Definition of campus violence

Violence is first raised as a public health problem that can lead to severe damage to health and defined by the 49th World Health Organization (1996) as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation". Chinese scholar Zhang Wang thinks that "campus violence is the behavior that takes place on and off campus and can cause physical and psychological damage to school members, including teachers and students." Researches of Yang Hongfei and others reveal that "primary and secondary school teachers and students generally regard physical assault and sexual harassment as campus violence and usually exclude verbal attack. Defining campus violence as physical assault is more acceptable to teachers than students, who are more agreeable to the definition of verbal attack, property damage and general physical punishment.” This shows that there is some disagreement on the reorganization of the definition of campus violence between teachers and students. Yao Jianlong thinks that "currently the different opinions about the definition of campus violence is overall divided into two modes, which center on “campus” and “teachers and students”, respectively. It's more appropriate to define campus violence as the behavior performed by students, teachers or outside infringers in primary and secondary schools, kindergartens and the surrounding areas within a reasonable range that causes intentional physical damage to teachers and students, property damage to schools, teachers and students and disruption in schools’ teaching, management and order.”

To sum up, campus violence can be defined as various language and behavior that takes place in and out of various schools (including kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and colleges) and results in physical and psychological damage to teachers and students, property damage and reputation damage to teachers and students and disruption in schools’ normal teaching order.