Resources for Parents
The National Criminal Justice Reference
Center Web site has publications and resources for parents and families.
The site offers information that focuses on the concerns of family
members who have experienced, witnessed, or been victimized by crime in schools and gang
activity. The substance
abuse subpages guide parents and others to helpful resources, support
groups, publications, and organizations. Resources on keeping our schools safe are
also provided on the site.
School Violence
The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have issued
a guide to help schools and communities prevent school violence. The
Guide emphasizes early intervention and prevention, and teamwork among
educators, mental health professionals, parents, and students. Safeguarding
Our Children: An Action Guide is available at the Department of
Education's Web site.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Education also issued
a guide for parents, educators, and other individuals to help them identify
early signs of troubling and potentially dangerous behavior. Early Warning,
Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools is available at the Department
of Education's Web site.
The FBI has posted The
School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective. This report presents
a model procedure for threat assessment and intervention, including
a chapter on key indicators that should be regarded as warning signs
in evaluating threats.
School safety
programs, training opportunities, and other information are provided
on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives site.
Additional resources on school violence can be found on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Web
site.
Reducing Drugs in the Neighborhood
The Drug Enforcement Agency's Get
it Straight, The Facts About Drugs, explains why drugs are harmful.
Research reports on drugs and crime are found on the National Criminal
Justice Reference Service site. Statistics on drugs and crime
are summarized and more detailed data are offered on the Bureau
of Justice Statistics site.
What Works--What You Can Do in Your Community
School
and Community Interventions To Prevent Serious and Violent Offending describes
school and community interventions shown to reduce risk factors for
drug abuse and serious and violent juvenile (SVJ) offending. This Bulletin
examines eight types of community interventions (citizen mobilization,
situational prevention, comprehensive citizen intervention, mentoring,
after school recreation programs, policing strategies, policy changes,
and mass media interventions) and five types of school interventions
(structured playground activities, behavioral consultation, behavioral
monitoring, metal detectors, and school wide reorganization).
The Community Capacity Development
Office (CCDO) assists communities around America as they seek
to prevent crime, increase community safety, and revitalize neighborhoods.
The CCDO works with local communities to develop solutions that deter
crime, promote economic growth, and enhance quality of life. Through
training and technical assistance, the CCDO helps communities to help
themselves, enabling them to develop solutions to community safety
problems confronting them, as well as developing the leadership to
implement and sustain those solutions.
The Office of Weed and Seed is the CCDO's premier community development
initiative. This community-based initiative is an innovative and comprehensive
multi-agency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community
revitalization. Communities work with their U. S. Attorneys to develop
a Weed and Seed strategy that aims to prevent, control, and reduce violent
crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in targeted high-crime neighborhoods
across the country. For information about the Office of Weed and Seed,
visit the Community Capacity Development Office Web
site.
OJJDP provides
technical assistance to communities wishing to implement a comprehensive
strategy to address juvenile crime.
Get Help for Your Community--Grants and Other Assistance
The School-Based
Partnership (SBP) grant provides police agencies the opportunity
to work with schools and community-based organizations to address persistent
school-related crime problems. All applicants are required to focus
on one primary school-related crime or disorder problem, occurring in
or around an elementary or secondary school. Specific problems targeted
may include the following: Drug Dealing or Use on School Grounds, Problems
Experienced by Students on the Way to and from School, Assault/Sexual
Assault, Alcohol Use or Alcohol-Related Problems, Threat/Intimidation,
Vandalism/Graffiti, Loitering and Disorderly Conduct Directly Related
to Crime or Student Safety, Disputes that Pose a Threat to Student Safety
and Larceny.
The Office
of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the Department of Education assists
community-based agencies to conduct training, demonstrations, evaluation,
and to provide supplementary services for the prevention of drug use
and violence among students and youth.
Best Practices
of Youth Violence Prevention: A Sourcebook for Community Action is
a Center for Disease Control publication that examines the effectiveness
of specific violence prevention practices in four key areas: parents
and families; home visiting; social and conflict resolution skills;
and mentoring.
Indicators
of School Crime and Safety, 2004 presents data on crime at school
from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general
population from an array of sources. A joint effort by the Bureau
of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics,
the report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way
to and from school. The report provides the most current detailed
statistical information to inform the Nation on the nature of crime
in schools.
The National Institute of Justice publication Toward Safe and Orderly
Schools—The National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools presents
research on what schools are doing to prevent delinquency and promote
school safety.
For more information about the Department components that are most
active in this area, consult the Office
of Justice Programs and Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
Office Web sites. |