Thesis M.A. (Criminology) --Univesity of Limpopo, 2011 / The study on bullying is very important to the effective prevention oflater crime in adulthood. Bullying is one of the anti-social behaviour that may lead to criminal behaviour in adulthood. If bullies are allowed to carry on with this destructive behaviour, when they become adults, they may be involved in criminal behaviour such as partner abuse, road rage, child abuse, theft, etc. When a study is conducted to determine the extent and nature of bullying, the practices of bullying can be prevented on the primary level than waiting for it to continue and try toprevent it in the tertiary level. To prevent this crime at the tertiary level will result in financial losses to the state that will then have to sentence and keep perpetrators in correctional facilities. This study focuses on the nature and the extent to which bullying affect learners at secondary schools in Mankweng. No criminological study has ever been done on this phenomenon in Mankweng, Limpopo Province. A study that was conducted by Sathekge in 2004 focused on the psychological factors that contribute to aggressive behaviour among secondary school students. Sathekge (2004:63-66) found that, 68.9% of learners reported that they were bullied, taunted or teased in their schools. The aim of the study was to determine the nature of bullying among learners at a secondary school level, and the extent to whichit affects learners, specifically focusing on two schools Hwiti and Mountainview Secondary Schools that are located in Mankweng area, Limpopo Province. A quantitative approach was used in this study. Two hundred learners from two schools were selected to form part of the study using a snow ball sampling as a way of collecting the data.

The purpose of the current study was to determine if there are potential mediating factors to a student being victimized by school violence. Results from 5,409 middle school and high school student participants who completed the 2007 School Crime Supplement of the National Crime Victimization Survey, a nationally collected survey on victimization, were used to determine if there was a relationship between student victimization and extracurricular activity involvement. Specifically, the questions about victimization (bullying), extracurricular activity involvement, a relationship with an adult at school, and a relationship with a friend were used. Seven specific types of extracurricular activities (athletic teams, spirit groups, performing arts groups, academic clubs, student government, community service/volunteer clubs, and other) were examined to determine if a specific type of extracurricular activity might be related to lower victimization scores. Relationships with an adult and a peer were examined in association with a student's involvement in extracurricular activities. Reported victimization status was also explored in connection with the student's relationships with an adult and peer. The results of this study indicate statistically significant relations among many of the variables above. However, the large sample size was the reason for the significant findings. The results indicate that protecting a student from victimization may not be a benefit of extracurricular involvement; however, extracurricular activities may be a useful tool to connect students to friends and caring adults at school.

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<p>Over the past few decades, issues of school violence and crime have received international attention. High profile events, such as the Columbine or Virginia Tech school shootings, have led schools and boards of education world-wide to create and implement numerous policies and procedures in an attempt to keep students safe. However, data on school violence trends demonstrate a far more equivocal situation. School violence trends demonstrate stability over time at low levels of actual violence. In this dissertation, I attempt to account for the gap between the high number of school responses and the relatively low and stable trends in the prevalence of school crime and violence. Three main hypotheses, stemming from the culture of fear, institutional theory, and confirmatory bias, account for this gap. The culture of fear hypotheses suggests that the gap has been created by widespread fear that is pervasive, decoupled from the ecology of school crime and violence, and generated widely by the mass media. Although this is a cultural theory, institutional theory takes an organizational approach to account for this gap. Institutional theory suggests that the gap has been created by institutional processes of schools seeking legitimacy and reflecting how centralized hierarchies respond to the institutional environment, where fear takes a more loosely coupled form, and can be sensitive to the ecological variation of school crime and violence. The third hypothesis is a cognitive one, and suggests that confirmatory bias processes are the mechanisms by which scattered and sporadic acts of school violence receive large scale exposure, and therefore not only are able to generate cultures of fear, but also serve to legitimate policy. These three hypotheses are tested using a mixed-methods approach, including 66 interviews with key-players associated with schools (students, teachers, administrators, and parents), descriptive analyses of existing survey data (e.g., National statistics; Safe Schools Survey), and a content analysis of the media’s presentation of issues surrounding school crime and violence. This mixed methods approach provides a unique and holistic approach to test these hypotheses, asking several different research questions of various levels of analysis (from the individual to the community). Explaining the gap between school violence trends and school responses provides a unique contribution to the literature: it furthers our understanding of the complexities associated with school safety; it operationalizes and tests the culture of fear theory which, to date, has not been accomplished, and; it utilizes institutional theory and confirmatory bias in new ways, by applying them to issues of school safety.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Being bullied has been recognized as a problem within the U.S. school systems. Individuals who have been bullied physically, verbally, relationally, or electronically typically suffer from mental health problems as a result. As it has been shown that males are more at risk for being bullied, it is important to understand what variables can predict males being bullied in order to design appropriate preventions and interventions to curb bullying in the schools. Four forms of school bullying behaviors among U.S. adolescent males and their association with type of bullying, school environment, and school performance and engagement variables were examined. Data were examined from the National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplement. A sample of 1,636 males ages 14 to 18 was used from the survey. A series of logistic regression analyses were performed for each type of bullying (physical, verbal, relational, and cyber) and school environment (presence of gangs, guns, graffiti, drugs, and number of school safety measures in place) and school performance and engagement predictors (grades, extracurricular activity engagement, truancy, and number of fights). Linear regression analyses were also used to look at all the predictor variables and the frequency of each type of bullying. Results: The R2 values for the logistic regression analyses were quite small. However, trends could be observed from the odds ratios showing that fighting, drug availability, and graffiti were predictive of all four forms of bullying. The linear regression analyses also produced small R2 values. Effect plots were created to identify which significant variables had a greater effect on the frequency of being bullied. Conclusion: Schools should focus on removing graffiti and drugs from the schools. Prevention work should be used to help students find alternative ways to deal with problems other than resorting to fighting. Problems with reliability and validity of the survey are also discussed.

This dissertation looks at crime and juvenile delinquency in basic schools in the Klatovy District. The theoretical section gives a concise appraisal of Act No. 218/2003 Coll., on Juvenile Justice, as well as the internal and external factors potentially influencing the socially pathological behaviour of young people. The study examines current patterns of youth criminality in the Czech Republic and developing trends connected with the issue over recent years, which it then briefly compares to the wider EU experience. The possibilities for intervention work by government departments dealing with education, the police and the justice system with young people at risk is studied in the subsequent chapter. The overall aim of the dissertation is to map the occurrence of predominantly minor offences and juvenile delinquency at basic schools in the Klatovy District in terms of gender, as I suspect that this indicator will feature strongly in the structure of socially pathological youth behaviour. Research was used to determine young people{\crq}s awareness regarding liability for their actions, and what kinds of offences or delinquent activities they most frequently perpetrate. An anonymous questionnaire with 32 closed, half-open and open format questions was used to collect data, and was presented to 303 respondents in years 7, 8 and 9 at five different basic schools. Of the total number of students, 49% were female and 51% male. Schools were deliberately chosen to fulfil the task set by the dissertation, i.e. the question of gender was a primary concern. The aim of the questionnaire was to find out what kinds of socially pathological activities are perpetrated by youths at basic school, and based on the subsequent findings, to decide whether current intervention work with young people at risk in the Klatovy District is sufficient. The research itself corresponds in several areas with data available from the Youth Crime Prevention Officer. In particular, it confirms that delinquency often involves driving motor vehicles without driving licences and the consumption of alcohol. The survey investigation demonstrated young people{\crq}s ignorance of the various age thresholds of criminal liability for their actions, the ascendancy of petty theft, aggression towards classmates and the consumption of illegal drugs. The research points to the conclusion that intervention and work with these groups of young people at risk in the Klatovy District, in terms of preventing illegal drug use and therapy, is insufficient, which similarly applies to the prevention of petty theft, consumption of alcohol, bullying and driving without a valid licence. The elimination of such pathological behaviour will only be successful provided that closer contact is established between school students and prevention workers (school psychologists, counsellors, etc.), as well as other potential organisations, such as the Czech Police, anti-drug co-ordinators and social workers.