Ron Avi Astor, a professor who holds joint positions in the USC School of Social Work and USC Rossier School of Education, was given the second place distinction by the American Psychological Association's Division One 2006 William James Book Award. The accolade, which honors outstanding scientific volume in general psychology across specialty areas, was awarded to Astor along with co-author Rami Benbenishty of Hebrew University for their book School Violence in Context: Neighborhood, Family, School and Gender, published by Oxford University Press in 2005.

The William James Book Award is given to a recent book that integrates material across psychological and interdisciplinary subfields. The works were required to provide a coherent framework that stands as a creative synthesis of theory and fact from disparate areas. Normally, only one first place prize is given for the William James Book Award. However, this year the award committee stated they were so impressed by Astor's and Benbenishty's book they created, for the first time ever, a second place "honorable mention" category this year to recognize their work.

The book presents original data and analyses from 8,750 students in U.S. schools and 15,000 in Israel, while integrating diverse theories and research from several disciplines. The APA committee's news release called the book "a powerful cross-national study exposing the nature and roots of school violence," remarking that "the resulting new information is behavioral science at its best, useful to all involved parents, teachers and policy-makers in shaping public policy for effective anti-violence programs."

"For us, it's a really nice accomplishment that we are actually influencing theories in multiple disciplines such as psychology and putting forth innovative research methods that many other areas of research can use as state-of-the-art models," Astor said. "This is a great example of how social work and education as research fields can become innovators for many other theories and methods."

In addition to garnering international media attention, Astor's and Benbenishty's research has forged national municipal policy in Israel and fueled interest in research as a basis for the prevention and implementation of school violence programs. Already, laws concerning teacher education, school climate goals and special resources for vulnerable populations have emerged as a direct result of the findings. He is currently exploring similar issues in Los Angeles schools.

Astor was also recognized recently with the 2006 Distinguished Research Award from the American Educational Research Association, Division E for his co-authorship of "The Contributions of Community, Family, and School Variables to Student Victimization," published in the American Journal of Community Psychology.