| Motoko Akiba
Pennsylvania State University
Cross-national analysis of school violence: Critical evaluation of the effect of academic competition on delinquency
FINAL REPORT:
School violence is an issue of international concern, yet there are no comprehensive studies that investigate cross-national factors associated with school violence. Given the attention paid to school violence in the U.S., and the efforts that have gone into developing antiviolence programs in U.S. public schools, an understanding of how macro-sociological factors associate with violence (e.g. does the presence of shadow education or high, overall levels of academic competition increase violence?) is an important preliminary step in identifying the causes of violence in school. In this paper we utilize a section of the TIMSS survey data to 1) explore how much school violence there is among 37 nations; 2) determine whether or not previous theories of juvenile delinquency and school violence hold up in cross-national analysis; 3) test whether factors related to the educational system itself are associated with levels of school violence cross-nationally. We find that violence as reflected by violence victimization is widespread in schools among the 37 nations, that previous theories do not adequately explain the structural causes of violence, and that a combination of poor-quality public schooling combined with strong academic competition is significantly associated with higher levels of student victimization.
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