School Violence: Prevention Tools and Resources

CDC offers a number of tools and resources designed to help state and local education agencies and schools promote safety and help schools be safe places for students to learn. They are based on an extensive review of research, theory, and current practice in violence prevention, health education, and public health.

CDC Resources

Academic Centers of Excellence on Youth Violence Prevention
CDC funds 10 Academic Centers of Excellence (ACE) on Youth Violence Prevention to bring together academic and community resources to study and create lasting ways to prevent youth violence. ACEs are unique compared to traditional research centers because they work with community members and many educational, judicial, and social work partners to develop action plans, partnerships, and priorities to prevent youth violence and to learn about effective preventive strategies. Some ACE projects are directly related to school violence prevention, such as the evaluation of school-wide systems for enhancing positive social behaviors.

Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action
CDC's Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action is the first of its kind to look at the effectiveness of specific violence prevention practices in four key areas: parents and families; home visiting; social and conflict resolution skills; and mentoring.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention
CDC provided some funding for the Blueprints for Violence Prevention, which identified 11 model prevention programs that meet a strict scientific standard of program effectiveness. This standard is based upon an initial review by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado and a final review by a distinguished advisory board comprised of seven experts in the field of violence prevention. The 11 model programs, called "Blueprints," have been effective in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse. To date, more than 600 programs have been reviewed. The Blueprints project has currently identified another 18 programs that show promise.

Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools
Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools, available from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, offers research-based practices designed to help school communities identify early warning signs and develop prevention, intervention, and crisis response plans. It is based on the work of an independent panel of experts from the fields of education, law enforcement, and mental health. This document provides a better understanding of the causes of violence and effective prevention strategies that will lead to safer schools.

Effectiveness of Universal School-Based Programs for Preventing Violence
During 2004-2006, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services reviewed published scientific evidence on the effectiveness of universal school-based programs to reduce or prevent violent behavior. These programs have been shown to decrease rates of violence and aggressive behavior among school-age children. The effectiveness of the programs was demonstrated at all grade levels, and an independent meta-analysis confirmed and supplemented these findings.

Electronic Aggression 
Young people are using new media technology, including cell phones, personal data assistants, and the Internet, to communicate with others in the United States and throughout the world. New communication avenues, such as text messaging, chat rooms, and social networking web sites (e.g., MySpace and Facebook), have allowed youth to easily develop relationships, some with people they have never met in person. However, the recent explosion in technology does not come without possible risks. Youth can use electronic media to embarrass, harass or threaten their peers. Increasing numbers of teens and pre-teens are becoming victims of this new form of violence. Although many different terms-such as cyberbullying, Internet harassment, and Internet bullying-have been used to describe this type of violence, electronic aggression is the term that most accurately captures all types of violence that occur electronically. Like traditional forms of youth violence, electronic aggression is associated with emotional distress and conduct problems at school. The following resources provide additional information on electronic aggression, youth violence prevention, and safe schools.

Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Influences Among Youths: A Compendium of Assessment Tools
This compendium provides researchers and prevention specialists with a set of tools to assess violence-related beliefs, behaviors, and influences, as well as to evaluate programs to prevent youth violence.

School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors among Youth
Students who feel connected to school believe that adults and peers in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals. When students feel connected to school, they are less likely to engage in a variety of risk behaviors, including violence and gang involvement. Connected students are also more likely to have higher grades and test scores, have better school attendance, and stay in school longer. This document provides school administrators and teachers with strategies they can use to enhance school connectedness among students.

School Health Guidelines to Prevent Unintentional Injuries and Violence [PDF 410K]
CDC's School Health Guidelines to Prevent Unintentional Injuries and Violence includes information about preventing adolescent violence, suicide, and unintentional injury; why it is important to focus on schools; and what schools do to prevent injuries and violence.

School Health Index
CDC's School Health Index (SHI) is a self-assessment and planning guide that enables schools to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their health promotion policies and programs. It also helps them develop an action plan for improving student health, and involves teachers, parents, students, and the community in improving school policies, programs, and services. The SHI covers five health topics: physical education and activity, healthy eating, tobacco use prevention, unintentional injuries and violence prevention, and asthma.

Striving to Reduce Youth Violence Everywhere (STRYVE)
Helping youth, families, and communities be healthy and safe requires information.  And that is where the STRYVE web site comes in.  With this online resource, watch real-people videos, learn from experts, and find resources that enable you and your community partners to plan, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive youth violence prevention effort.  This information includes up-to-date bullying facts and statistics and bullying prevention guidance located in the Resources section of the web site. 

Other Resources

• Preventing Suicide: A Toolkit for High Schools
• Department of Education—Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
• Health Resources and Services Administration, Stop Bullying Now Campaign

Publications

Department of Education. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2009 (NCES 2010-012 / NCJ 228478). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department
of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. School-associated student homicides-United States, 1992–2006. MMWR 2008;57(02):33–36.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance—United States, 2009. Surveillance Summaries, June 4, 2010. MMWR 2010;59(SS–5).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using environmental design to prevent school violence [cited 2008 Feb. 25]. Available from URL: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/youthviolence/cpted.html

Department of Justice. This report offers a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of bullying prevention programs. Farrington, D. P., & Ttofi, M. M. (2010). School-based programs to reduce bullying and victimization. Available from URL: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229377.pdf [PDF 27.MB]

• CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health
• CDC's Division of Violence Prevention
• Department of Education
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective [PDF 186 KB]
  
• Health Resources and Services Administration, Stop Bullying Now Campaign
• National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center