CSPV
School Violence Fact Sheets
School
Violence and Social Conditions
|
- Violent behavior is the product of the interaction
between individual development and social contexts
(e.g., the family, school and neighborhood).
- Within a certain area, factors such as low socioeconomic
status, high population turnover, race and ethnicity,
and high housing density are strong predictors of
violence. These conditions lower a neighborhood's
capacity for social organization and its ability to
exert informal social control.
- Low socioeconomic conditions do not have a simple
direct effect on neighborhood violence. However, residents
living in low-income neighborhoods tend to experience
more difficulty establishing the formal and informal
social ties within the community necessary to control
crime and violence.
- Neighborhoods characterized predominately by single-parent
households tend to have fewer social resources and
networks necessary for developing and maintaining
local institutions, and for helping parents acquire
the social capital necessary in deterring children
from violence and delinquency.
- A community's ability to use informal social controls
appears to be the key to understanding local levels
of violence and disorder.
- Child rearing and controlling adolescents' behavior
in socially disorganized communities are much more
difficult than in better-organized communities.
- Participation in formal networks such as neighborhood
associations, schools, and churches tends to be lower
in disorganized communities.
- A community is powerless to influence policy decisions
that affect neighborhood conditions and thus further
weaken the community when there is a lack of external
ties. Without strong formal and informal social ties
and networks within a neighborhood, it is unlikely
that strong ties to organizations and resources outside
the neighborhood will develop.
- Research demonstrates how social disorganization
affects neighborhood crime, however, the dynamic can
also operate in the opposite direction. Violence in
a community can change the population composition
of a neighborhood, increasing social disorganization.
- Although not a simple relationship, the strongest
predictors for school violence rates are local neighborhood
crime rates.
- Research suggests that school violence is also influenced
by school policies regarding discipline, security,
and dropping out, and by small group interactions
that develop within the school that encourage youths
to respond violently to routine provocations.
- The most effective school responses to violence
are those that develop the social resources of their
students.
|
