The school in school violence: Definitions and facts

The purpose of this article is to clarify the historical and definitional roots of school violence. Knowl-edge about this issue has matured to the point where there is a need to refine the definition of school violence, thereby positioning educators to take the next step in providing effective, broad-based solu-tions to this problem.The first section provides an overview of the definitional and boundary issues of the term "school violence " as used in research and applied prevention programs.The second section pre-sents an overview of what is known about the occurrence of violent and related high-risk behaviors on school campuses. Information about the prevalence of school violence is reviewed to inform and guide violence prevention programs, emphasizing the need to implement programs that are well linked to known correlates of school violence.We believe that in addition to identifying the characteristics of both perpetrators and victims of violence at school, researchers need to examine the contexts in which vio-lence occurs. IOLENCE IS TAKING AN INCREAS-~ ~ ing toll on American society gen-erally and on children and ado-lescents specifically, who are the victims of more crimes than any other age group in the United States (Kaufman et al., 1998; Rennison, 1999). When violence occurs in the community, and especially on a school campus, whether by the hands of another student or by an out-sider, actions must be taken to ensure the safety of all students and the staff who serve them. It is important to promote the rights, welfare, education, and health of children and youth by supporting Na