School shooting fatalities and school corporal punishment: A look at the states

✍ Scribed by Doreen Arcus

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 76 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0096-140X
• DOI: 10.1002/ab.90020

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Student deaths from school shootings were examined across all 50 states according to the state’s policy on the use of corporal punishment in schools after controlling for associated differences in poverty rates and the prevalence of conservative Christian religions. There were significantly more school shooting deaths found in states allowing school corporal punishment compared with those that do not. The odds of fatal involvement in a school shooting were greatest in states permitting school corporal punishment compared with those prohibiting it (odds ratio, 2.04) or restricting it to districts serving less than half the student population (odds ratio, 1.77). Moreover, the rate of school corporal punishment was moderately correlated with the rate of fatal school shootings both across all states and within the South, the region in which endorsement of school corporal punishment is most prevalent.Aggr. Behav. 28:173–183, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.