Since 2005, bullying, school violence, and school safety literatures have expanded dramatically in content, disciplines, and empirical studies. However, despite this massive expansion of research, there has also been a surprising lack of theoretical and empirical direction to guide efforts on how to advance basic science and practical applications of this growing scientific area of interest. Bullying, School Violence, and Climate in Evolving Contexts outlines a novel unifying model that brings together previously distinct literatures on a wide range of issues (e.g., the structure of school violence and bullying, similarities and differences across cultural groups, weapons in schools, student suicidal ideation and behaviors, teacher-student and student-teacher victimization, sexual harassment, cyberbullying, school climate, etc.). Drawing from numerous large-scale research studies from around the globe, the authors examine the theoretical foundations of school safety and bullying and propose a series of groundbreaking new theoretical and practice proposals. This is a perfect book for doctoral dissertations, young researchers hoping to forge into new cutting areas of bullying research, and seasoned researchers who delve into the conceptual areas of school violence and bullying. About the Authors: Ron Avi Astor, PhD, is the Stein-Wood Professor of School Behavioral Health in the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His work examines the role of the physical, social-organizational, and cultural contexts in schools related to different kinds of bullying and school violence (e.g., sexual harassment, cyber bullying, discrimination hate acts, school fights, emotional abuse, weapon use, and teacher/child violence). Astor's studies have included tens of thousands of schools and millions of students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Over the past 20 years, findings from these studies have been published in more than 200 scholarly manuscripts. Rami Benbenishty, PhD, is Professor in the School of Social Work at Bar-Ilan University. His main area of interest is the safety, welfare, and well-being of children around the world. He studies children and youth both in community-normative settings (such as schools) and in out-of-home placements (such as foster homes and residential care). He investigates and tries to improve decision processes that lead to referral to protective services, removal of children from their biological families, and their reunification thereafter. He is also studying the decision-making processes of child protection teams in hospitals that report children to community protective services. |