I’ve been feeling pretty sick and hopeless about the number of school shootings that have occurred in our country recently. It seems like every week, there is another horrible account of young people killing and being killed. As of May 8, 2019, according to CNN, there have been 15 school shootings in the United States in which at least one person (not including the shooter) was hurt or killed. These shootings have occurred at elementary, middle, and high schools and on college campuses. FIFTEEN school shootings since January!

Why Does This Violence Happen?

There are no easy answers, but there are a number of factors that are related to adolescent violence. Tolan and Guerra (2002) state that four basic trends related to this violence are: 1) Violence is prevalent throughout our society and has been for a long time. 2) Much violence occurs among acquaintances (and thus young people are more likely to commit violence against their fellow classmates and teachers than against strangers). 3) Adolescence is a time of heightened violence and is also the stage of life with the greatest risk for victimization. 4) Certain young people are more at risk of violence than others: those who are poor, live in cities, are male, and are African American.

Tolan and Guerra note that a large percentage of adolescent violence in the United States is situational, meaning that factors other than individual violent tendencies, individual pathology, or relationship difficulties (e.g., conflict, relationship abuse) contribute. Some of the factors that lead to situational violence are poverty, discrimination and oppression, timing (e.g., more violence occurs on weekends), availability of handguns, and alcohol and drug use.

Tolan and Guerra go on to say that at an individual level, adolescents are more likely to commit violence if they have impaired cognitive functioning and low academic achievement, poor peer relational skills, and biases and deficits in their thinking. Additional risk factors for committing violence are family problems (e.g., poor parenting skills, lack of emotional connection in the family, abuse, and inadequate family problem-solving and coping skills). Associating with violent peers and community and societal factors also play a big role.

What Does Not Work?

What works in preventing school violence? Well, research has shown that what doesn’t work are “violence prevention programs”: They produce no long-term decreases in violent behavior or risks of victimization in schools. In fact, in some cases, they cause nonviolent students to act violently (Tolan & Guerra, 2002). According to Johnson and Johnson (1995), the reason these programs don’t work is that 1) they fail to target the violent students, 2) they lack the follow-up necessary to maintain program quality, 3) they often use potentially violent “street tactics” in the classroom, and 4) they underestimate the power of non-school social forces.

What Works?

Then, what does work? Tolan and Guerra state that on an individual level, family therapy may be the most effective type of intervention. Cognitive-behavioral interventions, behavior modification, and social skills training also can be effective in preventing violence.

In looking at what may prevent violence among groups of young people, Tolan and Guerra say that trying to shift peer group norms, peer mentoring programs, and redirecting the activities of antisocial peer groups and juvenile gangs don’t seem to work. However, integrating young people who have prosocial norms with at-risk youth in groups that work to positive peer culture is one effective strategy.

Johnson and Johnson state that acknowledging that conflict will happen and teaching young people constructive ways to manage conflicts seems to be effective in reducing violence. So does creating cooperative, and not competitive, school environments. It is also vital that three risk factors for violence in schools be reduced: academic failure, alienation from schoolmates, and psychological pathology.

Smarter gun regulations are also necessary to reduce school violence, and I am proponent of better gun control. However, gun control alone is not enough. The underlying problems causing violence among young people–and in our society as a whole–need to be effectively addressed.

These ideas are not new. It’s tragic and disheartening that more of these strategies are not being implemented. When will the needless violence stop?

REFERENCES

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (1995). Why violence prevention programs don’t work–and what does. 52(5): 63-68.

Lou, M. (2019). There have been 15 school shootings in the US so far this year. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/08/us/school-shootings-us-2019-trnd/index.html

Tolan, P., & Guerra, N. (2002). What Works in Reducing Adolescent Violence: An Empirical Review of the Field. Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder.