Issues in K-12 School Violence in the United States

Dear Colleagues,

Laws is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal focusing on legal systems, theory, and institutions, published bimonthly online by MDPI. The journal is planning to present a Special Issue: Issues in K-12 School Violence in the United States and is inviting article submissions. This Special Issue is interested in articles that address the myriad complex issues surrounding K-12 school disturbance and violence in the United States.

Most researchers insist on combining all types of school shootings/violence incidents into one type of act and therefore one type of actor. This could not be further from the truth when examining K-12 school violence in the United States. Public mass shootings, university shootings, international shootings, and K-12 school shootings differ in a variety of ways. They have divergent catalysts, motivations, types of occurrence, and offenders. This Special Issue seeks to explore those differences.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Issues pertaining to proper response by the US Criminal Justice System to K-12 school safety
• Issues pertaining to student upon teacher violence and teacher upon student violence
• Issues pertaining to the growing number of shootings committed by children in schools
• Legal issues pertaining to juvenile crime prevention and service in a K-12 environment
• Legal issues pertaining to parental responsibility in dealing with their children in K-12 schools
• Legal issues pertaining to preventing crimes against children and by children
• Motivations underlying acts of mistreatment, crime, and violence toward children
• Potential causes of juvenile delinquency and violence in schools
• Protecting children from crime and violence in schools
• Risk assessment measures, e.g., instruments that may be used to measure offending risk
• Risk assessment measures, e.g., instruments that may be used to measure victimization risk
• Issues surrounding K-12 school disturbance and violence
• Shifting definitions of what constitutes “contributing to the delinquency of a minor”
• The general public’s understanding of crime and violence directed at children
• The news media’s representation of issues surrounding crime & violence against and by children

Please consider submitting an article for review.

Prof. Dr. Gordon Crews
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Laws is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.