January 2007

Hamilton Fish Institute Celebrates 10th Anniversary

For the past decade, GW’s Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence has served as a leading national resource for researching and developing school violence prevention strategies. Housed in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the interdisciplinary research consortium was created in 1997 in honor of the late Hamilton Fish IV, a long-time member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York state who advocated joint research to eradicate school violence.

“Juvenile justice and the well being of young people were issues close to his heart,” says Beverly Caffee Glenn, who has directed the institute since 2002. The institute works with a research consortium of eight universities to research, develop, and test violence prevention strategies in schools across the country.

“We strive to transfer research into practice,” says Glenn, whose group works closely with D.C. Public Schools to keep students safe. The institute hosts an annual national conference, where some of the nation’s foremost experts on school violence gather to discuss the latest methods for curbing school violence and implementing innovative programs of prevention.

While there’s no ironclad recipe for success, Glenn says that a number of strategies do help prevent violence. “It’s important that schools implement clear, concise, fair rules that apply to everybody,” she says. Strong anti-bullying policies are vital, along with an environment that fosters engagement with the school community.
“Our research has found that investing in after-school programs in the humanities, arts, music, drama, and other emotional outlets for young people plays an important role, as does mentoring and engaging in rigorous academic pursuits regardless of ability,” she says. “We also know that safe schools enroll 500 students or less, since teachers in small schools know all of the kids by name. Large schools can easily be split into houses, schools within schools, grade-level academies, special programs, and teams of 500 students or less. It’s not an impossibility.”

Glenn notes that violence decreases when young people are emotionally and intellectually attached to the adults who run the schools, as well as when adults are around at home for kids to talk to. “Kids who are on their own for hours each day after school are the most likely to get into trouble,” she says. “When kids have activities to engage in and positive role models to interact with, they develop pro-social, rather than anti-social, skills.”

As the institute heads into its 10th year, Glenn is quick to state that school violence is not as rampant as headlines might suggest. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that less than 1 percent of violence committed against young people occurs in school, so despite recent headlines, school is still the safest place to be,” she concludes.

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