Maximum Security: The Culture of Violence in Inner-City Schools

Escalations in student violence continue throughout the American nation, but inner-city schools are the hardest hit, with classrooms and corridors infected by the anger, aggression, and criminality endemic to street life. Technological surveillance, security personnel, and paramilitary control tactics to maintain order and safety are the common administrative response. Based on years of frontline experience in New York's inner-city schools, this text seeks to demonstrate that such policing strategies are not only ineffectual, they divorce students and teachers from their ethical and behavioural responsibilities.