Violence in New Jersey Schools

O'Hara Fitzgerald

Co-Presenters: Ella Federico

College: College of Education

Major: BA.EED/K6/TSD/COM

Faculty Research Mentor: Mahmood, Sehba  

Abstract:

Violence in schools is prevalent however the public and even prospective teachers are not aware of its full extent. One of the main reasons for this lack of awareness is that this violence in most cases is perpetuated by minors under the age of 18 and their privacy has to be maintained. However, this does not mean that violence in schools is not a major societal issue. A recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that from 2020 to 2024, there were 1,299,063 criminal incidents occurring at school locations across the United States. We intend to explore this important topic through the publicly available data provided by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). Violence is reported by NJDOE in the following five categories: assault, fight, kidnapping, robbery/extortion, sexual assault, sexual contact, threat – criminal and threat – simple. Using the publicly available data we intend to examine school violence by exploring the following questions· At what level of school, such as middle school etc. is violence reported most in New Jersey schools?· Which county schools have the highest level of reported violence?· How many incidents of violence were reported to the police?· Which student groups identified by NJDOE are most likely to be involved in violence?Our findings will be beneficial for increasing targeted strategies to prevent violence in New Jersy schools.