School Violence: Fears Versus Facts

By Dewey Cornell

Book Overview

Illustrated with numerous case studies-many drawn from the author's work as a forensic psychologist-this book identifies 19 myths and misconceptions about youth violence, from ordinary bullying to rampage shootings. It covers controversial topics such as gun control and the effects of entertainment violence on children. The author demonstrates how fear of school violence has resulted in misguided, counterproductive educational policies and practices ranging from boot camps to zero tolerance. He reviews evidence from hundreds of controlled studies showing that school-based school violence prevention programs and mental health services, which are largely effective, are often overlooked in favor of politically popular yet ineffective programs such as school uniforms, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, and Scared Straight. He concludes by reviewing some of his own research on student threat assessment as a more flexible and less punitive alternative to zero tolerance, and presents a wide ranging series of recommendations for improving and expanding the use of school-based violence prevention programs and mental health services for troubled students. Key features include the following:
Contrarian Approach-This book identifies and refutes 19 basic misconceptions about trends in youth violence and school safety, and shows how the fear of school violence has been exaggerated through inaccurate statistics, erroneous conclusions about youth violence, and over-emphasis on atypical, sensational cases.
Readability-The book translates scientific, evidence-based research into language that educators, parents, law enforcement officers, and policymakers can readily understand and shows what can be done to improve things.
Expertise-Dewey Cornell is a forensic psychologist and Professor of Education at the University of Virginia, where he holds an endowed chair in Education. He is Director of the UVA Youth Violence Project and is a faculty associate of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy. The author of more than 100 publications in psychology and education, he frequently testifies in criminal proceedings and at legislative hearings involving violence prevention efforts.
This book is appropriate for courses or seminars dealing wholly or partly with school violence and school safety. It is also an indispensable volume for school administrators and safety officers; local, state, and national policymakers; involved parents; and academic libraries serving these groups.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080585424X
• ISBN13: 9780805854244
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Important read for educators, parents, and professionals

The summary of this book is that homocide/suicide that is school based is due to the fact that they the victim/perpetrator have been bullied by others. The author has done a wonderful job of doing exactly what he says, looking at facts vs. fiction. He brings up statistics that are well known and gets to the bottom of where they came from. As a professional, reading a book that is putting things in laymen's terms can get kind of boring so I skimmed through redundancy or items that I am pretty aware of already. Also, I am not to concerned with the numbers and all the details about the meaning of the numbers. What I was most interested in were the facts, as in psychoanalysis or case studies, behind the scenes information, things I never knew about the stories I was hearing on televsion. I still haven't finished this book yet and I would like to know more about solutions which I think could be answered with wrap-around services in a collaboration between community, government, and schools. In the meantime, I have underlined a great many things and I have written things down in the margins. This is a good reference book that is a must have. The next book that I think people should buy, which I already have, is Phyllis Chessler's book, Women's Inhumanity to Women. Both Dr. Cornell's book and Chessler's are talking about bullying from different perspectives. Each contribute a wealth of information that would delight the ears of professionals who work with children.