NCJ Number
75324
Journal
Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 8 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1980) Pages: 399-405
Date Published
1980
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines criminological explanations for crimes against school personnel and property with particular emphasis on the concept of 'vindictive vandalism.'
Abstract
Forms of vandalism may be classified according to the personal significance of the act to the individual who commits it as acquisitive, tactical, vindictive, play, malicious, or ideological vandalism. Acts of vandalism against schools are more than simple spur-of-the-moment, mindless destructions of property, and they represent outcomes based on a wide range of antecedent factors. Males in groups are responsible for most acts, and the groups protect their members with anonymity while at the same time supporting their self-concepts, especially as these relate to feelings of masculinity. Much school vandalism seems to be related to the perpetrators' need for peer approval and may also represent a repudiation of middle-class values which the vandals see as actually rejecting them. Furthermore, vandalism may represent an attempt on the part of middle-class males to cope with problems arising from sex-role identification difficulties. The problem of vandalism against schools may also relate to the schools' failure to meet social, educational, or emotional needs of the students, and the resulting violence to the school plant is thus vindictive in nature. The development of a policy environment to deal with acts of vandalism must acknowledge the complexity of factors which lead to acts of vindictive vandalism. Related literature is reviewed. Footnotes are included. (Author abstract modified.)