NIJ’s School Safety Research Portfolio supports research and evaluation projects aimed at increasing knowledge about the causes of school violence and what works to prevent and respond to school violence for K-12 students and staff, including technologies to enhance physical safety and security.
School safety is essential for creating a supportive learning environment where students and staff can thrive without fear, distraction, or harm. When violence occurs at school, it can be catastrophic and have profound effects on students, staff, and entire communities. School and public safety officials must work to prevent school violence events, even as they grapple with the daily challenges of creating and maintaining a safe learning environment that minimizes bullying, cyberbullying, illegal substance use, and harassing behavior.
NIJ takes a two-pronged approach to advancing this portfolio. First, NIJ supports primary studies and meta-analyses of potential root causes and consequences of school violence to better understand the multiple factors at play. Primary studies have examined quantitative local data collections and administrative data, often contextualizing analytic results with qualitative interviews and focus groups with school stakeholders. NIJ school safety research examines causes and consequences at the individual, peer, school, neighborhood, and community-levels. This research considers how these factors unfold over time and interact across different social contexts. NIJ also funds rigorous process and outcome evaluations of individual and comprehensive school safety strategies. Programs evaluated have ranged from unique pilot projects to scale-ups of evidence-based strategies. Evaluations on a range of school safety strategies include programs aimed at improving school climate, student behavior, and student mental health. Other NIJ funding supports studies that seek to improve school security using tools needed to recognize, respond to, and prevent violence. These include anonymous reporting systems (e.g., tiplines), behavioral threat assessment models, school emergency operations plans, school police, and school security technologies.
Research on causes and consequences reveals why some students perpetrate violence and how victimization affects students and teachers. Evaluation studies identify which prevention and intervention programs work and how to combine them effectively. These findings help practitioners develop better programs and create safer schools that support positive climates and academic success. NIJ’s school safety research portfolio informs program improvements for grantees who receive awards or training and technical assistance from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) through the STOP School Violence Act of 2018.
Research Priority 1: Advance understanding of root causes and consequences of school violence, including individual, peer, school, neighborhood, and community-level variables.
| Number | Question |
|---|---|
| Research Question 1.1 | What individual, peer, school, neighborhood, and community-level variables combine to predict engagement in school violence? |
| Research Question 1.2 | What are the long-term in- and out-of-school consequences of school violence for students who perpetrate violence? |
| Research Question 1.3 | What are the long-term in- and out-of-school consequences of school violence for students, teachers, and other school staff who experience victimization? |
Research Priority 2: Build scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of antibullying, school climate, and social-emotional learning programs.
| Number | Question |
|---|---|
| Research Question 2.1 | How effective are antibullying programs in reducing school violence and improving related outcomes pertaining to student behavior, mental health, disciplinary suspensions, and academic performance? |
| Research Question 2.2 | How effective are school climate programs in reducing school violence and improving related outcomes pertaining to student behavior, mental health, disciplinary suspensions, and academic performance? |
| Research Question 2.3 | How effective are social-emotional learning programs in reducing school violence and improving related outcomes pertaining to student behavior, mental health, disciplinary suspensions, and academic performance? |
Priority 3: Build scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of school police programs, emergency operations planning, and school safety technology.
| Number | Question |
|---|---|
| Research Question 3.1 | What impact does school police have on student outcomes? How can school police most effectively enhance safety and promote positive school climates? |
| Research Question 3.2 | What are best practices in emergency operations planning, and how might these be disseminated to maximize their effective implementation? |
| Research Question 3.3 | What is the prevalence of school safety technology use, what are the impacts of its use, and what are the concerning unintended consequences? |
Priority 4: Build scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of tiplines and behavioral threat assessment.
| Number | Question |
|---|---|
| Research Question 4.1 | To what degree do tiplines and campaigns supporting tiplines influence student reporting behavior? |
| Research Question 4.2 | How does reliable use of behavioral threat assessment (e.g., real threats thwarted, student perceptions of safety) result in safer schools? |
| Research Question 4.3 | Are there unintended consequences for some students whose behavior may falsely be identified as threatening, and how might these be avoided? |
Priority 5: Build scientific knowledge on the effectiveness of multicomponent, comprehensive strategies, which may include multi-tiered systems of support frameworks.
| Number | Question |
|---|---|
| Research Question 5.1 | How, and in what contexts, may multicomponent strategies be more effective than single strategies? |
| Research Question 5.2 | How can methodological approaches be used to identify and evaluate the individual contribution of core components within multicomponent strategies? |
| Research Question 5.3 | What types of programs work best in combination? |
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