity and Self-Control: Do they Predict Multiple Forms of Online Victimization?

This study investigates the predictors of four types of cybercrime victimization/experiences: online harassment, hacking, identity theft, and receiving nude photos or explicit content. The effects of victimization opportunity and low self-control are examined as the primary independent variables in logistic regression analyses of data collected from a large sample of undergraduates enrolled at two universities in the United States. Results suggest that opportunity is positively related to each of the four types of online victimization, and that low self-control is associated with person-based, but not computer-based, forms of cybercrime. These findings speak to the utility, and also the limitations, of these perspectives in understanding cybercrime victimization risk among college students, and to the potentially criminogenic nature of the Internet.

     

Unwanted Online Attentions Among an Italian Students Sample

The use of the Internet and new technologies now seems to permeate the entire society, affecting every aspect of daily life. Although this change is characterized by undeniable positive aspects, it simultaneously bears a number of risks which are higher especially with respect to the growing number of younger users. In fact, young people, as the most involved in cyber space, are an age group most exposed to the dangers of improper and not aware use of electronic tools. The specific aim of this research was to study unwanted online attentions (UOA) among a sample of Italian students (N?=?585, mean age?=?14.5), identifying UOA as all those behaviors carried out through the Internet and technology to annoy, disturb, offend, humiliate, intimidate, threat, harass, harm or attack others. The online questionnaire investigated the online habits of the students, the presence of UOA and the characteristics of victims and perpetrators, the perception and emotional impact of such conducts, and the victims' possible reactions. The findings offer an estimate of the prevalence of these behaviors in the population of this age group in the area considered. More importantly, the results reveal a very high involvement in technology by the students accompanied by a lack of awareness regarding the risks connected to technology use as well as a low perception of UOA. These results give evidence of the needs in terms of prevention and education instruments in order to improve the system of responses to cybervictimization among young people.     

How to Push an Elephant Through a Straw: Using Wireless Technology in a Web-enhanced Skills Program

The title of this article derives from the expression used by programmers and developers to explain problems of limited network bandwidth connection speeds. The ever-increasing demand by growing numbers of web users for bandwidth-intensive media is outstripping the Internet's capacity to deliver information. In this case, the 'Elephant' is the massive online information system, including text, graphics, audio, and video, and the 'Straw' is the low bandwidth through which only a fixed volume can move. Generally, compression of data is the way to push that elephant through the straw. Included among those users competing for bandwidth are law schools. In the last decade, technology has begun to occupy a more pivotal role in American legal education. As law firms increase their use of technology in response to client demand, they must hire associates who graduate from law school prepared for high-technology law practice. The resulting pressure on law schools to incorporate technology into class materials and instruction has arisen contemporaneously with pressure to increase the teaching of lawyering skills. A tension arises, however, between the obligation of legal educators to expose students to emerging technologies and the additional burdens thereby imposed upon law schools to add lawyering skills to the the existing curriculum without displacing needed doctrinal and analytical instruction. The authors are faculty members and administrators at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Shepard Broad Law Center, which was named "Most Wired Law School" by National Jurist in 1998 and 2001. The centrepiece of legal education at NSU is a high technology Lawyering Skills and Values Program that employs wireless classrooms and web-enhanced education. Delivering a lawyering skills course through technology is not unlike pushing an elephant through a straw. The challenge is to accomplish pedagogical goals without compressing either the curriculum or the social processes of teaching and learning. This article describes and evaluates the authors' practical experiences planning, implementing, and teaching a Lawyering Skills course to first-year students in a wireless classroom environment.     

美国印第安学校中学女生的未来——基于"可能自我"的个案研究

本质化研究以美国中学的四位印第安女生为个案,重点阐释了她们的中学课堂受教经历对其今后成长的影响。本文采用可能自我理论,对访谈资料进行了审视和分析,所涉主题包括学校问题、教师、关系的重要性及未来计划这样四大方面。结果表明,可能自我理论有助于人们理解这些中学女生是怎样看待她们自己和筹划她们未来的,同时也为解决和预防中学生的辍学问题,提供了一种可能的路径。     

Saving the Nation's Expendable Children: Amending State Education Laws to Encourage Keeping Students in School

Disciplinary codes are designed to govern the behavior of millions of students attending U.S. public schools. As currently implemented, a great majority of these codes afford school personnel expansive, if not full, discretion to impose any sanction they deem appropriate in response to a student's alleged misconduct. Suspension and expulsion are two frequently used exclusionary sanctions that result in a large group of students who are pushed out of their learning environments around the nation on a daily basis. These detrimental exclusionary punishments have been increasingly used to address minor misbehavior rather than be reserved solely for serious offenses. This Note will describe the harmful implications currently associated with suspending and expelling children as a means to address misbehavior in school. This Note will then propose that all states amend their current education laws to limit infractions that may be punishable by suspension and/or expulsion exclusively to felonies as well as discuss practical alternatives schools should consider as a response to student misconduct. Implementation of this proposal would minimize the high rate of children being removed from their classrooms and would ultimately heighten the opportunity for children to learn.     

School Leaders’ Experiences on Dealing with Students Exposed to Domestic Violence

School leaders’ experiences and perceptions of students’ domestic violence experiences and trauma-informed school interventions have been overlooked. This semi-structured qualitative study aimed to investigate three areas regarding school leaders’ perceptions regarding domestic violence-exposed students: 1) the experiences of school leaders in dealing with these students; 2) the barriers and strengths associated with managing these students; and 3) school leaders’ recommendations for overcoming any barriers related to this issue in schools. Interviews conducted with 15 school leaders were analysed using thematic analysis. School leaders were found to be instrumental in influencing school culture and support systems surrounding students’ exposure to domestic violence. However, school leaders provided mixed reports regarding the adequacy of resources for domestic violence-exposed students. Recommendations suggested by school leaders included more domestic violence specific training for school staff and training delivery methods that were more sensitive for staff who have personal experiences with domestic violence. School leaders expressed great concerns for teachers, particularly less experienced teachers, regarding their knowledge and skills to assist students who disclose family violence.