School Violence Association with Income and Neighborhood Safety in Brazil

Abstract

It is not entirely known if school location is an important variable influencing school interpersonal relationships in developing countries. Most studies on the subject usually have only students as informants, and do not analyze schools as a whole unit. This study compared school violence levels at three public schools in Brazil. The schools were located in contrasting neighborhoods in terms of safety and household income. Data included a questionnaire answered by a sample of 668 students and 80 school employees, and an analysis of police school violence records. Students’ answers indicated that student victimization and perpetration were not different in School A (located in the poorest neighborhood with the highest homicide level) compared to School C (located in the wealthiest neighborhood with the lowest homicide level). However, employees’ answers showed that School A had more student victimization than School B and School C. This result was also confirmed by police reports. Hypotheses for these discrepancies are discussed.