If you haven't visited the Hamilton Fish Institute Web site lately, you're in for a treat. Just about everything is new or improved at www.hamfish.org.

Denny Shimkoski, HFI's Webmaster and Network Administrator, has been working hard with staff to redesign the Institute's Web site. In addition to a new user-friendly graphic interface that includes drop-down menus for more direct access to information, much of the content has been reorganized and updated.

Two of the Institute's research assistants, Leah Zak and Shavon Walker, have also been hard at work developing topical utilities within the site. A description of these new features follows.

Chronology of Gun Violence and Other Serious Assaults in Schools

Located on the Institute's Web site at http://hamfish.org/chronology/, the "Chronology of Gun Violence and Other Serious Assaults in Schools" is a resource of chronological information about serious violent events that have occurred in schools. Searchable by state, year, and season, these summaries were compiled from newspaper articles published at the time of the events and, in some cases, after the trials of the accused perpetrators. Though complete information on the incidents was not always available, an attempt was made to capture a synopsis of the incident, including aspects such as possible precipitators of the violence, characteristics, motives, outcomes, and other contributing factors.
School Violence Measures
"School Violence Measures" is located at http://hamfish.org/measures/. This document is a compendium of surveys, instruments, and other

approaches that have been used to assess youth violence and closely related phenomena. A broad range of assessments of interest to those involved in preventing youth violence is presented.

State Level Data and Trends

Located at http://hamfish.org/data/state/, The "State Level Data and Trends" project provides data and resources for each state within the United States. Most often national statistics on crime and violence are readily available from a variety of sources; meanwhile, it tends to be more cumbersome to gather similar kinds of information at the state level. One of our goals at the Hamilton Fish Institute is to provide a comprehensive pool of information on current status of crime, children, poverty, violence, school-related phenomenon, to name a few, in each state.

Award-winning Content

In March 2002, the Institute's Web site was awarded a four-star rating by the Tufts University Child & Family WebGuide. Created by the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, the WebGuide identifies, describes and evaluates Web sites that contain the most credible child development information available. According to Tufts, "Only a small percentage of sites pass our rigorous screening process. The Hamilton Fish Institute is now part of this elite group."

Our Commitment to Service

The Hamilton Fish Institute staff are committed to continue bringing you information on topics you care about within the field of school violence prevention. If you have suggestions for ways we can improve the Web site, please contact us at (202) 496-2200 or e-mail aliseal@aol.com. We welcome your comments.

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