International practice
Many countries have developed national, state or provincial strategies to respond to the issue of
school safety, crime and victimization. There is now funding for project development, training,
networking and exchange of expertise, and technical assistance to project development. This is
often associated with national crime prevention initiatives. Much of this activity is cross-sectorial,
recognizing the multi-dimensional causes of such problems, and the need for a comprehensive, coordinated
approach which links action by schools, youth and social services, health and housing,
employment and police. It promotes integrated action including teachers, pupils, school support
staff, parents and others working in partnerships together.
Among the specific programmes and initiatives, there is a focus on comprehensive and ‘wholeschool’
approaches, early intervention and parent support and training, youth mentoring and
support, and a growing use of mediation and conflict resolution approaches such as that currently
being developed in Australia (Morrison, 2002).
For example, France launched a National Plan to combat violence in schools in 1997, and
developed school observatories which collate data on a range of indicators concerned with the
health and progress of schools and their communities; they selected and trained some 7000 young
people, many from areas of high unemployment and immigration, to work as social mediators and
school assistants; they increased medical and social work staffing in schools in areas of high risk;
they promoted innovative intervention projects and evaluation in the 26 regions most at risk of
violence and delinquency, victim support projects in schools, and citizenship and anti-violence
education programmes. There has been evidence of reductions in the incidence of violence and
delinquency in schools in a number of these regions.iv
The European Union has been especially active in supporting a major anti-bullying project
including the development of research, practice and networking among schools and research teams
in 14 countries. Some excellent reports on these projects are available.v
Much of the anti-bullying
work stems from Dan Olweus’s pioneering Norwegian project in the 1980’s which demonstrated a
50% reduction in bullying using a ‘whole-school’ approach – ie. using a range of integrated
initiatives which involved all sectors of the school community. This work is exemplified in
Australia by Ken Rigby’s work on bullying (Rigby, 1996, 2001, 2002) as well as in many other
countries including New Zealand, Japan, USA, UK, Scotland, Spain and many others.
Denmark, the first country to develop a national crime prevention capacity in the 1970’s, has an
integrated system of councils in almost all municipal areas of the country (SSP’s), which bring
together schools, police and social workers to reduce problems of crime and victimization. Schoolbased
programmes include work on social-education and conflict resolution, and a series of pilot
studies giving special teacher training to improve school climate, conflict resolution and mediation
skills. The Netherlands has focused on bullying, improved incidence response, safety of premises,
social competence training, and capacity building for schools. Amsterdam has been the site of a
very well-planned comprehensive initiative involving school safety about which we shall be hearing
more in the course of this conference.
In England and Wales, concern about social exclusion and youth crime has led to a number of
initiatives to reduce school exclusion, truancy and crime, as well as increased investment in early
education and support programmes. There is funding for effective practice projects targeted to high
risk groups or areas. These include mentoring programmes which work with young people who
have dropped out of school to get them back into school, skills training or employment, as well as
in elementary schools; there are home-school support projects for 11-17 year-olds providing inschool
support workers to prevent school exclusion, provide individual pupil and parent support,and support and relief to teachers. The Home Office allocated #12 million of its crime reduction
budget to the Crime Reduction in Secondary Schools (CRISS) Project. This involves 103 schools
across the country initiating projects with targets to reduce bullying, truancy and crime over a two
year period. The results of that project are being evaluated locally and nationally.
South Africa also has a major focus on school-related violence. This is a country where levels of
school violence are extremely serious, with a high incidence of rape and sexual assault of girls and
young women – a third of them perpetrated by teachers – gang activity, guns and violence. The
1999 report Youth Violence in Schools sets out the need to promote school competency, support and
care, self-esteem and identity, moral grounding, problem-solving skills, as well as the confidence
and involvement of the community. There is again a strong focus on tackling the underlying causes
of violence, and targeting the schools with the greatest problems, using comprehensive safe schools
programmes. Exemplary projects include Tiso Thuto, and CRISP, about which we will be hearing
more later in the conference.
The USA has experienced some of the worst examples of school violence, and high media attention.
There have been strong responses which are reactive and deterrent, but also some excellent practice
which takes a longer preventive approach. The Federal government has funded projects on the
monitoring of school incidents, research and evaluation, and provided technical assistance and
support to schools in project development and implementation. Examples include the Hamilton
Fish Institute in Washington, which co-ordinates the development and evaluation of school-based
prevention strategies; and the Safe Schools Healthy Students initiative, which funds local education
authorities in partnership with public health, police, schools, pupils and parents in the development
of violence prevention programmes. Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) have also
developed a major series of school-based initiatives.
State initiatives include the work of the Centre for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the
University of Colorado, which has developed a Safe Communities, Schools Safe project, with
technical assistance and support. Model programmes include the Student Assistance Centre
developed at East Hartford School, Connecticut, which has reduced the incidence of school
exclusions, suspensions and drop out, and combines conflict resolution and peer mediation with a
range of outside agency supports from mental health and substance abuse, to job-training and police.
As Gary and Denise Gottfredson and their colleagues recently concluded in their national study of
delinquency prevention in US schools (2000 7.1):
Schools currently employ an astonishingly large number and variety of programmes and
activities to reduce or prevent problem behavior.
On the basis of experience in a number of countries, good, effective school safety programmes
include the following characteristics:
· Proactive rather than responding to events
· Linking school safety with the needs of victims and victimizers, and to healthy behaviours
· Shifting from physical, situational prevention, or school exclusion, to comprehensive
approaches using a range of policies and programmes
· Developing programmes geared to both the general school population and individual pupils and
their families
· Using school community partnerships to plan and develop strategies and projects
· Targeting at risk schools with evaluated good practice programmes
· Involving young people themselves in the development of plans and projects.