Issues Around Violence in Schools: Considerations and Introduction to the Volume

Abstract

In this chapter, we consider the complexity of issues associated with violence in schools and provide an overview of this 33rd volume of Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities. We begin with a brief consideration of the nature and definitions of violence as it manifests in schools and then consider three broad areas addressed by the chapters in this volume. First, we consider bullying and the bullying dynamic, including cyberbullying, and the intersection of bullying and students with disabilities. Next, we address the extraordinarily difficult topic of school shootings, including whether and how we can predict, prevent, and respond to school shootings. Finally, we consider more broadly advances in building a more positive school climate and sense of community and creating safer schools generally. In all of these, we acknowledge the challenges of understanding the complexity and multiple causes of school violence, and the apparent rise in many forms of violence in schools, but conclude with thoughts on the positive avenues identified by authors in this volume for ways we might better support children and youth in both preventing violence and responding to it in appropriate, supportive ways.

Citation

Landrum, T.J., Collins, L.W. and Cook, B.G. (2023), "Issues Around Violence in Schools: Considerations and Introduction to the Volume", Collins, L.W., Landrum, T.J. and Cook, B.G. (Ed.) Issues Around Violence in Schools (Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities, Vol. 33), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0735-004X20230000033001