"Catalyst" is a publication designed to assist higher education in developing alcohol and other drug prevention polices and programs that will foster students' academic and social development and promote campus and community safety. Issue 1 of volume 6 introduces a series of "Presidential Profiles" in which university presidents describe their…

This publication identifies five levels of gang activity in middle and high schools and presents corresponding strategies for dealing with troublesome situations. The five levels of involvement include: (1) no known gang activity; (2) limited gang activity; (3) emerging gang activity; (4) community in crisis; and (5) gang-controlled community. A…

Virtually no school is safe from violence. FBI statistics, which show that juvenile crimes actually peaked during the mid-1970s, are at odds with the public perception that crime rates among young people are at an all-time high. The FBI acknowledges, however, that the crimes committed by young people tend to be more serious than in the past, and…

Elementary school principals are in a key position to prevent school violence. This document reviews five publications that feature strategies administrators and teachers can use to create a safe school. In "Creating Safe Environments for Learning in North Carolina's Public Schools," Tanya M. Suarez reviews the literature on school safety and…

Doing something positive about youth gangs will require hard work, attitude change, and enlisting the help of many people. In addition to the many obvious causes of gangs, there are less well-known factors, such as academic achievement, that are related to youth participation in gangs. Participation in extracurricular activities helps young people…

The articles in this issue dealing with school safety discusses what rural and small urban settings are doing to prevent violence and to educate young people about prosocial alternatives to violence. The research is quite clear that female, minority, and gay students are the targets of a disproportionate amount of harassment and violence, both in…

The escalation of youth violence is one of the major public health concerns of the United States. Many factors today make juveniles more likely to commit, or to become victims of, violent acts. Drugs, the availability of guns, and the emergence of gang problems in all regions of the country are among the causes of youth violence. Prevention of…

This theme issue focuses on programs and strategies aimed at developing crime-free, nonviolent, drug-free schools. "Alternative Education Programs: Resolution or Exclusion?" (Albert Cortez) describes alternative education programs mandated by Texas state legislation for serious student offenders, and related issues of assessment, due…

This document contains two issues of a journal on reducing youth gun violence, reprinted from a report by the U.S. Department of Justice. The first issue, part one, provides an overview of programs and initiatives. The second issue, part two, describes prevention and intervention programs. To reduce violence and build healthy communities requires…

Nearly one million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are victims of violent crimes each year, and this has been true since at least 1985. Children are becoming involved in violence at ever younger ages, both as victims and as perpetrators. The threat of firearms is the greatest concern in adolescent violence, but no single factor can be…

The solution to the problem of violence in the schools lies not only in the protection of students, but the prevention of aggressive, antisocial behavior. This monograph is designed to help schools build a violence-prevention program from the ground up. Following the introduction, chapter 1 discusses how the causes and consequences of violence in…