In this commentary, Cornell and Bradshaw report decades of research in school psychology have brought attention to the culture of peer bullying and harassment that was a largely neglected problem in most schools. At the same time, research on the school environment has brought recognition to the importance of a safe and supportive school climate.…

This introduction to a special issue on classroom violence presents an overview of approaches to prevention of violence and disruptive behavior in the schools. These strategies range from minimally to substantially intrusive intervention strategies. The article also reviews existing knowledge about violence prevention and discusses the need for…

School and district administrators are taking a variety of measures to improve school safety. The job of selecting an appropriate program, however, is not an easy one, considering the myriad possibilities and the need to know where to allocate precious resources. RAND examined the literature regarding these programs and found that only a handful…

This article surveys school safety and violence prevention through discussion of violence among today's school-age youth, causal factors, the impact of violence on schools, characteristics of safe and unsafe schools, and recommended strategies and resources for addressing school safety. A "School Crime Assessment Tool" and descriptions of five…

This article first delineates observations and recommendations of an interdisciplinary group that addressed the issue of school aggression and violence; and then presents recommendations for developing and implementing a systematic response to aggression and violence in schools. Also provided is a list of resources on effective practices in…

In this article we consider how broad shifts in social relations over the past 30 years have given rise to new social control regimes in US public schools. We argue that the contemporary mechanisms of control engendered by mass incarceration and post-industrialization have re-shaped school discipline. To illustrate contemporary discipline in the…

In response to miniseries on school violence (this issue), identifies and discusses four questions that resurfaced across miniseries articles. Considers seriousness of problem of school violence, contributing factors to violence, whether there is consensus on how to address violence, and the role of the school psychologist in handling violence.…

A survey of U.S. teens (15,877 middle and high school students) reported that more than one in three students (39 percent of middle schoolers and 26 percent of high schoolers) said that they do not feel safe in schools. Thirty-seven percent of middle school boys and 43 percent of high school boys believed that it was appropriate to hit or threaten…

In this presentation, made to the White House Conference on Character and Community, the author advocates creating a preventive intervention system for chronic violence; that scientific research supports this system; that it is cost-beneficial to do so; and that it is necessary in order to help the next generation become productive citizens. He…

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the School Team Approach for changing perceptions of the school climate and the level of victimization in 290 middle, junior high, and high schools used student and teacher questionnaires adapted from those used in the Safe School Study. In pre-intervention tests, students and teachers in middle and junior…

This paper offers an analysis of urban youth gangs and intervention and prevention strategies for schools, and describes an example of a Cleveland (Ohio) school-wide response. After reviewing the scope of the problem and recent attention to gangs and youth violence, the paper looks at why youth join gangs and lists 12 conditions. Another section…