NCJ Number
229352
Date Published
September 2007
Length
55 pages
Annotation
This guide is intended to put the issue of schoolwide violence prevention in context for educators, and outline an approach for choosing and creating effective prevention programs.
Abstract
Policy generally lags behind research that validates evidence-based approaches that can inform and guide policy decisions and practices. This is especially true in the area of school safety and violence prevention. To assist schools in their safety efforts the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence and the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory with support from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) revised a series of guidebooks. The guidebooks are intended to build a foundation of information to assist schools and school districts in developing safe learning environments. The guidebooks provide local school districts with information and resources that support comprehensive safe school planning efforts. This guidebook discusses five major trends that have influenced the most efforts to improve school safety over the last two decades, and each of these trends, which overlap and blend together continue to shape and define current issues regarding school safety. These five trends are: 1) responses to the issue of violent juvenile crime, 2) prevention and response to mass school shootings, 3) conceptualizing school violence as domestic terrorism, 4) integration of universal prevention initiatives in schools, and 5) national efforts to integrate children's mental health interventions in schools. Figures, table, references, and a list of additional reading and resources