This article summarizes the accomplishments of research on school safety in the past quarter century, identifies important gaps, and indicates promising directions for further progress. Although closely related, there are distinguishable bodies of research on physical and psychological safety. Physical safety research concerns the prevention of…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have implemented to promote school safety. SSOCS collects information from public school principals about the prevalence of violent and serious violent crimes…

In recent decades, the number of school resource officers has exploded. In 2013, about 30 percent of schools had one, as compared to 1 percent in 1975, The New York Times reported in 2018. These officers have increasingly received attention in the wake of high-profile school shootings. Yet relatively little is known about them. Who are they? How…

This report provides nationally representative data on public school safety and discipline for the 2013-14 school year. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) previously collected data on this topic in the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), which was last conducted in the 2009-10 school year (Neiman 2011). This report presents…

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2015-16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2016). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009-10, and 2015-16, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the…

Super-maximum security prisons have proliferated nationally, reflecting a belief among policy makers and corrections officials that such high-cost housing is effective. Yet little is known about the precise goals of "supermax" prisons, whether these goals are achieved, what unintended effects supermaxes may have, and, more generally, whether they…

The development of school security forces in the 1950s is shown in historical perspective. Short-term and long-term impacts of security operations are discussed in relation to the school administration, local law enforcement agencies, and the adolescent students. Predictions are given for school security operations in the 1980s. (JN)

In an ethnographic reflection on 10 years experience working in the high schools of inner-city New York, issues of school safety, discipline, and violence are explored. The central proposition is that the mentality that relies on paramilitary security measures and technological devices, such as metal detectors, to achieve safe schools is only an…