Although lockdown drills are a practice widely used in K-12 public schools across the United States to prepare students and staff to respond to acts of violence, research has only just begun to consider the impacts of these practices on those who participate in them. This study adds to the growing body of literature by examining the potential…

Limited research has been conducted on the state-level factors that may be associated with intentional school shootings. We obtained school shooting data from the "Washington Post" that identified any act of intentional interpersonal gunfire in a K-12 school over the course of two decades. We also compiled new data on active school…

The protection and safety of students and staff in American schools are vital because students need to feel secure and nurtured in their environment in order to achieve academic success (Bakioglu & Geyin, 2009). While school shootings have been monitored since the early 1970s, it was not until 1999 that one received widespread media coverage…

In response to fears regarding high-profiled school shootings and firearm violence, schools transformed dramatically, implementing school safety measures such as school police, armed security, metal detectors, and active shooter drills. This study used nationally representative data to assess the relationship between school safety policies and…

This dissertation examines the effects of neighborhood characteristics on Detroit Public School Community District students' attendance rates for the 2018-19 school year. First, I analyze the effects of daylight savings time, relative to school start time, on absences for elementary and middle school students. By observing the natural change in…

Although there is increasing research on the prevalence of students' violence against teachers, very little is known about the way teachers cope with this violence. The main aim of the current study was to investigate teachers' willingness to seek help from school management and from teacher-colleagues for dealing with violence. In addition, the…

Background: Being bullied online is associated with being bullied in school. However, links between online bullying and violence-related experiences are minimally understood. We evaluated potential disparities in these associations to illuminate opportunities to reduce school-based violence. Methods: We used five cohorts of Youth Risk Behavior…

Implementing police in schools is a common strategy for ensuring school safety, but it is unknown whether, to what extent, and for whom the presence of police in schools affects student arrest rates. Utilizing nationwide data from the 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection (N = 92,620), this study examines how police presence is related to student…

Past research found that samples of K-12 public-school principals indicated receiving inadequate training to identify and address the factors contributing to youth violence. This phenomenon was detected in the beliefs of certain samples of public-school principals, but it remained unknown if these reports were isolated or if they were a commonly…

The call for a more holistic approach to cope with school violence motivated the present study. The present model postulates that effective teamwork at the school management team level can have a positive impact on the level of school violence. Specifically, the model examined the mediating role of school management team effectiveness (in-role…

Schools located in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods report disproportionately high rates of crime and violence. Theoretical reasoning suggests that school-based parent participation may lead to improved school safety in these settings, but little empirical work has tested this relationship. This study examines the relationship between…

The aims of the current study were to provide the first Australian prevalence estimates of sexual harassment in adolescents, explore gender differences in form and frequency of harassment, and investigate demographic and weight status correlates. A total of 4098 adolescents (47.3% boys), aged 11 to 19 years from government and non-government…

Background: This study used a new Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) assessment tool to test the associations between physical attributes of schools and violence-related behaviors and perceptions of students. Methods: Data were collected from 4717 students from 50 middle schools. Student perceptions of risk and safety, and…

At the end of the 84th Legislative session, Texas joined seven other states in giving individuals the right to carry a concealed handgun on campuses of higher education. With guns being allowed on higher education campuses, little is known about the perceptions of the students whom attend these higher education institutions. Politicians are making…

This study examined relations between patterns of dating aggression and victimization and school environment factors among 4,114 early adolescents attending 37 middle schools in four sites in the United States (51% Black, non-Hispanic, 21% Hispanic, and 17% White). Latent class analyses revealed a five-class solution that differentiated among…