School violence: A cross cultural analysis

Abstract

This research is part of an international project on disaster management planning for coping with acts of extreme violence in schools. The project was funded by the SSH Research Council of Canada and carried out by an academic team from University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM). In this article, the author seeks to provide some insights on the matter of culture as a root-cause of school related violence, by conducting a cross cultural analysis of five school shooting events. The results show that some cultural factors at national/community/organizational level were among the root-causes of school's vulnerability to extreme violence. Further, these factors have played an important role in enhancing violence in schools and/or in delaying the intervention process. The results underline potentially critical cultural issues that relevant stakeholders - such as policy makers, educational institutions, communities, and families - should consider in order to proactively and effectively cope with new emerging risks related to extreme violence in schools.