THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF PEER VIOLENCE

Abstract

Violence is a serious social problem that exists both in developed and underdeveloped countries. As a society in transition, Serbia is unfortunately not an exception, and in the last thirty years, based on objective statistical data, Serbia leads in the region regarding the rise of this social phenomenon. The subject of this research is to identify the possibilities and limits of the emergence, spreading and suppression of various manifestations of violence in schools, as well as to use the collective awareness of peer-to-peer relationships, that is, to ask students about their views on whether peer violence problem exists and what their active role in addressing it is. The goal of this research is not to identify wide-ranging effects of peer violence on society, but to promote the need to recognize peer violence as an important trigger for future social problems, and in that regard, invite schools to prepare programs to prevent violence in schools through teaching and extracurricular activities, where students would have subject positions. Based on the research results obtained, we can see that peer violence significantly affects school atmosphere and has an impact on the overall personality development of students who attend the final grade of the eight-year city school. It has been proven that a large number of surveyed students do not report violence because of fear, prejudice, conformism; however, students talk about it to their parents and teachers in private, seeking help and support. We conclude that students are not sufficiently empowered and encouraged to actively grow up in the school environment, which opens up new research questions on the ways, dynamics and readiness of the society to increase the number of preventative activities in schools.