Safe Passage: A Guide for Addressing School Violence

Safe Passage: A Guide to Addressing School Violence offers expert perspectives
and guidance in understanding, assessing, and addressing school violence.
Although the book is designed for child and adolescent forensic psychiatrists
and psychologists seeking proficiency in youth violence risk assessment,
educators, school administrators, mental health clinicians, other health care
professionals who work with children, and interested laypersons will also find
the book both practical and illuminating. The editors' approach to school
violence is informed by their educational, scholarly, clinical, and forensic
work with children and adults who have been disenfranchised through the
cumulative effects of poverty, trauma, untreated mental illness, and inadequate
access to education. This background has fostered a sensitivity to and
understanding of critically important developmental factors that can be passed
on generationally, which are explored in depth in the volume. Case vignettes and
follow-ups are used liberally to illustrate and illuminate the range of violent
situations (e.g., bullying, cyberbullying, gang violence, sexual violence)
likely to be encountered, as well as the advantages and disadvantages inherent
in various interventions. The authors stress that threat assessment must take
individual, school, and community variables into account, a complex but
necessary task for mental health professionals and educators who wish to
safeguard individuals and society from harm.

This book provides a road
map for understanding and addressing violence of all kinds in the school
environment: The subtyping of aggression is thoroughly explored, with special
focus on reward-seeking behaviors and the development of impulse control in
adolescents. Identifying students at risk for violence or abuse at home is of
critical importance. The chapter on danger at home teaches the reader to
recognize trauma symptoms and examines the necessary steps toward establishing a
trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive school environment. In violence risk
assessment, every student is evaluated in relation to static risk factors
(historical variables that cannot be changed), dynamic risk factors (risk
factors that are amenable to change) and protective factors. The authors
emphasize that violence risk is characterized along a continuum rather than in
binary fashion. Case law is cited where relevant throughout the book, providing
context for the evolution of school policies toward violence. Key points and
clinical pearls at the end of each chapter provide convenient summaries of
information and help the reader focus on the most important ideas.

Compassionate and comprehensive, Safe Passage: A Guide to Addressing
School Violence introduces readers to important concepts pertaining to school
violence and serves as a practical guide for mitigating and preventing violence
in our schools.