High School Violence

Prof. Alex Vitale

Spring 2002

Wednesday: 2:00 – 4:00

Office: 3101 James, T 4:30-6:30pm, W 6-7pm, Th 3-5pm

Room 3604 James, 951-5935

avitale@brooklyn.cuny.edu

Required Book

Lawrence, Richard. 1998. School Crime and Juvenile Justice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.

Available at Shakespear & Co. Books on Hilel Place.

Course Description

This course is going to investigate the issue of school violence. We are going to concentrate on examining the different factors inside and outside a specific school that contribute to school violence. We will be working at Bushwick High School for this project. Several times over the course of the semester we will travel to Bushwick during class time to meet with students in an after school program there. Together we will develop and interpret a survey, which the high school students will administer to their peers.

After 3 weeks of general reading about the issue of school violence, we will break up into research teams. Each team will focus on a specific aspect of the school violence issue, to be determined by the class during the first three weeks. Each team will be responsible for doing additional readings relevant to their area of focus. They will also develop a set of questions for the survey based on their research, and analyze and present to the class the results for those questions.

Course Requirements

Students will be responsible for working with their team in developing research ideas and survey questions. Each team member will also participate in making presentations to the class on the status of their research. You are also expected to be in class on time and prepared. This is worth 25% of your grade.

Each student will keep a notebook journal of their work during the semester. These journals will contain notes on readings, ideas for the survey, and reflections on the process of working with the team and with the students at Bushwick High School. This journal will be turned in at the end of the semester. This part of the class is worth 25% of your grade.

Each student will write their own final paper analyzing the results of the survey within their team’s area of interest. Each student is expected to make an original contribution with their paper. However, it is understood that there may be overlap in basic themes with the papers from any one team. Additional details about the final paper will be discussed during the semester. The final paper is worth 50% of your grade.

Course Schedule

1/30 Introduction, Class Survey, Discussion of School Violence

2/6 Lawrence: Ch. 1-3, review surveys

2/13 Lawrence: Ch. 4-5

2/27 Lawrence: Ch. 6, 10, Divide into work groups, begin group research

3/6 Bushwick Intro, Survey, Discussion of School Violence, Work Group Presentations

3/13 Review research and survey questions, discuss Bushwick experience

3/20 Bushwick Work in groups on developing survey questions

4/3 Review research and survey questions, discuss Bushwick experience

4/10 Bushwick Work in groups on developing survey questions

4/17 Review research and survey questions, discuss Bushwick experience

4/24 Bushwick distribute surveys and discuss how they will be administered

5/1 Review survey results

5/8 Bushwick Review survey results

5/15 Initial group reports and class assessment

5/22 Final Report Due, optional meeting at Bushwick