Mijanovich Tod, Weitzman Beth C
NYU Center for Health and Public Service Research, Robert F Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, 726 Broadway, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA.
J Urban Health. 2003 Sep;80(3):400-15. doi: 10.1093/jurban/jtg045.
Young people's fears of victimization and feelings of unsafety constitute a serious and pervasive public health problem and appear to be associated with different factors than actual victimization. Our analysis of a population-based telephone survey of youths aged 10-18 years in five economically distressed cities and their suburbs reveals that a substantial minority of youths feel unsafe on any given day, and that an even greater number feel unsafe in school. While some traditional predictors of victimization (such as low socioeconomic status) were associated with feeling unsafe, perceived school disorder was the major factor associated with such feelings. Disorderliness may thus be the school's version of "broken windows," which serve to signal to students a lack of consistent adult concern and oversight that can leave them feeling unsafe. We suggest that fixing the broken windows of school disorderliness may have a significant, positive impact on adolescents' feelings of safety.
年轻人对受害的恐惧和不安全感构成了一个严重且普遍存在的公共卫生问题,而且这些恐惧和不安全感似乎与实际受害的因素不同。我们对五个经济贫困城市及其郊区10至18岁青少年进行的一项基于人口的电话调查分析显示,相当一部分少数青少年在任何一天都感到不安全,而更多的青少年在学校感到不安全。虽然一些传统的受害预测因素(如社会经济地位低)与感到不安全有关,但感知到的学校混乱是与这种感觉相关的主要因素。因此,混乱可能是学校版的“破窗效应”,它向学生表明缺乏成年人持续的关注和监督,这会让他们感到不安全。我们建议修复学校混乱的“破窗”可能会对青少年的安全感产生重大的积极影响。