School Violence: Lessons Learned

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Sept, 1999 by Stephen R. Band, Joseph A. Harpold

Explore Legislative and Social Reforms

Law enforcement, schools, and parents can do only so much to prevent school violence. Society must begin to explore ways to combat these vicious attacks. Such initiatives could include legislation that

* provides for mandatory custody to evaluate any juvenile found in the possession of a firearm or other deadly weapon;

* requires school officials to report to the police any criminal offenses committed at their schools and to furnish blueprints of their facilities to local law enforcement authorities;

* enables law enforcement, schools, juvenile authorities, and other criminal justice agencies to share information for the purpose of criminal investigations or identifying children who may pose a danger to themselves and others; and

* allows courts to try as adults juveniles who commit homicide.(7)

Besides supporting legislative action, communities should develop programs that denounce violence and encourage respect for life and education, along with initiatives that increase individual and parental responsibility and accountability. Communities also should advocate mental health services for individuals who need it, meaningful sanctions for those who demonstrate an unwillingness to conform their behavior to the law, and avenues for obtaining information that may enable behavioral scientists to better identify predictive behavior and thresholds of behavior that require intervention (treatment or sanctions, as appropriate).

CONCLUSION

Many Americans may find the old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure difficult to believe. But who would have thought that such horrible acts of school violence could occur in rural areas of the United States? Unfortunately, Americans need to accept that grisly, violent acts can occur anywhere and be committed by almost anyone, even a child.

If a youngster can take a gun to school and pull the trigger, then communities must come together to deal with this problem in a multidisciplinary approach. The phenomenon of school violence is complicated and will take a great deal of wisdom to address properly. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies must develop comprehensive plans for responding to such attacks, and they must join with their schools and communities to implement prevention programs. Doing so will make American children feel good about themselves, their families, their neighborhoods, and their country. To paraphrase a familiar saying, all it takes for the triumph of evil is for a few good people to do nothing.(8)

Violence Indicators

Several factors exist that may indicate that individuals have the potential to commit violence. While these indicators are by no means certain or present in every case of violence, children who exhibit these symptoms should receive counseling services in an effort to prevent the potential of future violent acts.

* The individuals demonstrate low self-esteem.

* The individuals have committed previous acts of cruelty, to animals. This is a symptom of child abuse, along with setting fires, bed-wetting (beyond a normal age), and being abusive to adults. FBI research has found that these indicators frequently appear in the childhoods of serial violent sexual offenders and may exist in cases of juvenile violence.