Environmental Correlates of School Vandalism

Abstract

In the last decade, school vandalism has become a critical educational and social problem. The problem includes various forms of illegal entry, defacement, damage, theft, arson and other violent and destructive acts directed against school property. Grieder has defined the crisis as taking “epidemic proportions” and has observed that “vandalism is one of the toughest subjects” that school administrators are faced with today. He states that two things seem to be sure. There is no way to police schools or any other kind of property so effectively as to eliminate vandalism and other sorts of violence. Nor will more and more rules do the job. None of us can write a prescription for the solution of this problem, but we must try to understand it, foster understanding by citizens, school personnel, and students, and exercise leadership in improving educational services and ameliorating bad community (social) conditions (1970: 10). The problem exists in large and small school districts, in schools of economically deprived areas such as centrally located schools, and in “schools of the best caliber, affording the finest opportunities,” such as those located in wealthy suburban areas (Grieder, 1970).