behavior that law enforcement must address.
IDENTIFYING PERPETRATORS OF SCHOOL
VIOLENCE
Historically, individuals who
commit school violence fall into one of two groups. The first group, “insiders”
(e.g., students), usually can be divided into two broader categories—sociopaths
(e.g., bullies who instigate fights and manipulate others) and psychopaths
(e.g., socially inept loners who have the potential for great violence).3
The second group involves visiting “outsiders,” such as students
from other schools or former students.
Communities must prepare for
potential school violence from either of these groups. No standard profile
of a school violent offender currently exists. At best, certain warning signs
may indicate potential violence and specific factors may denote a greater
likelihood of an individual carrying out violence.
ADDRESSING SCHOOL VIOLENCE
Primarily, communities
can address school violence through three simple steps—prevention, planning,
and practice. Prevention refers to taking actions to reduce or prevent school
violence from occurring, planning determines what actions to take if school
violence does occur, and practice entails rehearsing plans and modifying them
when needed.
Prevention
"While not every school
may have to deal with a violent shooter, nearly every school experiences
violent threats."
Mr. Hoang, former deputy chief of police
for the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Police Department currently serves as an
advisor to the Rockland County, New York, Police Academy.
Various
publications provide a comprehensive overview of school violence prevention
programs and offer various steps communities can take to help prevent violence
in their schools.4 First, communities should establish partnerships
between schools and other public agencies. Because school violence remains
a community problem, it requires collaboration from all residents, agencies,
and businesses. Schools, police, business leaders, and elected officials all
must cooperate to address school violence.
Next, communities
should identify and measure the problem. School officials, working with law
enforcement and other community agencies, should collect information that
shows the size and scope of violence in their schools. This important step
ensures that prevention efforts revolve around the community’s specific
problems.
Communities
also should set goals and measurable objectives. School officials, collaborating
with parents and students, should set goals (with broad results) and specific
objectives (with measurable results) for their school
violence prevention efforts.
Last, communities
should identify appropriate research-based programs and strategies. The key
to preventing and reducing school violence combines long-term strategies with
short-term interventions. Community leaders and school administrators should
research and examine various school violence prevention options and select
techniques most appropriate for their schools. Such options fall into three
broad categories.5 The first category involves environmental modifications
and suggests that police, trained in crime prevention through environmental
design, or school security managers, who have attended specialized courses
in physical security, audit or survey each school. These personnel should
examine a school’s physical environment and recommend modifications to
prevent or reduce violence.
The second category
includes options for preventing and
