Book Review: Issues in School Violence Research

• DOI: 10.1177/1541204005282315
• Author: Lauri Goldkind
• Date: 01 January 2006
• Published date: 01 January 2006
• Subject Matter: Articles

Youth Violence and Juvenile JusticeBOOK REVIEW

Book Review

Issues in school violence research, edited by Michael Furlong, Gale Morrison, Russell Skiba, &

Dewey Cornell. New York: Haworth, 2004. 177 pp., $24.95 (paperback).

DOI: 10.1177/1541204005282315

The present decline of school-based violent incidents and a rise of zero-tolerance policies to-

ward disruptive and violent behavior in schools have given rise to a growing number of research-

based programs with goals to reduce school violence and improve school learning environments

(Astor, Meyer, Benbenishty, Marachi, & Rosemond, 2005). Reports of physical fighting have de-

creased substantially from 42.5% in 1991 to 33.0% in 2003 (Brener, Lowry, & Barrios, 2005). Studies

also report a decrease in students bringing weapons to school (from 26.1% in 1991 to 17.1% in 2003).

Although these declines are encouraging, Brener et al. (2005) hold that prevention efforts must con-

tinue in order to further reduce violence and encourage safe learning environments.

The editors of Issues in School Violence Research (hereafter referred to as Issues; copublished

simultaneously as Journal of School Violence,3(2/3), 2004) recognize that policy and practice deci-

sions are made based on the results of school violence research. Given this influence, they suggest that

it is critical that researchers and evaluators address the methodological challenges associated with as-

sessing the prevalence of school violence, bullying, and other disruptive behaviors.

School violence and safety research will move forward and make unique scientific con-

tributions only if it develops a core literature that critically examines its measurement,

methods, and data analysis techniques. Such analysis becomes increasingly necessary as

the field moves beyond its origins in affirming the presence of a social problem toward

understanding the dynamics that uniquely contribute to the occurrence and suppression

of aggression and violence in all its forms on school campuses. (p. 3)

Issues is a collection of articles that seeks to standardize data collection and analysis techniques

so to move this multi-disciplinary field toward scientific credibility. From questioning the reliability

of self-report surveys to examining extreme response patterns in national data sets, the common

thread across each chapter is a desire to bring more sophisticated reliability and validity measures to

school violence research. This volume would be a great addition to graduate-level evaluation and re-

search classes in fields such as educational psychology, criminology, juvenile justice, juvenile delin-

quency, school administration, and public administration.

In the opening chapter, “Methodological and School Measurement Issues,” Furlong and col-

leagues trace the development of the school violence literature, the expansion of school violence, and

school safety as an area of social science research not previously explored before the 1990s. They re-

port that between 1979 and 1992, there were 210 references in the National Newspaper Index under

the keyword “school violence,” but since 1993, there have been 1,291 reports focusing on school vio-

lence, indicating that as a social problem, school violence has matured. In addition, they suggest that

school violence publications have been driven not by a strategic research agenda but by public events

and media coverage of specific violent incidents in particular schools. The remainder of this chapter

provides an overview and rationale for the articles presented in the book. The editors highlight an ar-

ray of methodological issues that bring into question the validity of current research and suggest new

means of data collection and analysis to create a more rigorous body of science around school vio-

lence and school safety research.

Next they present the ecological perspective and functional behavioral assessment for schools,

when the editors introduce the notion of school violence and school safety in a social context. Osher

et al. expand an ongoing discussion about the relationship between school ecology and school vio-

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Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, Vol. 4 No. 1, January 2006 116-118

© 2006 Sage Publications