Crime in Educational Environment

School violence is a great concern since it is associated with numerous adverse outcomes. The ‘Indicators of School Crime and Safety' show that students aged 12-18 are victimized at school through different violence acts like bullying, hitting, suicide,  gang violence, weapon use, vandalism, robbery and more. The research and studies also report that middle and high schools are affected by school violence than elementary schools. This is because students at this age are in early adolescence and the majority do not distinguish between the acceptable and non-acceptable social behaviors. Also, young people come into contact with people from different backgrounds where they develop hate-motivated behaviors inform of harassment and intimidation (Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2008). Violence in K-12 hinders effective education since when students engage in violence, they suffer from physical ailments and, poor growth and development.  The research on school violence report that students are not violence-prone, but the media and the general public demonize them.  In addition to influence by the world, young people are acting dangerously by learning the wrong behaviors from their parents.  For example, children who are raised by parents who abuse drugs and those who are incarcerated are likely to engage in undesirable behaviors (Kaiser & Rasminsky, 2008). The social disorganization theory explains the cause of school violence by stating that areas with racial heterogeneity and poverty and lack social controls and supervision have a higher level of crime. Overall, risk factors such as family and community impact and, access to a weapon and cyber use influence young people in committing crime at school.

 Students in elementary, middle, and high school level are all connected to violent crimes.  For example, 95% of high school students are involved in gang activity such as selling drugs and violence.  A survey conducted in 1993-1994 reported that 13.8% of high school students are gang members and they even attain recruitment with the schools (Crews, 2016).  Elementary students are involved in a physical assault against their peers with or without using a weapon. For example, on April 16, 2018, an 8-year old boy injured three students with a kitchen knife at central Minn. elementary school.  Middle students are involved in hate crimes against other students due to the ethnic and cultural background.  For example, a middle school student was charged with racist threats against a classmate at Marlowe Middle School. The reason as to why each school level present unique crime is due to different factors that influence them. For example,   high school students learn violence from the media and video games, and they emulate these behaviors (Crews, 2016).  Some countries such as the First-World countries permits the access of guns for households, and these factors influence murdering at school. This use of a gun might not happen at elementary and middle school level since, at this level, students develop aggression and antisocial behavior such as hate crimes due cultural diversity and drug use due to peer pressure Crews, 2016).

There are various strategies that should be implemented to reduce crime at elementary, middle, and high school levels. First, there should be disciplinary measures which will guide the students.  Security measures will also help in detecting weapons and possible threats (Fisher & Lab, 2010). It is important to create awareness campaigns to provide students with knowledge based on anger-management, character development and how to address psychological issues. Parents also have a role to play in ensuring that students live in a violent-free environment. Parents should teach their children desirable behaviors and effective communication, provide proper monitoring and ensure that children are not exposed to inappropriate video games and movies (Fisher & Lab, 2010).  Not only the schools and parents are responsible for addressing the school violence, but the community at large should resolve the issue. The government should let the community examine the statistical data on crimes by students for them to put concerted efforts toward the problems.  All local authorities should be on the frontline to provide interdisciplinary measures creating and implementing policies and effective interventions.

Kaiser & Rasminsky (2008) adds that differential reinforcement is a strategy that can be used to eliminate the undesirable behaviors. This strategy is effective in helping high school students aged 14-18 where they will be provided with adaptive skills. This should be done through video modeling, adult or peer models and self-modeling. These models will teach students functional life skills which they will apply in academic, communication and behavioral setting.  Elementary and middle school students should also be provided with safe and structured classroom and community-based programs where students will interact in a social context and gain generalization of skills (Kaiser  & Rasminsky, 2008).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference                

 

Kaiser, B., & Rasminsky, J. S. (2008). Challenging behavior in elementary and middle school. Boston,

Mass: Allyn and Bacon.

 

Crews, G. A. (2016). Critical examinations of school violence and disturbance in K-12 education.

Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference 

 

Fisher, B., & Lab, S. P. (2010). Encyclopedia of victimology and crime prevention. Thousand Oaks, Calif:

SAGE Publications.