School violence
School violence includes violence between school students as well as attacks by students on school staff and attacks by school staff on students. It encompasses physical violence, including student-on-student fighting, corporal punishment; psychological violence such as verbal abuse, and sexual violence, including rape and sexual harassment. It includes many forms of bullying and carrying weapons to school. The one or more perpetrators typically have more physical, social, and/or psychological power than the victim. It is a widely accepted serious societal problem in recent decades in many countries, especially where weapons such as guns or knives are involved.
Forms of school violence and different types of bullying
School violence occurs in all countries and affects a significant number of children and adolescents. It is mostly perpetrated by peers but, in some cases, is perpetrated by teachers and other school staff. School violence includes physical, psychological and sexual violence.Bullying
, in its broadest sense, can be defined as a form of aggressive behavior characterized by unwelcome and negative actions. It entails a recurring pattern of incidents over time, as opposed to isolated conflicts, and typically manifests in situations where there exists an imbalance of power or strength among the individuals involved. It is important to distinguish bullying from occasional conflicts or disagreements that may arise among peers.Various forms of bullying exist, including physical, psychological, sexual, and cyber-bullying.
- Physical bullying encompasses a series of aggressive acts, such as physical assault, injury, kicking, pushing, shoving, confinement, theft of personal belongings, destruction of possessions, or coerced participation in undesirable activities. It is important to note that physical bullying differs from other types of physical violence, such as physical fights or attacks.
- Psychological bullying entails verbal abuse, emotional abuse, as well as social exclusion. This form of bullying includes derogatory name-calling, malicious teasing, deliberate exclusion from activities, purposeful neglect or ignorance, and the spread of lies or rumors.
- Sexual bullying involves subjecting an individual to ridicule through sexual jokes, comments, or gestures, causing embarrassment or discomfort.
- Cyber-bullying refers to bullying that takes place through electronic means. This can involve receiving mean-spirited instant messages, posts, emails, or text messages, or the creation of websites intended to mock or ridicule a particular student. Additionally, cyber-bullying encompasses the unauthorized capture and online dissemination of unflattering or inappropriate images of a student, as well as hurtful or malicious behavior through mobile phones or online platforms.
Physical fights
Sexual violence
According to Demographic and Health Survey, sexual violence is forced sexual intercourse or any other sexual acts against one's will. Violence Against Children Survey defines it as completed non-consensual sex acts, attempted non-consensual sex acts, abusive sexual contact, and non-contact sexual abuse.Physical violence perpetrated by teachers
This is defined as the intentional use of physical force with the potential to cause death, disability, injury or harm, regardless of whether it is used as a form of punishment.Corporal punishment perpetrated by teachers
In school, corporal punishment is defined as any punishment in which physical force is used against a student and intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort. This often involves hitting children with a hand or implement, but it can also involve kicking, shaking, throwing or scratching children.Risk factors
Internalizing and externalizing behaviors
A distinction is made between internalizing and externalizing behavior. Internalizing behaviors reflect withdrawal, inhibition, anxiety, and/or depression. Internalizing behavior has been found in some cases of youth violence although in some youth, depression is associated with substance abuse. Because they rarely act out, students with internalizing problems are often overlooked by school personnel. Externalizing behaviors refer to delinquent activities, aggression, and hyperactivity. Unlike internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors include, or are directly linked to, violent episodes. Violent behaviors such as punching and kicking are often learned from observing others. Just as externalizing behaviors are observed outside of school, such behaviors also observed in schools.Other individual factors
A number of other individual factors are associated with higher levels of aggressiveness. Compared to children whose antisocial conduct begins in adolescence, early starters have a worse prognosis in terms of future aggression and other antisocial activities. Lower IQ seems to be related to higher levels of aggression. Other findings indicate that motor, attention, and reading problems predict later persistent antisocial conduct in boys.Home environment
The influence of the home environment on school violence has been a subject of study from the Constitutional Rights Foundation. According to this foundation, various factors within the home contribute to the acceptance of criminal and violent behavior among children. Long-term exposure to gun violence, parental alcoholism, domestic violence, physical abuse, and child sexual abuse all play a role in shaping children's perception of acceptability regarding such activities. Research indicates a correlation between harsh parental discipline and increased levels of aggression in youth. Additionally, exposure to violence on television and, to a lesser extent, violent video games has been linked to heightened aggressiveness in children. These aggressive tendencies can carry over into school environments.One line of research, led by Straus, suggests that parental corporal punishment heightens the risk of aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. However, these findings have been challenged by Larzelere and Baumrind. Nonetheless, a comprehensive meta-analysis of numerous studies on corporal punishment suggests that it leads to unfavorable outcomes for children and young people. The most methodologically sound studies demonstrate a "positive, moderately sized association between parental corporal punishment and children's aggression". Gershoff found that the trajectory of mean effect sizes was curvilinear with the largest mean effect size in middle school and slightly smaller effect sizes in elementary school and high school.
Another influential model in understanding the development of aggressive behavior is Gerald Patterson's social interactional model. This model highlights the dynamic between the mother's use of coercive behaviors and the child's counter-application of such behaviors. Coercive behaviors can include actions that are typically punishing, such as whining, yelling, and hitting. Abusive home environments can hinder the development of social cognitive skills necessary for understanding others' intentions. Short-term longitudinal evidence supports the idea that a lack of social cognitive skills mediates the relationship between harsh parental discipline and aggressive behavior in kindergarten. Follow-up studies indicate that the mediating effects persist until third and fourth grade.
Hirschi's control theory, proposed in 1969, suggests that children with weak emotional bonds to their parents and school are more likely to engage in delinquent and violent behavior both within and outside of the school setting. Hirschi's cross-sectional data from northern California largely support this view. Findings from case-control and longitudinal studies also align with this perspective.