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A Study on the Predictors of School Violence Victimization by Using Opportunity Theory

This study aims at investigating crucial factors that affect the odds of school violence victimization in South Korea. It is important that school administrators, teachers, and policy makers use opportunity theory in order to explore whether exposure and proximity to offenders or presence of guardianships affect the student’s risk of being victimized in school. In this context, the current study utilizes exposure and proximity related variables: presence of gang members in school, knife or lethal weapons in school, and experience of being skipped class and runaway. In addition, this study uses five guardianship-related variables: social support or networks from (①peers, ②teachers, and ③family members), ④the fairness of school policy, and ⑤ the perception about school safety. The study employs the data collected from 11 high schools in Seoul toward 1,024 high school students from May, 10, 2012 to May, 25, 2012. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine whether the likelihoods of school violence victimization were associated with the measures of exposure and proximity and the lack of guardianship. The result of the study showed that school grading, runaway, level of social support from teachers, and the perception of school fairness are statistically significant predictors that are associated with an enhanced risk of school violence victimization while controlling for other variables. Further policy implications of the study will be discussed.