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Journal Article

Citation

Coben JH, Weiss HB, Mulvey EP, Dearwater SR. J. Sch. Health 1994; 64(8): 309-313.

Affiliation

Center for Injury Research and Control, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA 15213.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, American School Health Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7844971

Abstract

Violence has reached epidemic proportions in the United States with particularly serious health implications for school-age children and adolescents. Schools that experience the daily threat of potential student violence have their primary mission of education eroded at great cost to students. This article reviews the problem of violence in public schools and summarizes existing knowledge on school violence prevention. Violence prevention programs that use educational, regulatory, technological, or combined approaches are reviewed. Recommendations are presented addressing both policy and program needs related to control of violence in public schools. School health professionals should be active participants in violence prevention efforts. A critical need exists to carefully evaluate any planned prevention program so future efforts can be built on methods proven successful.

VioLit summary:

OBJECTIVE:
The aim of this article by Coben et al. was to examine the problem of violence in public schools and summarize the existing knowledge regarding school violence prevention. Violence prevention programs are also reviewed.

METHODOLOGY:
A non-experimental review of school-based violence prevention programs was discussed.

FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The authors summarized four violence prevention approaches: educational, environmental and technological, regulatory, and combined. The educational approach included a mentoring strategy where high risk students were trained as advocates for violence prevention. This mentoring method involves learning leadership skills, public speaking techniques, and the relationship of guns, drugs, and family tension to violence. The most acclaimed school based educational program cited by the authors is the "Resolving Conflict Creatively Program" which is based in New York City. The program emphasizes conflict resolution and intergroup relations. The program also offers a training course and curricula to teachers in conflict resolution, provides consultations to the classroom, offers parent workshops, and establishes student-peer mediation. The authors noted that although no quantifiable changes in adolescent violence have been documented, the program has been widely accepted and integrated in the schools by teachers.
Environmental and technological approaches emphasized minimizing hazards and risks by modifying the social and physical environments. The environment would be modified by setting protective barriers, reducing access to danger, and limiting exposure to violent behavior (eg. limiting the number of potential entrances to a school, installing metal detectors, and increasing lighting in high risk areas). Therapeutic programs as well as recreational alternatives were also employed to alter environments. In the Baltimore (MD) City School District, dress codes have been implemented to reduce concealing weapons. As a result of the dress code, firearm and weapon-related incidents have dropped from 55, to 35, to 28 over three years.
Regulatory approaches included legal interventions that applied academic, civil, and criminal penalties on inappropriate behaviors (eg. curfews, school policing, weapon carrying laws, and laws regulating sales of weapons). Success of regulation was noted by the authors to be dependent on community support. In 1976, the District of Columbia banned the purchase, sale, transfer, or possession of handguns by civilians and the homicide rate dropped 25% the first year after the ban went into effect. The authors noted that there has been no convincing data regarding the effectiveness of other commonly used regulatory approaches.
Combined approaches incorporated both school and community based crisis intervention, job counseling, recreational opportunities, and a modification of the environment. Two examples of this type of intervention are the Violence Prevention Project based in Boston, Mass. and the Community Youth Gang Services in Los Angeles, Ca. Program evaluations of this type of intervention suggest that there has been some changes in knowledge and attitudes among students who complete the program as well as a limited change in self-reports of fighting.
The authors noted that few programs have been evaluated and those that have are often limited to attitudinal changes and not behavioral changes.

AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors made seven recommendations for school health professionals: 1) Establish violence prevention as a long-term priority in school districts, 2) Establish structures that promote community, student, family, and teacher involvement, 3) Include violence prevention as part of school based health services, 4) Carefully evaluate any program or intervention that is implemented in the schools, 5) Allocate resources to children at highest risk of developing aggressive lifestyles, 6) Establish a consistent, developmentally and culturally sensitive curriculum teaching conflict management and peer mediation from elementary through high school, and 7) Technological and environmental controls should be integrated into a comprehensive violence prevention effort (p.312).

(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)

Violence Prevention
Prevention Recommendations
Prevention Program
School Security
School Violence
School Based
Student Violence
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Violence
Program Evaluation
Program Effectiveness
Prevention Education
Educational Factors
Environmental Factors
Conflict Resolution
Prosocial Skills
Social Skills Development
Law Enforcement
Legislation
Criminal Justice System
Curfew
School Policy
Community Based
Recreation
Employment Factors

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