A Preventive Approach to School Violence and Vandalism: An Experimental Study

Abstract

School violence and vandalism are at crisis level. The investigators attempted to employ strategies that would attack identified procreators of school violence and vandalism existing within our schools. The effects of these strategies on vandalism costs, student attendance, off‐task and disruptive behaviors, and on various kinds of positive teacher‐student contacts were investigated in 19 elementary schools. Results indicated that the dollar costs of vandalism and frequency of inappropriate student behaviors decreased more in experimental than in control schools. Student attending and positive teacher‐student contacts improved, or remained higher, in the experimental than in the control schools.