Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime

School Shootings

School shootings have become a major social issue in the United States over the past decade. High-profile events such as the shootings that occurred in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Littleton, Colorado, have resulted in extensive media coverage and intense public scrutiny, and one of the largest policy crises ever faced. This phenomenon has not been limited to the United States. Shooting incidents in Dublane, Scotland, where 16 students and one teacher were killed, and more recently Erfurt, Germany, with the killing of 14 teachers and two students, are examples of the expansion of this problem around the world.

PREVALENCE OF SCHOOL VIOLENCE

In American schools over the past few decades, the education of youth has in some sense become secondary. With the increasing frequency of violent behavior in school settings, a larger concern among administrators, parents, and students is the question of safety, even if time and resources given to violence prevention does divert focus from ...

—Janice E. Clifford Wittekind and Thomas A. Petee