Adolescent violence

Abstract

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of the rising occurrences of adolescent violence in the American school systems and how various theories can be used to assist in understanding this phenomenon. The authors have become increasingly interested in this topic, after direct involvement in the summer of 2001. There were a number of students who were attending summer school as a result of consistent out-of-school suspensions for violent acts. The procedure to process through the system with these students was to suspend them, resulting in the student subsequently failing their present grade. The school was located in a community known for its high rate of violence and criminal activity. Various types of adolescent violence exist in our schools. Studies have reported that violent adolescents may come from familial environments that are full of social and interpersonal conflicts (Gray & Foshee, 1999). This paper discusses the development of a research plan to investigate the number and type of adolescent violent occurrences in a southern middle school setting.