The perception that our nation's public schools are disorderly and unsafe is widespread, and the image of the public school is deteriorating. Since 1974, the Gallup organization has gathered opinions about the public schools. The percentage giving the schools an "A" rating declined from 18% to 6% between 1974 and 1983 (Gallup, 1974, 1984). In a recent survey of America's teenagers, only 9% gave the schools an "A" rating (Bahner, 1980, p. 106). Lack of discipline tops the list of the problems adults see facing schools, and class disturbances and theft are reported by teenagers to be "very big" or "fairly big" problems in their schools (Bahner, 1980, p. 107). These public perceptions are fostered by and reflected in national media attention ("City Schools in Crisis," 1977; "Help! Teacher Can't Teach!" 1980; "High Schools under Fire," 1977). Public concern is also reflected in Congressional hearings where testimony creates the image of grave disorder within our schools (U.s. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, 1975, 1976b; U.s. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education, 1980). The public has given the schools low marks, and the Senate Judiciary Committee (1975) gave the schools an" A" in violence and vandalism. In short, parents, students, and public officials are alarmed at what they see as a rising tide of violence and disorder in the schools and are concerned about how much learning can occur in a disruptive environ ment, and about the safety of teachers and students.

The Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control convened a workshop on October 2, 1998, to explore issues related to educational performance, school climate, school practices, learning, student motivation and commitment to school, and their relationship to delinquency. The workshop was designed to bring together researchers and practitioners with a broad range of perspectives on the relationship between such specific issues as school safety and academic achievement and the development of delinquent behavior. Education and Delinquency reviews recent research findings, identifies gaps in knowledge and promising areas of future research, and discusses the need for program evaluation and the integration of empirical research findings into program design.

This anthology contains 12 original papers analyzing the latest worldwide findings on repeat victimization and exploring their implications for prevention policy. Contributors present a cross- national comparison of rates of repeat victimization, and discuss attitudes of repeat victims toward the police, repeat burglary victimization in Europe and Australia, personal fraud scams and victims, repeat bank robbery, offender targeting, and implications for crime control policy. There is no subject index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.

This book examines the associated experiences of school bullying and violence among vulnerable and marginalized youth. It discusses the effects of diversity and disparities in youth’s experiences with bullying. Among these are socioeconomic and social status, family cohesion and interactions, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, race, ethnicity, immigration, religion, and disabilities and special health needs. The book describes the ways in which a social-ecological framework can inform the problem and address school bullying. It addresses not only individual, intrapersonal, and environmental factors of bullying, but also discusses distal level factors and conditions that are specifically relevant to youth (e.g., culture and law). In addition, this volume contextualizes relevant multilevel factors that foster or inhibit bullying victimization among vulnerable and historically marginalized children and adolescents who are faced with cumulative social stratification. Key areas of coverage include: The role of the family (parents and guardians, siblings) – its cohesion and interactions – in school bullying. Race, ethnicity, immigration, and religion and school bullying of marginalized and at-risk youth. Victimization of students with physical, emotional, and learning disorders. Bullying and victimization of vulnerable youth in the court systems. School Bullying is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians and other practitioners, graduate students, and policymakers across such disciplines as child and school psychology, social work and counseling, pediatrics and school nursing, educational policy and politics, and all interrelated disciplines.

`This is a worthwhile read and many of the ideas could well be used in schools to address the issues of bullying. There is something for everyone in the book, and it should be on any reading list for student teachers and certainly for the senior manager with responsibility for pastoral systems in every school′ - Emotional & Behavioural Difficulties `This book is a must for all teachers in secondary school throughout the country. The value of this book lies in the potential for its application in a realistic school setting by staff from the head teacher, to teachers, to pupils and all those who are in the school environment′ - Dr L F Lowenstein, Clinical and Educational Psychologist `The authors of this book adopt a new approach to dealing with bullying. Instead of discussing how often it occurs, who bullies and who is bullied, they see bullying as part of a social dynamic and unsafe school culture. This book is an essential practical guide to dealing with bullying for teachers, teachers trainers, counsellors, pupil and families′ - Childright `This book is an important and comprehensive resource dealing with school bullying issues in a practical way, with strategies designed to be used easily in the classroom. It gives valuable advice to teachers on dealing with bullies in the most effective way, using victims and bystanders as part of the solution. It should be required reading in every secondary school′ - Liz Carnell, Director, Bullying Online This book is a practical guide to dealing with bullying in secondary schools. The authors present what we know about bullying, describe development issues for adolescence and discuss the social context of the school. They analyze key features of healthy and unhealthy schools, and set out a whole school approach to bullying and other social problems that arise in the secondary school. The authors show that by empowering the bystanders through providing effective teacher support, much of the bullying can be stopped at an early age and a healthy and safe school can be created. Their suggestions are based on student-centred responses and on programmes developed specifically to deal with bullying. This book is written especially for secondary school teachers, administrators and students, and the families and caregivers of the students. It is also for those who train teachers, for counsellors and for educators at all levels.

Bullying is a covert problem, buried in he subculture of a school. But what kind of child becomes a bully or a victim, and why? What family and social context produce them? How important are the factors of race and gender in the bullying cycle?