For a different view on factors leading to prosocial behavior and a look at a growing field of research on prosocial behaviors in children, see Eisenberg and Mussen's The Roots of Prosocial Behavior in Children (). A noteworthy model is the five-step decision-making process of helping behavior developed by Darley and Latane in Violence is most common in large schools, and middle school students are the most likely targets of violent behavior. [3] According to a joint report of the Departments of Education and Justice, [3] violent crime overall has declined since the early and mids. However, this decline is relatively small Peer Commentary. Addictive Behaviors: Heredity or Environment? Samantha P. Lumbert Rochester Institute of Technology. For a commentary on Haimowitz's paper, "Heredity Versus Environment: Twin, Adoption, and Family Studies," I thought it would be useful to examine the association of addictive behaviors in twins and the connection to heredity and environment
Prosocial Behavior | Learning to Give
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. School shootings such as the one at Columbine High School in have left deep scars in our nation, papers on behavior. The apparently random nature of these highly publicized shootings has raised public fears to epidemic proportions.
According to polls, more than 50 percent of parents with children in grades K—12 [1] and 75 percent of secondary school students [2] now think that a school shooting could occur in their community.
Schools are taking a variety of measures to improve school safety. These include the use of metal detectors, the presence of security guards on campus, rules and regulations regarding student conduct and dress, profiling of potentially violent students, anti-bullying instructional programs, and counseling and mediation.
Which of these approaches work? Which will reduce the incidence of violence in our schools and alleviate the fears of parents and children? How can school and district administrators choose among the myriad possibilities, and how can they know where to allocate precious resources? RAND examined the literature regarding these programs and found that only a handful have been evaluated, and even fewer have been deemed effective or even promising.
The goal of this paper is to describe the options that are currently available for schools. An analysis of the key components of various approaches in terms of their potential positive and negative effects can assist in the papers on behavior of policies, programs, and procedures while we wait papers on behavior evaluations to be conducted.
During one school year, about half of public middle and high schools reported at least one incident of physical attacks, fights without a weapontheft, larceny, or vandalism. School violence is not confined to urban schools; it is also prevalent in suburban schools. According to a joint report of the Departments of Education and Justice, [3] violent crime overall has declined since the early and mids. However, papers on behavior, this decline is relatively small.
For example, the percentage of students who reported being victims of crime at school decreased from 10 percent in to 8 percent in Whereas the chances of serious violence, such as shootings, papers on behavior, are very low, violence continues to take place in schools. The latest data available on criminal incidents school year — reveal that about half of public middle and high schools reported at least one incident of physical attacks, fights without a weapontheft, larceny, or vandalism.
Also, even in light of the 5 percent decrease in weapon carrying between and[3] 7—8 percent of students in 9th to 12th grade continue to report having been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.
What is more, official statistics are often lower than the actual rates of violent behavior because of biases in reporting. The publicity that school shootings have received is a likely cause of fear. But there are other reasons for papers on behavior fears. In addition to their Concerns about violent behavior, students are fearful of and intimidated by other, less serious forms of peer hostility, papers on behavior.
These include physical aggression such as shoving and pushing, face-to-face verbal harassment, public humiliation, and rumor mongering, papers on behavior.
About 20—30 percent of American students i. Youth ages 8 to 15 rank bullying as more of a problem in their lives than discrimination, racism, or violence. Bullying and more serious violent behavior are not separate problems. Childhood bullying predicts person-oriented crime in young adulthood. In addition, a small but potentially volatile group of youth not only perceive themselves as the victims of peer taunting and ridicule, but are also aggressive themselves.
Faced with intense public pressure, school administrators are taking action and implementing programs designed to curb school violence. These programs include:. The sheer numbers of these programs can be daunting; there are over institutional programs alone. And the specific goals and foci of these approaches vary. Some aim to boost physical safety by reducing extreme forms of violence, such as shootings. Others promote a psychologically safe school climate i. Some are proactive in trying to prevent the development of violent behaviors, whereas others are reactive.
Certain programs focus on skill building, whereas others rely on the deterrent value of punishment. Some approaches involve the entire school and sometimes even parents or the community at large; others are designed for students identified as "at risk. Hence, school-based violence prevention efforts are based on drastically different sets of assumptions about what works. Unfortunately, the assumptions are rarely questioned, and these approaches might not work as well as we wish.
Each of these approaches is discussed in more detail below. Among the most common physical surveillance measures currently used in schools are weapons deterrence and the use of campus security and police officers. These strategies are aimed at preventing the most extreme forms of violence. Weapons deterrence. Although bullying is far more prevalent than violence that involves weapons, [3] one primary goal of improved physical surveillance measures is to prevent youth from bringing weapons to school, papers on behavior.
Metal detectors and searches of student lockers and book bags are not uncommon, especially in large urban middle and high schools. Indeed, fewer weapons are confiscated with these measures in place [12] than are confiscated without them, implying that students are bringing weapons to school less frequently, papers on behavior. Whether metal detectors and searches can prevent a well-planned incident from taking place is less clear, papers on behavior. Recent reports from administrators suggest that some schools are decreasing their use of metal detectors and searches because they appear to increase students' fears and anxieties.
Thus, weapons deterrence may increase physical safety but compromise the psychological safety of students. And it does papers on behavior address the underlying reasons why students carry weapons to school. Campus papers on behavior. The presence of security guards and officers employed by the school, district, or local law enforcement on school grounds is gaining popular support.
This is especially true since the shooting incident at Granite Hills High School near San Diego, papers on behavior, California, where a campus police papers on behavior was able to intervene quickly and prevent further violence. The duties of campus officers vary from patrolling the school and grounds to assisting school personnel with discipline issues.
Media reports [13] indicate that President Bush might triple the amount of federal support for this program. However, little is known about the long-term or concurrent effects that the presence of uniformed officers might have on students' feelings of safety. Papers on behavior example, although the presence of an officer may provide peace of mind for administrators and parents, we cannot presume that students view officers as their allies or defenders.
The presence of uniformed officers can, papers on behavior, in fact, breed a sense of mistrust among students and hence adversely affect school climate. Indeed, some preliminary evidence suggests that physical surveillance methods metal detectors, searches, and security guards can predict increased disorder. A wide variety of school policies related to student conduct and dress code is enforced in schools across the nation.
Rules papers on behavior regulations that directly target violence are zero-tolerance policies inasmuch as a single violation results in punishment, papers on behavior, often either suspension or expulsion.
Although many of these policies pertain specifically to weapons possession at school, others target drug use or possession. Some districts and schools have adopted anti-bullying zero-tolerance policies, papers on behavior, thereby targeting precursors to violence, papers on behavior.
Get-tough practices are presumed to send a message to potentially violent students and decrease school violence. But they may exacerbate problems, also. Regardless of the specific foci of these zero-tolerance policies, they involve an explicit statement of consequences i.
These "get-tough" practices are presumed to send a message to potentially violent students and decrease school violence. Repeated school transfers increase the risk for subsequent violence. A program is defined as instructional if it consists of multiple lessons that are implemented by teachers or other adult staff. These programs tend to focus on precursors or antecedents of violent behavior [20] with the presumption that, by targeting behaviors that predict violence e.
Instructional programs vary in their target audience; some are designed for all students and the whole "system," whereas others are developed as special programs for "at-risk" youth. The program aims to alter social papers on behavior by changing school responses to bullying incidents. In addition to explicit anti-harassment policies, the program is designed to improve the social awareness of staff and students. Instructional materials designed for all students not only bullies and victims include a series of exercises that help students see problems from the perspective of the victim of bullying and raise consciousness about the role of bystanders in encouraging the bully.
The program provides teacher training and information for parents about the program. Systemic anti-bullying programs alter social norms by changing school responses to bullying incidents and increasing social awareness. Numerous instructional violence prevention programs are available for elementary schools, but only a handful are designed for secondary school students. The most promising at the secondary school level are targeted for at-risk youth, typically aggressive students.
Most of these programs e. Role-playing and other interactive teaching methods are used. Although these programs are all curriculum-based, they are often papers on behavior much like group counseling sessions and only sometimes are they embedded within the larger context of a school-wide prevention approach. Short-term outcomes for such programs are promising; [19]papers on behavior, [24][25] however, there are limited data on their long-term effects.
A recent long-term followup [26] shows that repeated interventions that include only problem youth can be counter-effective. Grouping high-risk youth together appears to reinforce negative behavioral patterns in a form of "deviance training," increasing rather than decreasing the risk that they will engage in anti-social behavior subsequently.
One approach that gained support immediately following the highly publicized school shootings was early identification papers on behavior profiling of potentially violent students. This approach is based on the assumption that we can predict who will become violent.
Although a great deal is known about early warning signs of violent behavior, the truth is that many students fit these "profiles" and only very few will ever commit a violent act. The label papers on behavior can lead to stigmatization and, if linked with a segregated group intervention, the labeling can also significantly limit the opportunities of the identified students, papers on behavior.
Other violence prevention efforts rely on counseling students with disciplinary problems and mediating in specific incidents of conflict as needed. These are reactive rather than proactive approaches.
The assumption underlying the counseling approach is that students who repeatedly get into trouble need specific attention and services.
Counseling often involves parents and teachers. Mediation of conflicts, on the other hand, is incident- rather than person-based: the goal is to negotiate and resolve conflicts in a constructive manner as soon as they happen. Mediation and conflict resolution programs provide opportunities for modeling and rehearsing critical negotiation and resolution tactics.
Various school personnel can be in charge of the counseling and mediation, papers on behavior. In some schools, the administrators e, papers on behavior.
Yet the qualifications and training of personnel might be critical factors, papers on behavior, determining the success or failure of these approaches.
Selecting behaviors for intervention: J-13
, time: 3:01School Violence: Prevalence, Fears, and Prevention | RAND
Violence is most common in large schools, and middle school students are the most likely targets of violent behavior. [3] According to a joint report of the Departments of Education and Justice, [3] violent crime overall has declined since the early and mids. However, this decline is relatively small Peer Commentary. Criminality Is a Product of Genes and Environment Maureen E. Wood Rochester Institute of Technology. In considering the roles of genetics and environment on criminal behavior, or any behavior for that matter, I think the best explanation is that there is a complex interaction between one's inherited traits and the environment in which he or she lives Founded in , the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals
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