Investigated public school vandalism with 7th through 12th grade students. Found vandalism highest in 7th grade, decreasing progressively with each increase in grade level. Predictors of vandalism included being from the lowest academic track, having committed acts of vandalism during junior high school (for high school students), coming from…

This study presents an aesthetic theory of school vandalism and reports on nine original empirical studies that are relevant to the theory. It is proposed that the act of destroying an object is very enjoyable because it is, in effect, an aesthetic experience. The theory posits that the variables accounting for positive hedonic value associated…

This article argues that educational practice regarding school violence is little influenced by the scholarship of social scientists, and that educational decision makers have been attempting to develop innovations with minimal stress on theoretical analysis. (Author/AM)

The main themes of some prominent theories of youthful offenders are reviewed, and some of the far reaching reforms implied by these themes are outlined. The main goal is to consider how schools may respond to the problem, and attention is restricted to changes in schools that may help, even though more fundamental reforms in society would have…