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Correlates of physical violence at school: A multilevel analysis of Australian high school students
Author(s) -
Grunseit Anne C,
Weatherburn Don,
Donnelly Neil
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.2008.tb00117.x
Subject(s) - clarity , ethnic group , project commissioning , school violence , psychology , multilevel model , social control theory , publishing , racism , social psychology , developmental psychology , sociology , juvenile delinquency , political science , gender studies , law , biochemistry , chemistry , machine learning , anthropology , computer science
Studies of school violence have been generally been informed either by social disorganisation or social control theory. However applications of social disorganisation theory to school violence sometimes make little attempt to control for individual differences in propensity to violent behaviour. This study of 2,616 Australian high school students uses multilevel modelling techniques to see whether various characteristics of the school (e.g. lack of clarity about school rules, school responsiveness to racism, school size, ethnic composition) are related to the risk of physical violence between students, once individual and family risk factors for violent behaviour have been taken into account. The results suggest that school characteristics and developmental factors both play an important role in shaping the risk of violence at school.