Essay on Gender and School Violence

The most recent acts of violence by children have prompted us as a nation to look at the causes and possible solutions to this crisis in our schools. In fact, according to Public Agenda, a national organization that conducts public opinion research on educational issues, school safety was identified as the most important issue affecting schools by those surveyed (Johnson & Immerwahr, 1994/1995).

Yet school violence does not exist in a vacuum. It is directly related to the violence in our society. And for many children, particularly those who experience family violence early in their lives, school can often be their only safe haven. In 1992, over three million youngsters were reported to child protection advocates as possible abuse victims (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Thus, for many children in our society, schools are often safer than the environment where they live.

Aggression and violence are the direct result of learned behavior. Our society is full of examples of violence and aggression that unfortunately have become a part of our daily lives regardless of where we live, work, or play.

Our children are both the victims and, as seen from last year's headlines, the perpetrators of violent crimes. Although there is a sharp increase in violence among girls and women, females continue to be more often victims than perpetrators of crime in our society. In a Harvard University Violence Against Women class presentation, Nancy Issac and Deborah Prothrow-Stith reported that four million women in the U.S. are severely abused every year by their spouse or partner. And 26 percent of all females who were victims of murder were slain by husbands or boyfriends, while three percent of male victims were killed...

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...rns of aggression against children in general, and girls specifically in our society.

Works Cited and Consulted

Bachman, R. (1994, January). Violence against women: A national crime victimization survey report. Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Giroux, H. (1992). Border Crossings. New York: Routledge.

Isaac, N., & Prothrow-Stith, D. Violence Against Women class presentation. Harvard University: Harvard School of Public Health.

Johnson, J., & Immerwahr, J. (1994/1995, Winter). What Americans expect from the public schools. American Educator, 4-13.

Noguera, P. A. (1995, Summer). Preventing and producing violence: A critical analysis of responses to school violence. Harvard Educational Review. 65(2),

U.S. Department of Justice. (1992, October). The cycles of violence. Washington, DC: Author.