NCJ Number
74395
Date Published
1980
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Highlighting the school's social network and the connections between the school and other community groups, this article presents suggestions for strengthening intra-community social organization.
Abstract
A salient feature of any school's social network is its extensive influence through its formal ties with virtually every single young person in the community. In the socialization network, the school is second in power only to the family. School staff are in a position to initiate most outside contact, and can facilitate or inhibit access to youth by other socialization agencies. Yet, there is little interaction between the school and other social agencies. School personnel tend to neglect inadequately socialized delinquents because they are difficult to teach. Community organizations also encounter serious problems in trying to aid errant juveniles. Because of serious discrepancies that arise between original goals and actual behavior in many community programs directed at delinquency, the development of linkages or contacts between community agencies should be examined. Specific ways to increase community-school linkage are to use school space for community social organizations, house crisis centers within school walls, develop formal linkages between the school and other community organizations, and encourage informal interorganizational ties at the middle level of the organization. Other ways for schools to create more elaborate social networks are increasing their involvement in recreation, offering guidance on media policies, expanding liaison with community organizations, and reducing negative influences (e.g., unofficial collusion between the police and the school staff). One advantage of such social networks is that pressure is taken off the schools and responsibility becomes diffused throughout the community. Also, new possibilities emerge for introducing change into school-community relationships. Four research notes are provided.