User:Zacherystaylor/preventing school violence

I have created this user subpage since most of what I have added to the official page has been targeted for deletion and attempts to dilute the page have been made so that the content is less meaningful. I am hoping to avoid conflict resolution but unless there is some attempt to provide more improvement on violence prevention I am not hopeful at this time. I find it hard to believe that there would be so much objection to what I am doing. there is a list of over 100 school shootings and 200 lesser school attacks and very little about vilence prevention. The School shooting page is among the worst in my opinion it has something about prevention but it involves arming teachers and shooting the students at the last minute. I can't believe I'm the only one who considers this absurd. My attempts to change this have been deleted and I am going to try again soon. The assumption that we should allow this and delete attempts to prevent violence earlier is absurd. I'm going to ask for a few opinions first since most of the people that have commented seem to be oppose to addressing the issue. If you have improvements for this page or the official page it will be welcome. My main concern isn't getting my version posted but getting the best version possible posted. However if you just want to delete I'll just reverse it without comment.

One other note one thing that hasn't been deleted was the section about Teacher accountability. This is because I haven't added it yet, it is sourced and a ligitimate concern but I intended to consider it further before adding it. The reason for this is because I don't want to give the impression that this is primarily the fault of the teachers. I don't believe this however there are some problem teachers and this has to be considered when trying to solve the problem. The sources for these concerns about teachers and administrartors are teachers themselves who don't want to look the other way. Further more part of the problem is that teachers don't get enpough respect in our society. If someone shoots down a student just before he goes on a shooting spree that person might be considered a hero but if a teacher does a good job and prevents it from ever coming to that it goes unnoticed by most people and there is nothing dramatic about it. Real solutions aren't draqmatic.

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Preventing School Violence

Preventing School Violence

Preventing School Violence before it happens is easier and cheaper than dealing with it after it happens. There are many contributing causes to school violence and these contributing causes also cause other social problem including drug abuse and school drop out rates. In order to solve these problems in the most effective way possible researchers believe it is necessary to address all the contributing causes. This means that if people solve School violence problems they will also solve other related problems both in and out of school. Some of the contributing causes happen off the school grounds so this should be a community effort. Researchers believe the most important way of preventing school violence is proper education at a young age. Parents and teachers teach children to respect each other by treating them with respect and setting a good example. Another idea which has long been popular is creating and enforcing rules limiting the kind or degree of force students are allowed to use in various situations, e.g., self defense vs. running away, etc.

Community Organizations

National Organizations can help with studies of school violence and experts like James Garbarino, Ellen deLara, Gavin de Becker and Alice Miller can help provide guidance and make recommendation, however it should be the responsibility of local organizations to make final decisions and implement policies. This can start with local School Boards and the PTA. Parents, teachers and students can work together to establish programs that prevent violence and create a productive education environment. It helps to make sure everyone is familiar with the rules and laws. If there are problems with the rules or laws they can work together to correct them. It is also important to maintain an open line of communication so that the adults understand what the students are dealing with. Many of the problems occur when the adults aren't present. Maintaining close contact with children from a young age will help preserve good relations with adults. Additional organizations that can contribute to solutions include the following:

• YMCA
• Boy Scouts of America
• Big Brother
• Big Sisters
• Girl Scouts of America
• AmeriCorps
• Boy Scouts
• Boy Scouts of America
• Girl Scouts of the USA

Warning signs

Many incidents of school violence have been preceded by warning signs that have been ignored. This includes Kip Kinkle, Andrew Wurst and the Columbine High School massacre. In some of these cases they students had been building pipe bombs, spoke out against other students, had been to therapy etc. In the Columbine case there was a web site which was reported to the police that threatened to kill someone. This was ignored at the time even though the students were also in trouble with the police for other reasons. In Kip Kinkle's case he received the gun from his own father who he later killed. Some of the warning signs for violent or suicidal behavior that Gavin de Becker advises people to watch out for include the following:

• Change in eating or sleeping habits
• Drop in grades
• Truancy or fear of bus to school
• Withdrawal from friends, family and regular activities
• Violent actions, rebellious behavior
• Drug and alcohol abuse
• Unusual neglect of personal appearance
• Marked personality change
• Nightmares
• Persistent boredom, difficulty concentrating, or a decline in the quality of school work
• Frequent complaints about physical symptoms, often related to emotions, such as headaches, fatigue, etc.
• Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
• Not accepting praise or rewards
• Addiction to media products
• Aimlessness
• Fascination with weapons and violence
• Experience with guns
• Access to guns
• Sullen, Angry, Depressed
• Seeking status and worth through violence
• Threats (of violence or suicide)
• Chronic Anger
• Rejection or Humiliation
• Media Provocation
• Abuse of animals

Additional warning signs for suicide may include giving verbal hints like saying "I wont be a problem anymore" or putting affairs in order and giving away favorite possessions.

Contributing causes

Identifying and preventing social activities that make violence more likely will help prevent violence before it happens.

Child abuse

Child abuse teaches children to deny, minimize, suppress and compartmentalize. Abused children learn that when it comes to violence it is better to give than receive. Abused children are more likely to become abusers later in life either as bullies or abusive parents or in other ways. Abused children are often enclined to take out their anger on those weaker than them since they can't take it out on those that abuse them. This often means that they abuse smaller children and animals that can't fight back and are often not in a position to tell adults. A federal research project selected 1,600 children who had been abused or neglected and followed them for close to 20 years fully half of them wound up being arrested for some crime. In one case cited by De Becker two children who witnessed their father kill their mother went on to become killers themselves one killing his girlfriend and the other killing his wife. In some rare cases the abuse victims wound up killing their abusive parents. Some abused children may be more reclusive and then they may become the target of bullies and receive even more abuse. Child abusers tend to be repeat offenders in one study by Dr. David Southall in England he found that when children were hospitalized for suspected abuse 33 out of 39 were caught abusing the children again. He received permission to put a camera in the hospital rooms of the children to film the parents while they visited their children and the additional abuse was caught on tape. This was used to prosecute these parents. this study involves parents that were already suspected of serious abuse and may not reflect most cases. Some of these abusive parents may respond to intervention and counseling assuming they truly regret the violence but others don't, in this case it is better to separate them from their families.

Most victims of abuse tend to hide their expeiences rather than use them as a defence in court. They often have to be talked into bringing it out into the open. Contary to what some commentators claim they don't want to use it as mitigating circumstances. Abused children often assume that their experiences at home are normal, they don't realize that there is an alternative since they have often lived with this all their lives. Abused children often don't realize that the abuse that they esxperience has any effect on their development and they often are given the impression that it is their own fault.

Abused children often feel that they can't count on adults and they often feel it is up to them to take justice into their own hands.

According to Alice Miller some mild forms of child abuse may seem very subtle from the point of view of an adult but from the point of view of a child they may seem much more important. She cites an example where a couple of parents have ice cream cones of their own and tease the child who wants some but say it is too cold for him then laugh at him as if it is no big deal. She believes that parents should try to look at this from the point of view of the child and realize that to the child being ridiculed by two big adults who have total control over the child is humiliating and if a child is treated this way when he is young he will treat others this way when he gets older. She also cites some parents that believe strict upbringing is the appropriate way to raise children. In many cases they advocate corporal punishment as the primary way to treat a child. De Becker also agrees with her that if defiance is always met with discipline and never with discussion the child will learn to respect discipline without understanding it. Richard Ramirez and other serial killers and school shooters were raised like this. Ramirez was raised by a strict Christian father who was also raised by a strict Christian father that used violence to discipline their children without proper education. some parents with inadequate education will look down on children if they try to take advantage of better educational opportunities. In some cases Alice Miller expresses concern over the motive for parents to have children. Some mother may want children so that they can receive more attention. this can be addressed through counseling. Hawaii has started a program where they offer assistance to young mothers at high risk. This is done with volunteer home visitors who help those that accept the offer. They go to the homes of the young mother and help with simple child care and provide basic advice. They continue thes visits for the first 2 years of the childs life. This has been proven to reduce the drop out rate and delinquency rate of children who participate. This program was later expanded to other states including Massachusetts. the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse is seeking to extend home visiting programs throughout the USA.

Children who become overly agresive early are much more likely to grow upto be violent adults than children who don't show agresive tendencies until there adolescence. This may be because there is better training earlier in life to fall back on but researchers are uncertain of this. This does add to the need for intervention earlier in when it has a greater impact. If children are removed from abusive homes at an early age or if the parents recieve proper couseling and they abuse comes to an end it is much easier than to wait until they are older and less suceptible to treatment. James Garbarino cites one case where caretakers from headtart consulted with a social worker who visited the mother of the child and found that she was overwelmed and didn't know how to handle the situation, the social worker was able to help resolve the situation by consulting with the staff at head start and providing some advice to the mother. Within a few weeks there were noticible improvements. There was no need to take the child away or take any further action.

Bullying

In most cases bullies become bullies after they are bullied or abused themselves. This may happen at home as a result of abuse by adults or at school as a result of abuse by other students. Stopping child abuse or bullying early can have a major impact to break the cycle of violence. This requires close attention to children at a young age in preschool and grammar school. This is especially important in large cities that have large high schools that may require security in the halls if the children aren't raised right at an early age. The security is much harder to implement if the children don't respect it and are looking for a way to avoid security.

According to a 9 page report by Regina Hueter, Director of Juvenile Diversion to the Denver District Attorneys office there were many stories of bullying and students didn't report them because they didn't believe anything would be done about it. Many students claimed that the teachers would only do something about bullying if they saw it themselves. There was one parent who called the administration to complain and he claimed he didn't receive a response for 6 weeks. When they did call him back he claimed they were abrupt and rude. According to Brooks Brown and other students and parents in Littleton this environment didn't change immediately after the Columbine High School massacre. Many of the teachers, police and policy makers were more concerned with avoiding blame.

Gavin De Becker cites several other cases where bullying leads to revenge attacks or other problems. In one case when a mother called an expert radio personality she told her to teach her son to tough it out and stand up for himself without realizing that he was half the size of the bully that was threatening him. Coincidentally that same day the child intended to take his own father gun and shoot the bully, however he didn't because his father had called in sick that day and was in the bedroom where the gun was. In stead he went to school and wound up being beat up by the bully and receiving a fractured rib and losing both front teeth. The only thing that saved this student from further beatings was dumb luck, the bully failed to fully close his locker one day and a counselor came by and reached into the locker to rearrange things so that she could close it and found a handgun. He was arrested and never returned to the school. Another incident was witnessed personally when De Becker was in high school involves a student that was bullied routinely until one day he hit one of the worst bullies from behind with a steel bar seriously disfiguring him. The bully was hospitalized for weeks and the victim that sought revenge was taken away by police never to be seen again.

Gavin De Becker cites some pre incident indicators that might help predict and prevent these incidents from happening in the first place:

• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Addiction to media products
• Aimlessness
• Fascination with weapons and violence
• Experience with guns
• Access to guns
• Sullen, Angry, Depressed
• Seeking status and worth through violence
• Threats of violence or suicide
• Chronic anger
• Rejection or Humiliation
• Media Provocation

Mobilizing the community against bullying at a early age is an effective way to prevent bullying and school violence at a later age. Many teenage children have said that they feel that they should say something when other kids are being targeted. Teaching children at a young age to speak out against bullying and addressing the concerns of the children are much more effective at preventing violence than waiting untill the teen years. Maintaining consistant rules and applying them consistantly will help reduce violence. It is also important to make sure that everyone knows about the rules.

Drug abuse

James Garbarino and Ellen deLara conducted interviews with many teenagers and concluded that in many cases they are opposed to drug use and wish there was more supervision from parents, however they hesitate to speak up in front of other children. Most teenagers agree that bullies are more likely to use drugs although there is no direct evidence to indicate one causes the other. They advise parents to consult with school faculty to know what there policy is on how to handle drug abuse, if it is clear and if it is enforced consistently. They also recommend drug education for teachers and faculty. They advise parents to discuss drugs with their children and if necessary get advice from counselors about how to discuss it with children.

Delinquent friends

Fathers are undervalued in America, in some cases where a father isn't present or isn't involved enough with the children they may look to others for guidance. If there isn't a responsible big brother figure they may look to someone less responsible. This may have been what happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas when Drew Golden and Mitch Johnson became famous killers or when James Vance and Raymond Belknap joined in a suicide pact. This may also have been what happened when Klebold and Harris became involved in the Columbine shooting. This is much less likely if they have a father figure to turn to or a guidance counselor that they trust.

Teacher accountability

There are some cases where teachers or other adults may ridicule or harass students for example in one case where a student walked in while a teacher was discussing his paper with a colleague. They were laughing and commenting negatively and when the student overheard this he lost interest and his grades went down. Other teachers have used shame to discipline children and this had a negative affect on the attitude of the child. This doesn’t happen as often as it used to but it still does happen on occasion. According to a study by psychologist Irwin Hyman teachers who use emotionally brutal behavior learn this as children. Many students that were interviewed by James Garbarino and Ellen deLara felt that adults didn't know what was going on in the schools. They often feel that adults are to busy doing other things or don't want to get involved in violent situations so they look the other way. James Garbarino and Ellen deLara also found at least one adult teacher who didn't feel they should bother listening to the students. He claimed the students didn't know how to handle the problems. James Garbarino and Ellen deLara concluded that the schools that were least likely to have problems were the ones that tried the best to maintain an open line of communication and address the problems as they came along. They didn't conclude that they should always believe everything the students said but they should listen to them and seek confirmation. They found that many of the students understood things better than many adults expected them to. They recommend that parents who want to help reduce problems at school volunteer to help monitor halls or buses as well as participate in extra curricular activities. At Columbine according to some students including Brooks Brown teachers would give preferential treatment to some students that included looki8ng the other way when they bullied or teased the outcasts. Some of these teachers expressed denial after the shooting and may have hampered the investigation to understand what caused the shooting.

Social Workers

Social workers are often portrayed as negligent in the media and in some cases this may be justified but in many cases they are doing the best they can with what they have and they don't receive the recognition they deserve. Unlike teachers they don't generally receive respect from the parents they are dealing with since they are often investigating them and the parents look at them as adversaries. often the neighbors or friends of the parents may take their side but when something goes wrong the media is often quick to blame the social worker. Social workers are like teachers ion some ways and need more resources pay and respect. To withhold resources and then blame the social workers is guaranteed to fail.

Child Care

"50% of working parents of young children have to leave their children in care you or I wouldn't trust nor do they." Dr. Berry Brazelton

Gavin De Becker recommends that parents check licenses of daycare systems. It is rare where this would be a problem however he cites one case where there was a convicted sex offender who was running a day care center without a license who was telling his customers he had one and no one checked it until he was caught abusing children again. He also recommends that parents check daycare policies and ask for them in writing. Keeping in touch with other parents is also a good idea. Some corporations are offering company day care, this improves productivity, reduces absenteeism and increases loyalty to the company. The parents benefit as well by having more reliable daycare assuming it is held accountable.

Cultural Differences

Comparing cultural differences can help understand why some schools have fewer problems with violence than others. School violence is a global problem and not all cultures treat it the same way. For instance, in Singapore any tendency towards violence among teenage boys is kept in check by the use of school corporal punishment (see Caning in Singapore). Sometimes there are even differences in schools in the same culture nearby. According to a 9 page report by Regina Hueter, Director of Juvenile Diversion to the Denver District Attorneys office there was one child who transferred to Columbine and her grades went from mostly As to failing. Then when she transferred out again she began flourishing again.

Most of the countries that are doing much worse than the USA have a better excuse, as they are at war. Peter W. Singer and Jimmie Briggs have studied the way war affects children including children who were forced to fight as child soldiers. They concluded that like abused children and children that have been involved in gangs or school shootings they need appropriate counseling in order to reintegrate into society. the increase in the availability of small arms has contributed to the increase in the use of child soldiers as well as in school shootings. Without small arms children were never able to do as much damage so quickly before.

One of the countries that has one of the most disastrous child welfare agencies is Romania; however it may be one of the greatest examples of how reform can be implemented as well. From 1945 to 1989 it has relied on state run child care which resulted in an enormous amount of negligence to the children. this has lead to high infant mortality rates as well as dysfunctional children some of whom were adopted by Americans who found that they were so troubled they couldn't handle raising them. This has shown how vital close contact with parents is when children are infants and what can happen when children don't receive the care they need from the very beginning. The reforms that have taken place since 1989 have also shown how much improvement can be made if the proper effort is put into it. the most important cultures to compare with may not be the ones that have had the most problems but those that have the least to find out what they have done right.

Gavin de Becker even believes it would help to compare to the daycare that animals provides. He cites one father who claims that animals never leave their children alone therefore he wouldn't either. De Becker doesn't agree that we should always raise children the same way as animals nor does he believe all animals treat their children this way but he does believe we can learn something from comparing them. He thinks people have done much better than animals but it is important to understand what people are doing better how and why in order to keep it up and if animals are doing something better than people it is also important to understand what, how and why in order to change it. One thing humans do different than animals is that they spend more time raising their children this enables people to develop a more sophisticated society with more advantages. However when people stop spending so much time raising children they run into more social problems including school violence. Some animals leave their children with "aunties" that they know and trust as do humans. Humans sometimes rely on day care that they are less familiar with though. This is based on the reputation of the daycare center, however in some cases that reputation hasn't always met expectation which is why he recommends checking references. Several researchers into animal behavior have also found that animals learn how to raise their young when they are children as do humans. when many animals are separated from their mothers as infants they fail to learn how to raise their own children as adults. One example of this is Washoe Jane Goodall has also found that dysfunctional families pass down from generation to generation in the wild. She has found that when chimpanzees are raised by dysfunctional mothers they tend to be dysfunctional when they grow up and have their own families.

Gun safety

Gavin De Becker recommends that parents who are opposed to guns in school and want a gun free School policy in their area start with a letter to the principal telling them what they believe. This could be followed up with participation in the PTA and letters to state and federal legislators. He recommends that guns be locked up out of reach of children. There are some cases where children involved in school shootings got guns from their parents. According to a 1994 study by Harvard University's School of Public Health 60% of student's nation wide grades 6-12 knew how to get a gun quickly and 39% were close to someone who had been killed or wounded by gunfire.

Additional Gun Statistics

• Every day about 75 American children are shot. Most recover, but 15 don't.
• The majority of fatal shootings happen in the home.
• Gunshot wounds are the single most common cause of death for women in the home, accounting for nearly half of all homicides and 42% of suicides.
• An adolescent is twice as likely to commit suicide if there is a gun in the home.
• A gun isn’t likely to be a key element in protection and is far more likely to harm a family member.

Defensive gun use surveys have been used to determine how often guns were used to stop crime. These are sent out to participants who fill out forms and return them. They are often cited to point out high uses of guns to deter crime, however after a close look of the results the Department of Justice/Police Foundation study concluded that an "estimate of millions of defensive gun uses each year greatly exaggerates the true numbers." One of the responders reported 52 such incidents.

Summation

According to a study released May 14 2002 by the National School Board association only 9 educators out of 837 thought School violence was a major concern. according to the report by Regina Huerter many teachers weren't paying adequate attention to bullying and other issues. Addressing all the contributing factors to School violence may seem like a big task but in the long run it will be more cost effective than ignoring the issues. It is cheaper to raise children right in the beginning than to deal with the social problems including increased crime and more prisons afterwards. According to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Scott Gordon "For every dollar we invest in kids in their young years, we save a thousand dollars in their teen years. It is a better investment than any internet stock." The benefits of treating these problems before they get worse are much greater than the costs and they go far beyond school violence.

Along with these newer ideas, there is still support for the tradition idea of punishing those who commit assaults. This idea stems from the ethical notion that individuals are responsible for their own behavior. Along these lines, students who attack others are given time out (younger children), detention or suspension, suspensions are often acompanied by a manditory conference with the parents and a counselor or teacher. For more serious offenses, they may also be referred to the police and courts.

See also

• School shooting
• School violence
• List of school-related attacks
• List of events named massacres
• Child Abuse
• Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
• Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
• National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
• Child grooming
• Religious abuse
• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• Childhelp
• Psychological abuse
• Catholic sex abuse cases
• Parental alienation syndrome
• Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Content
• Domestic violence
• Pace memorandum
• Jehovah's Witnesses and child sex abuse
• Child-on-child sexual abuse
• Laws regarding child sexual abuse

Bibliography

• Dave Cullen, Columbine, Twelve, New York, 2009. ISBN 9780446546935
• Gavin de Becker, Protecting the gift: keeping children and teenagers safe (and parents sane), Dial Press, New York, 1999. ISBN 0385333099
• Gavin de Becker, The gift of fear : survival signals that protect us from violence / Gavin de Becker.
• Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt, No easy answers: The truth behind death at Columbine, Lantern Books, New York, 2002. ISBN 1590560310
• James Garbarino: "Lost boys : why our sons turn violent and how we can save them" 1999
• James Garbarino and Ellen deLara: "And words can hurt forever: how to protect adolescents from bullying, harassment, and emotional violence" 2002
• Alice Miller: translated from the German by Ruth Ward: "The drama of the gifted child" 1981
• Joanne Scaglione, Arrica Rose Scaglione: "Bully-proofing children: a practical, hands-on guide to stop bullying" 2006

External links

• http://www.prepareinc.com
• http://www.yellodyno.com
• http://www.al-anon.alateen.org
• http://www.civitas.org
• http://www.ncvc.org
• http://www.parentpacks.com
• http://www.missingkids.com
• http://www.ncmec.org
• http://www.ymca.net
• http://www.soccer.org
• http://www.littleague.org
• http://www.autism-society.org
• http://www.fullpower.org
• http://www.paxusa.org
• http://www.gdbinc.org

• http://www.aclu-sc.org/school.html
• http://www.ncpc.orgeduleo5.htm
• http://www.cfchildren.org
• http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho.
• http://www.character.org
• http://www.edweek.org
• http://www.edletter.org
• http://www.nssc1.org
• http://www.ncsu.edu/cpsu
• http://www.safechild.org/bullies.htm
• http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dash/violence/index.htm
• http://www.dropoutprevention.org
• http://www.nassp.org
• http://umn.edu/~serve
• http://www.search-institute.org
• http://www.safeschools.org
• http://www.aauw.org
• http://www.edc.org/HHD/hatecrime/id1_homepage.htm
• http://www.ed.gov/pubs/HateCrime/start.html
• http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Harassment
• http://www.ed.gov/pubs/Harassment/climate1.html
• http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/02-1994/parent.html
• http://www.tolerance.org
• http://www.dontlaugh.org
• http://www.pflag.org
• http://www.apa.org
• http://www.naswdc.org
• http://www.glsen.org/templates/index.html
• http://www.cwla.org
• http://www.learningpt.org/
• http://npin.org/index.html
• http://www.trauma-pages.com/
• http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/uslgbt

• http://www.naeyc.org
• http://www.childabuse.org
• http://www.patnc.org
• http://www.crimeprevention.org
• http://www.misterrogers.org
• http://www.teenchallenge.com
• http://www.
• http://www.
• http://www.
• http://www.
• http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/0904/sprj.sch.bullying.prevention.ap
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050420091955.htm
• http://www.fightingcrime.org
• http://www.isafe.org
• http://www.josephoninstitute.org/Survey2000/violence2000-commentary.htm
• http://www.talkingwithkids.org/nickelodeon/pr-3-8-01.htm
• http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/bullying/a/bullying.htm
• http://www.safeyouth.org
• http://www.bullybeware.com/index.html
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/04/050411100940.htm

• Brooks Brown and Rob Merritt, No easy answers : the truth behind death at Columbine 2002
• Dave Cullen, Columbine 2009
• Gavin de Becker, Protecting the gift : keeping children and teenagers safe (and parents sane) 1999
• Gavin de Becker, The gift of fear : survival signals that protect us from violence / Gavin de Becker.
• Alice Miller ; translated from the German by Ruth Ward: The drama of the gifted child 1981
• Garbarino, James and Ellen deLara: And words can hurt forever : how to protect adolescents from bullying, harassment, and emotional violence 302 Gar
• Joanne Scaglione, Arrica Rose Scaglione: Bully-proofing children : a practical, hands-on guide to stop bullying 302.3 Sca
• Pam Scheunemann: Dealing with bullies

• Gavin de Becker
• Alice Miller
• School shooting
• School violence
• List of school-related attacks
• List of events named massacres
• Child Abuse
• Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
• Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
• National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
• Child grooming
• Religious abuse
• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• Childhelp
• Psychological abuse
• Catholic sex abuse cases
• Parental alienation syndrome
• Mobile Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Content
• Domestic violence
• Pace memorandum
• Jehovah's Witnesses and child sex abuse
• Child-on-child sexual abuse
• Laws regarding child sexual abuse
• Satanic ritual abuse

• Research and Advocacy Standing Committee

End of recomended article

The following is not intended for addition to the article although I believe it is backed up by the sources provided. I put this here to address what I consider ligitimate concerns and to try to convince people how important this subject is and that it is worth improving instead of deleting and making as meaningless as possible to avoid political incorectness or putting anything in that someone disagrees with.

Media violence

This section is pending further information and may be added to the recomended article. there is very little agreement about this so if I add anything it will probably be vague unless I find better sources.

According to a review by psychologist David Grossman many soldiers were reluctant to fire on humans after practicing shooting bullseyes. After training these soldiers to shoot targets of human figures. This desesitized the soldiers and made them more likely to shoot at people. the same priciple is believed to apply to children who watch a lot of media violence and play with violent vidio games. This type of media violence combined with abusive background is believed to desensitize children and make them more likely to kill. Some researchers including Gavin de Becker has argued that media violence is a contributing cause but he doesn't believe that it is as much of a contributing cause as an abusive family background.

Does punishment work?

The mass media and the politicians are always focusing on punishment after the fact as a deterent to stop crimes. There is also some attention to rehabilitation once someone is already a trouble child or criminal. Rehabilitation after the criminal is already prone to crime is much tougher than preventives education before they are prone to crime. This is what this article is supposed to be all about. It is based on research that is done by experts in their field not on demagoguery or political comentatary. One statement made by de Becker and echoed by other researchers is that punishment without discussion only teaching respect for authority without understanding. In otherword they obey because they are told to not because they understand what they are doing. The clear indication is that punishment alone doesn't work. Another problem with relying on punishment alone when dealing with abused children is that they have been punished already for no good reason. To put it bluntly they were punished before they commited their crimes and noone protected them. They are in a position where they are damned if they do damned if they don't. They no longer care whether they are going to get punished all they care about is imidiate rewards that they may get from commiting crimes or strinking out in anger. the actor who played Charles Manson put it best when he said "You beat a man with a whip and he like the whip you're just making a fool out of yourself." Whether this is a real quote or not isn't the point, Manson and many other trouble makers including Klebold and Harris come from troubled backgrounds. If someone paid attention beforehand these disasters and many others could have been avoided. Unfortunately after they commited their crimes noone wanted to hear about the reasons that led upto the crime saying "its no excuse". Whether its an excuse or not it is a major contributing cause to violence. By downplaying the importance of the abuse that led to a crime because of anger people are less likely to recognize the underlining cause of the crime and correct it. I can't think of anything that would do more to prevent violent crime than to reduce child abuse and bullying that leads upto the crime.

Prevention and flat earth

Among the academic community of people that research the subject it is clear that early intervention to prevent violence is much more effective than waiting until it after it escalates. There is an enormous amount of information to back this up including the sources that I have cited. If someone were to read the material that I have cited and check for themselves to see whether this is extreme I doubt if they would find it so nor do I believe there is anything extreme in the article itself, it is mostly simple material that is often overlooked by large members of the public. Unfortunately this is not repeated nearly as often in the mass media, they do mention it occasionally if you watch them enough but what they repeat over and over again is that we need more punishment after the fact as a deterrent to prevent violence. there is overwhelming evidence that this alone is not enough. For uneducated members of the public who haven't read the material about this research it is reasonable to consider it a matter of opinion but to those who are familiar with this material it is clearly a fact that earlier intervention is much more effective than punishment after the fact. a similar argument could be made for those taught that the world is flat it seems quite reasonable if you look around the world appears flat. But when you look at the research done by Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton etc. it becomes clear that it is a fact that the Earth revolves around the sun. This is a similar situation unfortunately the point hasn't got to the public and instead of helping to change that the media is making it worse. Wikipedia has an opportunity to help correct this by providing a good article on preventing school violence and putting a link to it from every article about school violence or other related subjects. Instead of repeating all the wrong stuff wikipedia can set a better example than the mass media that appears to be more concerned about ratings than anything else. It could be argued that this is what wikipedia and wikinews is not, however if wikipedia is just supposed to rubber stamp everything the mass media is doing then why would it need to exist at all? In other sections like archeology wikipedia provides some of the most credible information available in brief on the internet. I had looked for material from colleges and found very little their. The most credible stuff was provided by wiki volunteers. The same thing could be done in violence prevention. There are plenty of books in the library primarily targeting concerned parents and a summation of the prevention by reputable academics could be provided on wikipedia.

Wikipedia can also provide a cooperative effort to improve this article if people work together instead disputing everything. When I introduced this article I had hoped that perhaps someone with better writing skills than I would have improved the writing without diluting the content and if others had more productive information to add they could do that. Unfortunately this hasn't worked that way I already put more work into this and accomplished less because of constant objections which I find hard to see any bases for.

Once again by providing something about prevention, by providing a list of hundreds of incidents including many with full articles and one that has a section that covers the idea of arming teachers implying they could stop shootings at the last minute there is an enormous precedent to allow for improved suggestions from credible sources on violence prevention.

Incomplete experiment

The basic idea of any experiment using the trial and error method is that you try things 2 or more ways determine which way works best then do things the best way. When studying history it is often not considered an experiment to learn from although perhaps it should be. A small percentage of the public does look at this as an experiment and tries to learn from their mistakes. Some of these people also try to teach others so that they can also learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately there are also a lot of demagogues who try to manipulate the public for their own purposes. They are often much better at getting their point across even when it isn't valid.

In the case of preventing school violence there are some people including the sources I have cited who have done extensive research into the subject as well as look at the research of other academics to figure out the best way to address the problem. They have determined that a major factor of the school violence problem is abuse preceding the major incidents that get the attention of the public. Unfortunately this message isn't getting across to the majority of the public. Many of the most powerful institutions are declining to deliver this message to the public including the government and the media. This also seems to include wikipedia. Wikipedia is providing information about school violence and there isn't any complaint about that until it comes to providing information that might help people prevent it then there are calls about this being advocacy and forbidden.