Three Temple University professors, all nationally recognized experts on juvenile violence, are available to discuss yesterday's shooting at a high school in Santee, Calif.
"This kid appears to fit all the protocols I've been talking about in my research," says Temple psychology professor Irwin Hyman, author of Dangerous Schools. "Now they want to try him as an adult, but where were the adults when he was being bullied and traumatized all these years." A past president of the American Academy of School Psychology, Hyman has developed the Student Alienation and Trauma Scale as a way of measuring a child's propensity for violence. "We can't predict this kind of thing for sure but there are indicators to look for," he says. Hyman is director of the National Center for Study of Corporal Punishment and Alternatives at Temple.
Temple psychologist Laurence Steinberg is the director of the MacArthur Foundation's Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice, a group of researchers looking at child-development issues and criminal culpability. A nationally recognized authority on adolescent violence and behavior, Steinberg appeared before a congressional committee on youth violence in March 1999. He is the author of several books including You and Your Adolescent: A Parents' Guide to Ages 10 to 20.
Temple criminal justice professor Joan McCord is a nationally acclaimed researcher of juvenile delinquency. McCord has extensively studied children at risk for criminal behavior, crime and heredity, and families with criminal fathers. McCord has examined the causes of juvenile behavior, parental conflict, alcoholism and aggression in families. She has also researched the relationship between adolescent crime and impulsivity, egocentrism, poverty and maleness. She can shed light on the issue of child violence and offer some solutions to the problems.
To contact Temple's experts, call the Office of News and Media Relations, 215-204-7476.
bf-359***March 6, 2001