SCHOOL VIOLENCE IN HANOI, VIETNAM

Abstract

School violence has become a very hot topic in Vietnam in recent years thanks to regular news of serious fights among students which resulted in permanent injury or even death. Deploying an eight-month participant observation at a high school in Hanoi, together with a self-reported survey with about 600 students from three high schools, and semi-structured interviews with students, their parents and teachers, this study investigated how students resorted to violence, and how social control and differential association related to their resort to violence. Results supported Sutherland?s theory in that association with aggressive peers and over-exposure to violent pattern positively related to students? involvement in violence, and supported Hirschi?s theory in that students? bond to their family restrained their resort to violence. This study also discovered some important trends in the way students used violence, namely imaginary violence, network of violence, and subculture of violence.