Newswise — In the battle against bullying, school officials and parents usually focus on the behavior of the bully, but to get to the root of the problem, they also must look at the physical context of the school, says Ronald Pitner, Ph.D., school violence expert and assistant professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis.
"Bullying behavior, and school violence more generally, typically occurs in predictable locations within schools," he says.
"Research has shown that violence occurs more in 'unmonitored' areas within schools such as hallways, bathrooms, stairwells, and playgrounds. Thus, one way of cutting down on violence in schools is to identify 'hotspots' within the school where children feel that violence is likely to occur, and then to place school monitors in those areas."
In his study, Pitner asked students to pinpoint on maps the areas in their school that make them feel unsafe or where fights are likely to occur. Other questions asked for the time of day those places were unsafe and for whom they were unsafe.
"School officials can use this information in their strategy to make their schools safer," said Pitner, who noted that these high-risk areas likely will vary by school.
"Although this approach will not completely eliminate bullying, research has shown that it would at least cut down on the areas where violence is likely to occur," he says.
"This focus underscores the importance of viewing school bullying as both an individual- and organizational-level phenomenon."
RSS