Social Ecological Model Of Violence Prevention In Higher Education

Violence prevention in higher education is a complex problem that takes a collaborative effort to develop an effective protocol in order to diminish the chances of violence in higher education settings. Higher education institutions are supposed to be an environment in which students feel protected and safe, ideally an environment that is free of violence. However, the reality is that higher education institutions are sometimes victims of violence because of the accessibility of higher education settings. For example, some of the campus violence include rape, assault, hazing, sexual harassment, hate violence, stalking, rioting, and property crime. Therefore, it is important for student affairs professionals to be cognizant of models of violence that can assist in preventing violence in higher education settings. Bronfenbrenner, U.

(1999) developed the social-ecological model for violence prevention on campuses.

This model aims at better understanding violence while pin pointing the factors that can influence individuals to act in a violent manner. More importantly, this model addresses the four levels that influence violence in a campus setting, which are Individual, Relationship, Community, and Societal. Dahlberg LL, Krug EG. (2002) defines individual as “biological and personal history factors; such as age, education, income, substance use, or history of abuse, relationship as close relationships that may increase the risk of experiencing violence as a victim or perpetrator. Community looks at the settings, such as schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Lastly societal looks at the broad societal factors, such as health, economic, educational and social policies.” Using this model as well as understanding these four levels can help student affairs professionals develop interventions that can be implemented to prevent violence in higher education

settings.
During my first year as graduate intern at East Los Angeles College working for Adelante first year experience program, I witnessed a verbal altercation between a student and student worker. The incident took place during a tutoring session in which the student was being very disruptive and causing noise that was not allowing the student worker from facilitating their tutoring session. I overheard when the student worker asked the student politely if they could stop with the disruptive noise. The student reacted in a very aggressive manner by slamming both of their hands on the desk with anger and verbally responding by cussing at the student worker. I decided to intervene by pulling the student aside and having a conversation with them to discuss the situation. Afterwards we both decided that it be best if the student came back to another tutoring session at another day but most importantly, that they apologize to the student worker at the next tutoring session. Through his experience I learned how crucial it is to hear students side of the story rather than just assuming that they are bad students. The student shared with me the amount of stress they were dealing with due to the financial responsibility in their household, which was the primary reason for their aggressive reaction towards the student worker. I believe that his situation could have escalated to physical violence if I would not have intervened.
Campus violence is a complex problem, therefore, it is essential for student affairs professionals to be aware of the protocol procedures that are implemented at their institutions to serve as guidelines when a crisis situations arises. Although crisis situations may be freighting for student affairs professionals, with violence prevention models it can facilitate a less anxiety producing environment or situation. Having knowledge of on campus resources such as counseling centers can serve as resources that can be used when professionals who more skilled with crisis intervention can assist.