Identifying the Individual, Institutional, and Community Sources of School Violence and Victimization: A Meta-Analysis

• In Event: Institutional and Cultural Determinants of Violence

Abstract

Horrific events like the school shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland have undoubtedly and understandably shocked the nation. And yet stacked on top of these events is also the daily task facing school administrators of keeping youths safe from the full spectrum of violence (e.g., bullying and intimidation, harassment, fighting, and sexual assault) that occurs in the school environment. But creating effective, evidence-based policies to address school violence would first require knowing what the sources, or the "root causes," of school violence are. Accordingly, in the current study we subject the full body of empirical literature on school violence (over 700 studies) to a meta-analysis. Our overall goals are to help inform school violence research and evidence-based policies by: (1) organizing the existing empirical knowledge base regarding school violence; and (2) identifying the key individual-, school-, and community-level factors that should be targeted for change and/or intervention to reduce various forms of violence and victimization at school.

Authors

• Jillian Turanovic, Florida State University

• Travis C. Pratt, University of Cincinnati Corrections Institute

• Francis T. Cullen, University of Cincinnati

• Teresa C. Kulig, University of Nebraska at Omaha

• Meghan Ogle, Florida State University