School Violence

Introduction

Experts once defined school violence conventionally as a serious crime (i.e., murder, rape, assault, robbery, and theft) that occurred on school grounds (Cornell and Loper, 317-330). However, as social and political awareness focused more rigorously on investigating the phenomenon of school violence, the definition of school violence expanded. The broadened definition rested on research indicating that the threshold for injury for children is much lower than for adults. Compared to adults, children have less emotional maturity and physical ability to defend themselves, making them more vulnerable to emotional, mental, and physical injury. Therefore, even minimal exposure to violence in a ...