Preventing School Violence and Promoting School Safety: Contemporary Scholarship Advancing Science, Practice, and Policy

Abstract

School safety is essential for children and youth in schools to learn and experience a positive developmental trajectory. School safety research featured herein intentionally draws upon multiple fields of study, including, but not limited to education; special education; school, counseling, clinical and community psychology; social work; juvenile justice; and sociology. the articles in this special issue draw on many theoretical frameworks, considering developmental theories, social-ecological and cognitive-ecological perspectives, information processing, normative behavior theory, socialidentity, social-transactional processes, and social networking models. this overview of the special issue synthesizes and integrates findings from these articles across five areas: (a) conceptual foundations, (b) centering race and ethnicity in school safety, (d) school resource officers' training and roles, (d) discipline and school climate, and (e) bullying and peer victimization. Many of these articles leverage scholarship across topics such as providing beneficial schoolwide systems of discipline, promoting positive school climates, addressing bullying, fostering authoritative models in schools, facilitating culturally responsive schools, and understanding mental health needs of students. IMPACT STATEMENTthis paper provides a synthesis of articles featured in the special topic section focused on preventing school violence and promoting school safety. Key implications for practice and policy include enabling stakeholders to understand the current state of knowledge in the field, empowering agents of change for broader policy and programming, and advancing research towards new understandings.

Assessment of Maintenance Management Practice in Government-owned Tertiary Institution

“…This problem is not peculiar to Nigeria; the U.S. faces a similar challenge where horrific school shootings and other forms of violence in academic institutions have led governments at all levels and stakeholders to seek ways to best address the problem and protect the school environment [43,48,49]. In an attempt to address this challenge, the National Association of School Psychologists [50] cites research findings that suggest that restrictive school security measures have the potential to harm school learning environments, particularly when extreme physical measures are overemphasized or armed security guards are universally increased.…”

Exploring the factors affecting violence among Iranian male adolescents

“…Safety and peace at schools are essential for learning and gaining positive experiences in the developmental process of children and adolescents [ 9 ]. According to the social disorganization theory, physical and social environments influence selective behaviors.…”

Bidirectional relationship between bullying victimization and functions of aggression in adolescents: The mediating effect of teacher justice

“…Bullying is a common and widespread form of violence in school contexts in many countries (Mayer et al, 2021). It is an intentional and long‐term form of violence in which there is an imbalance of power between bullies and victims (Olweus, 1993).…”