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School Violence: Bi-Directional Conflict Flow Between Neighborhood and School

NCJ Number
193171
Author(s)
Pedro Mateu-Gelabert Ph.D.
Date Published
July 2000
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This paper explores and describes the conflict flow from neighborhood to school and from school to neighborhood and its interrelationship with violence among adolescents. It presented several examples of school developed strategies in the prevention of violent outcomes.
Abstract
In this paper, the interrelationship between school and neighborhood violence was examined. A bi-directional flow of adolescent conflict was presented through an analysis of several incidents that took place outside of the school but originating in school and incidents occurring in the school but originating in the neighborhood, not school related. Ethnographic data was collected over a 2 year period in a New York City middle school. The findings reflected field observations and interviews during the 2 years of fieldwork with the student sample enrolled in seventh and eighth grade. The effect of school and neighborhood structures on conflict led to the conclusion that school violence was clearly contextual. Adolescents did not choose their peers in a vacuum; they mirrored the organizational settings of both their school and neighborhood. Several examples of school strategies in the prevention of violence were presented with many successful outcomes. The paper suggested an additional need to better understand the mediating effects of school and community organization as a source and setting of adolescent conflict and how they impact on conflict flow. Future research was recommended in the examination of the interrelation between school and neighborhood in other urban settings and in suburban and rural areas, as well as other cities. This would potentially identify commonalities across inner city schools. References and tables