The "defund the police" movement has recently called for the removal of police--or school resource officers (SROs)--from schools. This call is driven by concerns that SROs may heighten student contact with criminal justice or lead to disproportionately harsh disciplinary consequences. This study uses linked disciplinary, academic,…

This study evaluated the efficacy of School-Based Teen Courts (SBTCs) using a rigorous experimental trial with 24 middle- and high-schools randomly selected to receive SBTCs (n= 12) or to business-as-usual without any SBTC program (n = 12). Analyses examined school-level longitudinal growth models and individual-level pretest-posttest comparisons…

The purpose of this study was to document and compare rates of reported and perceived crime and violence within schools. With highly publicized acts of school violence prevalent in the minds of the American public, there is a perception that schools are unsafe. Reports of school crime and violence from teachers, administrators, and students differ…

The 2013 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey (NCYRBS) was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and adapted by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to monitor health-risk behaviors and to measure progress toward achieving Healthy North Carolina 2020 objectives. The survey, administered in…

This study examined the direct effects of beliefs about aggression and nonviolence on physical aggression and their role as protective factors that buffer adolescents from key risk factors in the peer, school, and parenting domains. Multilevel analyses were conducted on data from 5,581 adolescents representing two cohorts from 37 schools in four…

Considering that current trends in sexual behavior and alcohol use among adolescents pose a significant public health risk, more research is needed in this area. Using a cross-sectional design, this study examined sex and alcohol behaviors among middle school and high school students in southeastern North Carolina. The findings suggested that…