Scope of the Research

Abstract

Our aims are to understand and predict school disorder so that we may suggest to policymakers and administrators a promising set of practical strategies to cope with delinquency and disruption in schools, and to find more efficient ways to prevent dilinquency in general. This book describes progress toward our goal by summarizing some ecological analyses of natural variations in the rates of disruptive behavior across schools. We seek to learn about the social behavior of human aggregates and the ways in which these behaviors are influenced by the characteristics of the broader community, the social composition of schools, and by specific practices and climates of the institutions involved. In contrast to most research on youth development or delinquency, the present research takes the school (not the individual person) as the unit of analysis.

It is the social body which forms the objects of our researches, and not the peculiarites distinguishing the individuals composing it.

—Quetelet (1842/1969, p. 7)