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Research suggests that gang-involved youth are more likely than non-gang youth to experience victimization. However, very little research has addressed the issue of whether the relationship between gang involvement and victimization depends on the context in which victimization takes place. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of the relation between gang involvement and violent victimization in both street and school contexts.

Data were provided by youth (n=421; ages 11-18; 70 percent male; 66 percent non-white) referred by the justice system for intensive home and community-based treatment of problem behavior. At intake, youth reported on their experiences of violent victimization, mental health status, problem behavior, and substance use. Youth and therapist reports were utilized to indicate gang involvement.

Approximately 62 percent of gang-involved youth in the sample were victimized across both contexts. Linear and censored regression models found that on average, gang-involved youth experienced a greater frequency of victimization than non-gang youth (p < 0.001). Importantly, results also show that gang involvement amplifies the impact of victimization on key behavioral and mental health outcomes. Victimization in both street and school contexts increases the risk of serious problem behavior for gang-involved youth (p < 0.001). Victimization experiences in schools in particular also may increase alcohol use among gang-involved youth (p=0.006).

These findings emanating from a unique sample of youth in treatment demonstrate the value of considering victimization in context for intervention programming.

The purpose of this paper is to compare rates of bullying and victimization between 50 adolescents in residential programs and 50 control adolescents in regular public schools. Individual (i.e. peer attachment) and contextual predictors (i.e. parenting styles, school belongingness) were also examined, and investigated in relation to bullying involvement.

Participants were matched based on ethnicity, gender (all male), and parents’ income. They completed questionnaires on their bullying involvement, peer attachment, perceived parenting styles of their parents, and school belongingness.

The findings revealed that adolescents from residential programs had higher rates of bullying and victimization, experienced more permissive parenting styles, had lower peer attachment, and poorer school belongingness when compared to control adolescents. The positive relationship between permissive parenting and bullying was stronger for boys from residential programs. In addition, peer attachment and school belongingness were more negatively related to bullying among control boys. Similar patterns were found for victimization. Differences were also found concerning the relationship of the individual and contextual predictors to adolescents’ bullying and victimization across the two groups.

These results underscore the importance of studying bullying and victimization among adolescents in secure settings, particularly residential programs.

This research examined some personal characteristics of victims of bullying in residential care for youth. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A total of 601 young people aged 11-21 from 22 residential facilities in Croatia completed an anonymous self-reported bullying questionnaire, the Big Five Personality Inventory, the Basic Empathy Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale.

The results demonstrated that male and female victims lacked self-esteem, presented with neurotic personality traits and were likely to believe that bullying was just part of life in residential care. Female victims also presented with lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness, while male victims were young and had a history of victimisation during their previous placement, in school and at the beginning of their current placements.

Victims in care might benefit from programmes addressing their low self-esteem, high neuroticism and attitudes approving of bullying. Male residential groups should not accommodate young boys together with older boys. New residents who have a history of victimisation during their previous placement and in school should be supervised more intensively but in a manner that does not increase their perception of being victimised.

The present study is the first work that examines individual characteristics of bullying victims in care institutions for young people. As such, the study offers some insights on how to protect residential care bullying victims.

Recent studies indicate that exposure to physical punishment is associated with both aggressive behavior and peer victimization at school. The purpose of this paper is to explore the bidirectional relationship between aggressive behavior and peer victimization as outcomes of physical punishment, as well as the role of depressive symptoms.

A sample of 2,424 Finnish upper primary school pupils (1,282 girls, 1,148 boys, mean age=14.2, SD=1.0) completed an online survey during class. Two conditional process models were applied using a macro for SPSS developed by Hayes (2012).

Exposure to physical punishment was found to be associated with both aggressive behavior and peer victimization at school. The effect on victimization was partially mediated by aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms, whereas the effect on aggressive behavior was partially mediated by peer victimization experiences but not by depressive symptoms. The relationship between physical punishment and peer victimization was somewhat stronger for girls than for boys, but this effect was not accounted for by gender differences in depressive symptoms or aggressive behavior.

Few studies to date have addressed the connection between aggressive behavior and peer victimization as outcomes of physical punishment. In addition, the study expands on the concept of “victim personality” by examining the mediating role of depressive symptoms. Methodologically, the study is an example of how the statistical software SPSS can be used for multiple mediation and conditional process analysis as an alternative to SEM analyses.

Although school bullying is an important social problem, its long‐term relation to mental health and behavioural outcomes is rarely investigated. The purpose of this paper is to address the relation between bullying in childhood and behavioural and emotional problems in adolescence.

Bullying and victimization were assessed in a sample of 557 German children (mean age 9 years). Nearly five years later anxious, depressive, delinquent, aggressive and other outcomes were assessed via self‐ and mother‐reports. Data analyses contained bivariate correlations and hierarchical regressions in which family and individual risk factors (measured two years before bullying/victimization) were controlled.

It was found that there were mostly small, but highly significant correlations between bullying perpetration and later antisocial behaviour. Among girls, bullying also predicted later symptoms of anxiety, depression and social withdrawal. The same was the case for victimization. Victimized girls also showed more antisocial outcomes. When controlling for other risk factors, bullying perpetration remained as a predictor of externalizing problems, however, there were no significant relations between victimization and internalizing or externalizing outcomes.

This paper presents longitudinal data on a large sample from a country under‐represented in the English‐language literature on bullying, also its findings reveal that bullying perpetration is a highly significant predictor of later antisocial and delinquent outcomes in adolescence.

School quality relies on the educational institutions’ ability to establish an environment which enhances the pupils’ social and emotional well-being. School bullying negatively affects the school climate; hence, it is likely to trigger side effects on pupils’ behaviors and performances. This is especially true when socially disadvantaged students are concerned, such as those with a migrant background. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of school bullying among pupils with a migrant background living in Italy and suggests several insights to address this relevant school quality issue.

A mixed quantitative research has been designed to investigate the relationship between school bullying, victims’ socio-demographic attributes, school behaviors and school performances. Secondary data were collected from the study on the Integration of Second Generations performed in 2015 by the Italian Institute of Statistics.

Verbal and relational bullying were prevailing. Physical bullying was also recurring, but it primarily concerned male pupils. Bullied students were more likely to self-report lower school performances; moreover, they showed greater willingness to dropout from school. Victims of school bullying suffered from social exclusion; they were also used to perform working activities beyond mandatory schooling. They expressed lower trust in their teachers as compared with their peers.

School bullying is thought to deteriorate the school climate and, consequently, to impair educational services’ quality. Timely management interventions are needed to address school bullying and to prevent its negative effects.

This study conceives school bullying as a critical quality issue and paves the way for further developments intended to enhance school services’ effectiveness.

Recent highly publicized acts of violence and shootings on campus have prompted numerous crime prevention suggestions including having an armed presence in the schools. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of protective measures, policies, and school/neighborhood characteristics on school violence.

The data used in this study were part of the School Survey on Crime and Safety collected in 2006. The dependent measures of school violence include reports of violence, threatened attack with a weapon, attack with weapon, and gun possession. The sample was divided into high schools and all other grades to consider differences in levels of school violence among grade levels in relation to various law enforcement security measures, school security measures, and school characteristics.

Findings revealed mixed and often counterproductive results for law enforcement and school security efforts to control school violence. School characteristics, such as reports of bullying, location, and gang activity yielded numerous statistically significant findings. Policy recommendations and suggestions for future research are provided.

This study differs from much of the previous literature, which typically examines student and administrator attitudes about victimization and crime prevention. The current study examines detailed information on the actual effects of school violence prevention efforts. Furthermore, this study moves beyond most other works (that typically focus on high schools) as it considers school safety approaches by different grade levels.

In recent years, violence in schools has become a major preoccupation all over the world. This has led to a considerable increase in the number of public policies and programmes aimed at tackling the problem, as well as to a very large number of empirical studies. In this article, we begin by showing that this research goes part of the way toward making up for the lack of administrative knowledge of the problem, in particular concerning the prevalence of the phenomenon. It examines the possibility of there being a link between the globalisation of worries about school violence and economic globalisation. To do so, it analyses the hypothetical link between school violence and social inequalities. The literature is precise on this question, opting in favour of there being a strong link between the two: the sociology of violence in schools is a sociology of social exclusion. Research also shows, however, that these causes that are external to schools are not the only explanation of the process and, in particular, that effects linked with the institutions themselves or the system give good reason to hope that action can be effective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which bullying victimization in school predicts depression in later life and whether this relation holds after controlling for other major childhood risk factors.

As no previous systematic review has been conducted on this topic, effect sizes are based on both published and unpublished studies: longitudinal investigators of 28 studies have conducted specific analyses for the authors' review.

The probability of being depressed up to 36 years later (mean follow‐up period of 6.9 years) was much higher for children who were bullied at school than for non‐involved students (odds ratio (OR)=1.99; 95 per cent CI: 1.71‐2.32). Bullying victimization was a significant risk factor for later depression even after controlling for up to 20 (mean number of six covariates) major childhood risk factors (OR=1.74; 95 per cent CI: 1.54‐1.97). Effect sizes were smaller when the follow‐up period was longer and larger the younger the child was when exposed to bullying. Finally, the summary effect size was not significantly related to the number of risk factors controlled for.

Although causal inferences are tentative, the overall results presented in this paper indicate that bullying victimization is a major childhood risk factor that uniquely contributes to later depression. High quality effective anti‐bullying programmes could be viewed as an early form of public health promotion.

While many problems of behaviour that are manifested in the school have their origins elsewhere, the school can represent a key point of entry for professionals to develop preventive strategies. This article examines the influence of the school upon the prevention of offending by children and young people and explores the effective dynamics of anti‐bullying initiatives and ‘optimal social work’ in the school.