Glenn W Muschert,Stuart Henry,Nicole L Bracy and Anthony A Peguero (eds),Responding to school violence: Confronting the Columbine effect

Reviewed by: Claire Meehan, Department of Sociology, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Responding to School Violence: Confronting the Columbine Effect is marketed primarily to policy makers, academics, educationalists and students. The school shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 led the media to frame schools as dangerous places. While statistically inaccurate, these depictions increased public anxiety and justified a zero-tolerance approach to violence in schools, producing the large-scale punitive policy responses that mirror the criminal justice system. Situated within Beck’s concept of a ‘risk society’, this book is concerned with the social construction of a school violence problem through distorted media imagery and the far-reaching implications of school antiviolence policies shaped by fear. This book unpacks social constructionist work on school violence as a socially constructed problem, analyses antiviolence policies and explains how policy analysts can respond effectively to school violence. This edited collection builds upon two seminal articles. The first, Muschert and Peugero’s (2010) ‘The Columbine Effect and School Antiviolence Policy’, described the intersection between the discourse of school violence and the development of school antiviolence policies. The second article, Henry’s (2009) ‘School Violence Beyond Columbine: A Complex Problem in Need of an Interdisciplinary Analysis’ advocated the adoption of an interdisciplinary, multilevel approach to better understand school violence.

Responding to School Violence: Confronting the Columbine Effect includes 12 chapters organised into four sections. The first section, ‘Contexts’, builds directly on Muschert and Peugero’s (2010) article. Chapter one deals with the context in which school violence is understood, situating the conversation within wider academic discussions about youth violence and schools’ response to threats of violence. In Chapter two, Muschert and Madfis explore the role of risk and tolerance in contemporary society, examining the development of public anxiety about school violence and situating it within wider discourses of fear. In Chapter three, Brewer and Lindle discuss how the Columbine Effect forced an interpretation that safety is essential for successful learning. However, when school relationships are disrupted, learning ceases and uncertainty creates perceptions of lack of safety. Kupchick and Catlaw discuss the dynamics of school discipline within a neo-liberal society in Chapter four.

Section two of this book, ‘Contemporary Policies’, draws upon Henry’s (2009) multilevel theory of school violence to explain how public fear has influenced school policies with regard to discipline and security. In Chapter five, Addington focuses on school policy and practices involving visible security measures as prevention. Rich-Shea and Fox discuss the efficacy of zero-tolerance policies and the ensuing hostility within school systems, as well as a decline in academic achievement in the face of increased school exclusions in Chapter six. In Chapter seven, Steeves and Marx use ethnography to examine the impact of formal school antiviolence policies and related behaviours in Canada. Chapter eight is concerned with the unequal application of student disciplinary practices, which Welch and Payne maintain favour white students. In Chapter nine, Hong and his colleagues examine recent school and youth violence programmes and policies within the context of ecological systems theory and discuss alternative ways to address school violence.

The third section of this book, ‘Alternatives’, investigates various approaches to the risks of school violence, giving an analysis of the problem and the potential for change in policies. Chapter 10 is a theoretical formulation in which Sprague, Close and Walker define the risks to school safety and interventions in an attempt to reduce these risks. Chapter 11 is concerned with fear-driven school antiviolence policies and their relationship to broad social structures and cultural values. Hillyard and McDermott link the punishment response to social inequality and dominant groups within society. Finally, Kellner provides a critical diagnosis of macro-level causes of school violence and suggests a comprehensive integrated educational approach in order to alleviate some of the underlying causes in Chapter 12.

In the final section, ‘Conclusion’, the editors argue that sound school antiviolence policy must be based upon rational and logical policy rather than emotion and fear.

Instead of merely critiquing existing school violence policies, the editors of this volume argue that effective prevention requires the multifaceted causes of school violence to be considered within a far-reaching set of policies. While the authors concede that school shootings are rare and at the extreme end of the spectrum of school violence, they provide policy alternatives that are transferable across the continuum of violence, from the minor to the extreme. There are good linkages between chapters, which provide a clear and coherent interrogation of the issue. A detailed critique of public policies is balanced with practical solutions to address the Columbine Effect.

This book captured my interest and enhanced my knowledge of the social construction of school violence and resultant antiviolence policies. It invited me to question the implications of these policies driven by fear and the effect this has on young people. This book provides a prescriptive analysis of school shootings; however, I wondered about lower level school violence and indeed, different types of school violence that did not involve the use of a firearm, for example, stabbing or sexual violence. I questioned how transferable the analysis in this book would be in those situations. Other than Chapter seven (based upon Canadian data), all chapters were based upon United States research. It would be interesting to know how effectively these principles could be applied to England, for example, where 2010 Department for Education figures show that students were suspended on 166,900 occasions and expelled in 2460 cases for violence, or in New Zealand, where there were 1300 suspensions and 500 expulsions in 2012. As the Columbine shootings received international attention, some interrogation of the impact this had on international school antiviolence policies would have been an interesting addition to this worthwhile book.