My dissertation studies the relationship between counseling and violence within U.S. schools. Much of the research on school security and school safety tends to lean heavily on routine activities theory and other opportunity theories, which limits the study of other factors critically relevant to this topic such as school climate. This dissertation will bring the literature on school climate in conversation with some traditional criminological theories from the control and strain traditions to explain why counseling as a school safety measure may be effective in reducing violence in the k-12 context. In terms of data and methods, the lack of comprehensive longitudinal datasets on this topic requires multiple data sources in order to appropriately explore them and various methods of analysis. As such, I am using three sources of data to answer my research questions. These datasets consist of (1) the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), (2) The Violence Project Mass Shooter Database (VPMSD), and (3) the Delaware School Survey (DSS). My results were mixed, but I did find evidence that suggests engagement with in-school counseling services may improve students' perceptions of safety, and that a lack of funding for school-based mental health supports may negatively impact students' violent behavior. My research has shed some light on the hole I identified in the literature. There is a need for future research to incorporate more descriptive measures of what the counseling students receive in schools looks like so that researchers can access if poor quality counseling explain my mixed results or some other aspect of counseling as an in-school treatment for student violence. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]