Consequences of School Violence: Personal Coping and Protection Measures by School Personnel in Their Personal Lives

Abstract

To date, the fear of victimization of school personnel outside the school setting has not been extensively studied. Using the lifestyles-routine activities theoretical approach, this exploratory study investigated whether school personnel have concerns of being victimized by current/former students and parents/guardians. Using self-report data from a Midwestern rural school district, this study found that in most instances school personnel have a low fear of victimization and subsequently do not engage in personal avoidance activities in particular social settings, with the exception of a small number of males who reported avoiding current and former students in restaurants. Furthermore, the majority of school personnel did not report the use of personal protection measures or concerns related to the safety of their children and/or significant others or spouses. An agenda for future research is discussed.

Notes

1. ¹“School personnel” includes certified and non-certified teachers and other school staff comprising school administrators, maintenance, clerical/technical, and other support-related staff.

2. ²The statistical assumptions related to Chi-Square distributions cannot be assured due to some cell values having less than 5 (or no cases). As such, the two-tail Fisher’s Exact probability Test was used, which is the appropriate statistical procedure in those cases where cell numbers are too small for Chi-Square analysis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian R. Johnson

BRIAN R. JOHNSON is a Professor of Criminal Justice at Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Johnson holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from Michigan State University. He has published extensively in the areas of policing, security, criminology, and criminal justice policy.

Shannon M. Barton-Bellessa

SHANNON M. BARTON-BELLESSA is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Indiana State University. She earned her Ph.D. (2000) in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati after working in a private minimum security women’s prison. Her research interests include community corrections, correctional officer job satisfaction, cognitive programming, school violence and safety, and the juvenile justice system.