Determinants of school violence: evidences from São Paulo public schools

Abstract

This work uses a rich and unique database on occurrences records to investigate the factors associated with school violence. The crimes committed by external agents to school (theft and robbery) are explained by the neighborhood socioeconomic conditions and the personal and material wealth available in schools, while violent acts committed by students (depredation, vandalism, threats and assaults) are associated with the students’ demographic composition and his family background. We also identified two effects are not investigated in the literature. The first refers to the role of teacher quality.
The second refers to the engagement in school life of children and school activities.
The results suggest that the teacher’s ability to establish a good relationship with the students and the partnership of the family with the school are able to act on their behavior, inhibiting their engagement in violence.