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Violence in Schools: Repeat Victimization, Low Self-Control, and the Mitigating Influence of School Efficacy

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Abstract

Objectives

Examine the distribution of various forms of violent victimization among adolescents in school and the main and interactive effects of low self-control and school efficacy on repeat assault victimization.

Methods

This study used data collected from students and teachers as part of the Rural Substance abuse and Violence Project. We calculated a simple Poisson model of the expected frequencies of adolescents to experience each number of assault, robbery, and weapons victimizations given the total number of each type of victimization reported by the sample. We then tested whether the observed frequencies differed significantly from the expected. Finally, we estimated a series of hierarchical nonlinear models to assess the main and interactive effects of low self-control and school efficacy on repeat assault victimization.

Results

All three forms of violent victimization were non-randomly distributed across students. Low self-control was associated with repeat victimization among assault victims, though this effect was weakened significantly by school efficacy.

Conclusions

Violence in schools is highly concentrated among repeat victims. Efforts to reduce violence in schools should be focused on those who have already been victimized. Schools may be able to limit the effects of low self-control on repeat assault victimization by strengthening school efficacy.

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Notes

  1. The focus of the present study is on repeated violent victimization experiences that occur within a relatively short period, that is, within an academic year. The multivariate analyses focus on assaults, the most prevalent form of violent victimization in schools, which we discuss in detail below.

  2. We do not present multivariate hierarchical models for repeat robbery and weapons offense victimization because these victim subsamples were much smaller, resulting in very few level 1 units (i.e., victims) nested within level 2 units (i.e., schools), which becomes problematic when estimating random effects and cross-level interactions (Hox 2002). For example, there were 924 robbery victims in the sample. Of these, there was valid data on 559 robbery victims nested within 76 school contexts. However, 53 of these schools have fewer than 10 robbery victims; only 310 robbery victims were nested within schools (N = 23) with 10 or more victims. Even fewer cases remained when estimating the 3-level model described in footnote 7 as a robustness check.

  3. The measurement of this variable is consistent with prior victimization studies measuring school efficacy using the RSVP data (see Tillyer et al. 2011). Principal components factor analysis using varimax (orthogonal) rotation confirmed that all items loaded on a single factor (KMO = 0.95, Chi Square = 29,295.25, p ≤ 0.001).

  4. Though mediation was not the focus of the study, we did estimate a preliminary fixed effects model without the routine activity and lifestyle variables to explore the extent to which these variables might mediate the effect of low self-control on repeat assault victimization. This model (which controlled for gender, race, SES, and wave) revealed that the coefficient for low self-control was substantially larger without the routine activity and lifestyle variables (b = 0.43, OR = 1.54, p ≤ 0.01), suggesting that the routine activity and lifestyle variables partially mediate the relationship between low self-control and repeat assault victimization in school.

  5. The slopes for school sports, delinquent peers, self-reported crime, and male also varied significantly across schools; therefore, they were also specified as random in the final model described in Table 5.

  6. We also estimated a 3-level repeat assault victimization model, with waves nested within individuals nested within schools (not pictured). This supplemental analysis serves as a robustness check on our findings and more explicitly accounts for the within-individual repeated measures over time. In the supplemental analysis, the likelihood of repeat assault victimization is estimated for each wave (level 1), with wave as a level 1 predictor to account for individual changes in the likelihood of short-term repeat victimization over time. Level 2 estimates the between-individual differences in average repeat victimization (intercept) as a function of individual-level predictors. Level 3 estimates the effect of school efficacy on the level 2 intercept and the level 2 slope for low self-control. The findings from the supplemental analysis are substantively similar to those reported in the tables above. Low self-control is significantly related to an increased risk for repeat assault victimization (b = 0.28, SE = 0.09, OR = 1.32, p ≤ 0.01). There is also a significant negative relationship between school efficacy and the slope of low self-control (b = −0.34, SE = 0.17, OR = 0.71, p ≤ 0.05). In addition, the level 1 wave variable serves as a growth parameter and indicates that the risk of repeat assault victimization within a given year decreases over time (b = −0.19, SE = 0.05, OR = 0.83, p ≤ 0.001).

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Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored, in part, by Grant DA-11317 (Richard R. Clayton, PI) from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors thank Richard R. Clayton, Scott A. Hunt, Michelle Campbell Augustine, Shayne Jones, Kimberly Reeder, Staci Roberts Smith, and Jon Paul Bryan for their contributions to the Rural Substance Abuse and Violence Project, which provides the data analyzed here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd., San Antonio, TX, 78207, USA

    Marie Skubak Tillyer

  2. School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Pamela Wilcox & Erica R. Fissel

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  1. Marie Skubak Tillyer
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Correspondence to Marie Skubak Tillyer.

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Tillyer, M.S., Wilcox, P. & Fissel, E.R. Violence in Schools: Repeat Victimization, Low Self-Control, and the Mitigating Influence of School Efficacy. J Quant Criminol 34, 609–632 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9347-8

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