School problems and learning about crime and justice systems: Principals' views

This paper examines the attitudes of 207 junior high/middle school and high school principals in Texas regarding: (1) the severity of four school problems (school loyalty, drugs, student-student problems and serious problems); and (2) the possibility of five criminology and criminal justice concepts (type of crime, justice system, juvenile justice, deviance and crime prevention) that are considered important and helpful for junior high/middle school and high school students to learn in order to help deter and prevent school crime. Although school problems were generally found to be relatively minor at both school levels, drug problems in high schools were rated most serious. School principals considered a crime prevention concept (which included information about crime deterrence, crime prevention, social control and conflict resolution) as the most important and helpful topic to learn. The study concluded that schools should make crime prevention information more available to students in addition to other school crime deterrence and prevention strategies.