The ability of teachers to educate, Devine suggested, is likely to be undermined by the persistent focus on crime.

Devine argued that it is wrong to think only of creating safe schools. Administrators should think about creating safe school systems. While it is true that in some ways individual schools are unique, schools are interconnected in complex ways. How one school responds to disorder, crime, and violence affects other schools. For example, when a small alternative school is created in a neighborhood in which school crime has been a problem, it may skim off the neighborhood’s best students. In this way, alternative schools may isolate and marginalize larger schools and increase the concentration of students in those schools who do not perform well academically, which may in turn affect the incidence of school crime.

Schools have instituted numerous programs designed to address issues of school safety. These programs include disciplinary procedures (e.g., expulsion, suspension), programs of classroom instruction, behavior management, counseling, mentoring, recreation, classroom management, intergroup relations, parenting, security, and architectural arrangements. Only a handful of school-based programs have received the types of careful evaluation that would justify a conclusion that they are effective in reducing crimes (Gottfredson, 1997). For the most part, programs that merely provide leisure activities have been found ineffective as crime prevention measures. Programs that encouraged school problem solving, clear specification of school norms, and improved classroom management appear promising in prevention of crime. Evidence regarding their impact on education is mixed. Workshop participants knew of no credible evidence about the impact of security devices or security patrols on education.