Drawing on the racial threat and intergroup contact literatures, we explore whether (1) a school’s racial or ethnic context increases school suspensions for Black, Hispanic, and White students; (2) intergroup contact among school board members reduces school suspensions for Black, Hispanic, and White students; and (3) a school’s racial or ethnic context effects on school suspensions are conditioned by intergroup contact among school board members.
Method:
Count-dependent multilevel modeling techniques on school- and district-level measures from a representative sample of Florida middle and high schools.
Results:
Larger racial and ethnic student populations within schools increase the likelihood of suspensions for Black and Hispanic students while decreasing suspensions for White students. Further, higher levels of intergroup contact between Black, White, and Hispanic school board members are associated with a lower likelihood of suspensions for all students. Finally, intergroup contact between Black, White, and Hispanic school board members moderates the effects of school racial and ethnic context on school suspensions.
Conclusions:
Important factors are associated with school punishment for Black, Hispanic, and White students. Integrated spaces play an important role in decreasing both punishment disparities and punishment severity.
AllportGordon W.1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.
2.
ArumRichardBeattieIrenee R.. 1999. “High School Experience and the Risk of Adult Incarceration.” Criminology37:515–40.
3.
BankstonCarl L.IIICaldasStephen J.. 1996. “Majority African American Schools and Social Injustice: The Influence of De Facto Segregation on Academic Achievement.” Social Forces75:535–55.
4.
BankstonCarl L.IIICaldasStephen J.. 2000. “White Enrollment in Nonpublic Schools, Public School Racial Composition, and Student Performance.” The Sociological Quarterly41:539–50.
5.
BarkanSteven E.CohnSteven F.. 2005. “Why Whites Favor Spending More Money to Fight Crime: The Role of Racial Prejudice.” Social Problems52:300–14.
6.
BatesLittisha A.GlickJennifer E.. 2013. “Does It Matter if Teachers and Schools Match the Student? Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Problem Behaviors.” Social Science Research5:1180–90.
7.
BegerRandall R.2002. “Expansion of Police Power in Public Schools and the Vanishing Rights of Students.” Social Justice29:119-30.
8.
BlackDonald. 2010. The Behavior of Law. Seattle, WA: Emerald Group.
9.
BlalockHubert. 1967. Towards a Theory of Minority Group Relations. New York: Capricorn Books.
10.
BontragerStephanieBalesWilliamChiricosTed. 2005. “Race, Ethnicity, Threat and the Labeling of Convicted Felons. Criminology43:589–622.
11.
BraddockJomills H.1980. “The Perpetuation of Segregation across Levels of Education: A Behavioral Assessment of the Contact Hypothesis.” Sociology of Education53:178–86.
12.
BrooksKimSchiraldiVincentZiedenbergJason. 1999. School House Hype: Two Years Later. San Francisco, CA: Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
13.
BrownLionel H.BeckettKelvin S.. 2006. “The Role of the School District in Student Discipline: Building Consensus in Cincinnati.” The Urban Review38:235-56.
14.
CaldasStephen J.BankstonCarlIII. 1998. “The Inequality of Separation: Racial Composition of Schools and Academic Achievement.” Educational Administration Quarterly34:533–57.
15.
CaravelisCyndyChiricosTedBalesWilliam. 2011. “Static and Dynamic Indicators of Minority Threat in Sentencing Outcomes: A Multi-level Analysis.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology27:405–25.
16.
ChamlinMitchell B.1989. “Conflict Theory and Police Killings.” Deviant Behavior10:353–68.
17.
ChiricosTedHoganMichaelGertzMarc. 1997. “Racial Composition of Neighborhood and Fear of Crime.” Criminology35:107-31.
18.
ChiricosTedMcEntireRaneeGertzMarc. 2001. “Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime.” Social Problems48:322–40.
19.
CookStuart W.1984. “Cooperative Interaction in Multiethnic Contexts.” Pp. 155–85 in Groups in Contact: The Psychology of Desegregation, edited byMillerN.BrewerM. B.. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
20.
DemuthStephenSteffensmeierDarrell. 2004. “Impact of Gender and Race-ethnicity in the Pretrial Release Process.” Social Problems51:222–42.
21.
DeVoeJill F.PeterKatharinNoonanMargaretSnyderThomas D.BaumKatrina. 2005. Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005. Washington, DC: U.S. Departments of Education and Justice.
22.
DixonJeffrey C.2006. “The Ties that Bind and Those that Don’t: Toward Reconciling Group Threat and Contact Theories of Prejudice.” Social Forces84:2179–204.
23.
DixonJohnDurrheimKevin. 2003. “Contact and the Ecology of Racial Division: Some Varieties of Informal Segregation.” British Journal of Social Psychology42:1–23.
24.
DowneyDouglas B.PribeshShana. 2004. “When Race Matters: Teachers’ Evaluations of Students’ Classroom Behavior.” Sociology of Education77:267–82.
25.
EitleDavidMonahanSusanne. 2009. “Revisiting the Racial Threat Thesis: The Role of Police Organizational Characteristics in Predicting Race-specific Drug Arrest Rates.” Justice Quarterly26:528–61.
26.
EllisonChristopher G.PowersDaniel A.. 1994. “The Contact Hypothesis and Racial Attitudes among Black Americans.” Social Science Quarterly75:385–400.
27.
EllisonChristopher G.ShinHeejuLealDavid L.. 2011. “The Contact Hypothesis and Attitudes toward Latinos in the United States.” Social Science Quarterly92:938–58.
28.
FarleyJohn E.1984. “P* Segregation Indices: What Can They Tell Us about Housing Segregation in 1980?” Urban Studies21:331–36.
29.
FeldmeyerBenUlmerJeffery T.. 2011. “Racial/Ethnic Threat and Federal Sentencing.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency48:238–70.
30.
FeldmeyerBenWarrenPatricia Y.SiennickSonja E.NeptuneMalisa. 2015. “Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Threat: Is There a New Criminal Threat on State Sentencing?” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency52:62–92.
31.
FeliceLawrence G.1981. “Black Student Dropout Behavior: Disengagement from School Rejection and Racial Discrimination.” Journal of Negro Education50:415–24.
32.
FenningPamelaTherese PigottK.EnglerElizabethBradshawKatieGamboneyElizabethGrunewaldStephanieHaqueTamanna. 2013. “A Mixed Methods Approach Examining Disproportionality in School Discipline.” Closing the School Discipline Gap: Research to Practice Conference, Washington, DC.
33.
FergusonAnn A.2000. Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
34.
FinnJeremy D.ServossTimothy J.. 2013. “Misbehavior, Suspensions, and Security Measures in High School: Racial/Ethnic and Gender Differences.” Closing the School Discipline Gap: Research to Practice Conference, Washington, DC.
35.
FitzpatrickKevin M.HwangSean-Shong. 1992. “The Effects of Community Structure on Opportunities for Interracial Contact: Extending Blau’s Macrostructural Theory.” Sociological Quarterly33:51–61.
36.
GirouxHenry A.2003. “Racial Injustice and Disposable Youth in the Age of Zero Tolerance.” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education16:553-65.
37.
GottfredsonDenise C.2001. Schools and Delinquency. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
38.
GottfredsonGary D.GottfredsonDenise C.. 2001. “What Schools Do to Prevent Problem Behavior and Promote Safe Environments.” Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation12:313-44.
39.
GottfredsonGary D.GottfredsonDenise C.PayneAllison AnnGottfredsonNisha C.. 2005. “School Climate Predictors of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency42:412–44.
40.
GregoryAnneWeinsteinRhona S.. 2008. “The Discipline Gap and African Americans: Defiance or Cooperation in the High School Classroom.” Journal of School Psychology46:455-75.
41.
HilbeJoseph M.2011. Negative Binomial Regression. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
42.
HirschfieldPaul J.2008. “Preparing for Prison? The Criminalization of School Discipline in the USA.” Theoretical Criminology12:79–101.
43.
HoffmanStephen. 2014. “Zero Benefit: Estimating the Effect of Zero Tolerance Discipline Policies on Racial Disparities in School Discipline.” Educational Policy28:69–95.
44.
HolmesMalcolm D.SmithBrad W.FrengAdrienne B.MunozEd A.. 2008. “Minority Threat, Crime Control, and Police Resource Allocation in the Southwestern United States.” Crime & Delinquency54:128–52.
45.
IrwinK.DavidsonJanetHall-SanchezAmanda. 2013. “The Race to Punish in American Schools: Class and Race Predictors of Punitive School-crime Control.” Critical Criminology21:47–71.
46.
JacobsDavidKlebanRichard. 2003. “Political Institutions, Minorities, and Punishment: A Pooled Cross-national Analysis of Imprisonment Rates.” Social Forces82:725–55.
47.
JohnsonBrian D.StewartEric A.PickettJustinGertzMarc. 2011. “Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment.” Criminology49:401–41.
48.
KafkaJudith. 2008. ““Sitting on a Tinderbox”: Racial Conflict, Teacher Discretion, and the Centralization of Disciplinary Authority.” American Journal of Education114:247–70.
49.
KafkaJudith. 2011. The History of “Zero Tolerance” in American Public Schooling. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
50.
KeenBradleyJacobsDavid. 2009. “Racial Threat, Partisan Politics, and Prison Admissions.” Criminology47:209–38.
51.
KentStephanie L.JacobsDavid. 2004. “Social Divisions and Coercive Control in Advanced Societies: Law Enforcement Strength in Eleven Nations from 1975 to 1994.” Social Problems51:343-61.
52.
KentStephanie L.JacobsDavid. 2005. “Minority Threat and Police Strength from 1980 to 2000: A Fixed-effects Analysis of Nonlinear and Interactive Effects in Large US Cities.” Criminology43:731–60.
53.
KingRyan D.WheelockDarren. 2007. “Group Threat and Social Control: Race, Perceptions of Minorities and the Desire to Punish.” Social Forces85:1255–80.
54.
KlugmanJoshuaLeeJennifer C.NelsonShelley L.. 2012. “School Co-ethnicity and Hispanic Parental Involvement.” Social Science Research41:1320–37.
55.
KreftItaLeeuwJan De. 1999. Introducing Multilevel Modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
56.
KupchikAaronEllisNicholas. 2008. “School Discipline and Security: Fair for All Students.” Youth & Society39:549-74.
57.
KupchikAaronMonahanTorin. 2006. “The New American School: Preparation for Post-industrial Discipline.” British Journal of Sociology of Education5:617-31.
58.
KupchikAaronWardGeoff. 2013. “Race, Poverty, and Exclusionary School Security: An Empirical Analysis of US Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice12:332–54.
59.
LaFreeGaryArumRichard. 2006. “The Impact of Racially Inclusive Schooling on Adult Incarceration Rates among U.S. Cohorts of African Americans and Whites since 1930.” Criminology44:73–103.
60.
LiebersonStanleyCarterDonna K.. 1982. “Temporal Changes and Urban Differences in Residential Segregation: A Reconsideration.” American Journal of Sociology88:296–310.
61.
LiskaAllen E.1992. Social Threat and Social Control. Albany: State University of New York Press.
62.
LoganJohn. 2001. “Ethnic Diversity Grows, Neighborhood Integration is at a Standstill.” Report by the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research,SUNY, Albany, NY.
63.
LongJ. Scott. 1997. Regression Models for Limited and Categorical Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
64.
LosenDaniel J.GillespieJonathan. 2012. Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School. Los Angeles, CA: The Center for Civil Rights Remedies.
65.
LosenDaniel J.MartinezTia Elena. 2013. Out of School and Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools. Los Angeles, CA: The UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the Civil Rights Project.
66.
ManciniChristinaMearsDaniel P.StewartEric A.BeaverKevin M.PickettJustin T.. 2012. “Whites’ Perceptions about Black Criminality: A Closer Look at the Contact Hypothesis.” Crime & Delinquency61:996–1022.
67.
MasseyDouglas S.DentonNancy A.. 1987. “Trends in the Residential Segregation of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians: 1970-1980.” American Sociological Review52:802–25.
68.
MasseyDouglas S.DentonNancy A.. 1988. “The Dimensions of Residential Segregation.” Social Forces67:281–315.
69.
MasseyDouglas S.DentonNancy A.. 1989. “Hypersegregation in US Metropolitan Areas: Black and Hispanic Segregation along Five Dimensions.” Demography26:373–91.
70.
MauerMarc. 2006. Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press.
71.
McCarthyJohn D.HogeDean R.. 1987. “The Social Construction of School Punishment: Racial Disadvantage out of Universalistic Process.” Social Forces65:1101-20.
72.
McLarenLauren M.2003. “Anti-immigrant Prejudice in Europe: Contact, Threat Perception, and Preferences for the Exclusion of Migrants.” Social Forces81:909–36.
73.
MearsDaniel P.PickettJustinGoldenKristinChiricosTedGertzMarc. 2013. “The Effect of Interracial Contact on Whites’ Perceptions of Victimization Risk and Black Criminality.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency50:272–99.
74.
MosherClayton. 2001. “Predicting Drug Arrest Rates: Conflict and Social Disorganization Perspectives.” Crime & Delinquency47:84–104.
75.
NaChongminGottfredsonDenise C.. 2013. “Police Officers in Schools: Effects on School Crime and the Processing of Offending Behaviors.” Justice Quarterly30:619–50.
76.
NicholsJoe D.2004. “An Exploration of Discipline and Suspension Data. The Journal of Negro Education73:408-23.
77.
NogueraPedro A.2003. “The Trouble with Black Boys: The Role and Influence of Environmental and Cultural Factors on the Academic Performance of African American Males.” Urban Education38:431-59.
78.
NogueraPedro A.2008. The Trouble with Black Boys…and Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
79.
OuseyGraham C.UnneverJames D.. 2012. “Racial-ethnic Threat, Out-group Intolerance, and Support for Punishing Criminals: A Cross-national Study.” Criminology50:565–603.
80.
ParkerKaren F.StultsBrian J.RiceStephen K.. 2005. “Racial Threat, Concentrated Disadvantage and Social Control: Considering the Macro-level Sources of Variation in Arrests.” Criminology43:1111–34.
81.
PayneAllison AnnGottfredsonDenise C.GottfredsonGary D.. 2003. “Schools as Communities: The Relationships among Communal School Organization, Student Bonding, and School Disorder.” Criminology41:749–78.
82.
PayneAllison AnnWelchKelly. 2010. “Modeling the Effects of Racial Threat on Punitive and Restorative School Discipline Practices.” Criminology48:1019–62.
83.
PayneAllison AnnWelchKelly. 2013. “Restorative Justice in Schools: The Influence of Race on Restorative Discipline.” Youth & Society47:539–564.
84.
PerryBrea L.MorrisEdward W.. 2014. “Suspending Progress: Collateral Consequences of Exclusionary Punishment in Public Schools.” American Sociological Review79:1067–87.
85.
PetersonRuth D.KrivoLauren J.. 1993. “Racial Segregation and Black Urban Homicide.” Social Forces71:1001–26.
86.
PetrocelliMatthewPiqueroAlex R.SmithMichael R.. 2003. “Conflict Theory and Racial Profiling: An Empirical Analysis of Police Traffic Stop Data.” Journal of Criminal Justice31:1–11.
87.
PettigrewThomas F.1997. “Generalized Intergroup Contact Effects on Prejudice.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin23:173–85.
88.
PettigrewThomas F.1998. “Intergroup Contact Theory.” Annual Review of Psychology49:65–85.
89.
PettigrewThomas F.TroppLinda R.. 2006. “A Meta-analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology90:751–83.
90.
PettitBeckyWesternBruce. 2004. “Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course: Race and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration.” American Sociological Review69:151-69.
91.
PickettJustin T.2016. “On the Social Foundations for Crimmigration: Latino Threat and Support for Expanded Police Powers.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology32:103–32.
92.
PowersDaniel A.EllisonChristopher G.. 1995. “Interracial Contact and Black Racial Attitudes: The Contact Hypothesis and Selectivity Bias.” Social Forces74:205–26.
93.
Raffaele-MendezLinda M.KnoffHoward M.FerronJohn M.. 2002. “School Demographic Variables and Out-of-school Suspension Rates: A Quantitative Analysis of a Large, Ethnically Diverse School District.” Psychology in Schools39:259-77.
94.
RaudenbushStephen W.BrykAnthony S.. 2002. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
95.
RocqueMichaelPaternosterRaymond. 2011. “Understanding the Antecedents of the School-to-jail’ Link: The Relationship between Race and School Discipline.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology101:633–65.
96.
RountreePamela W.LandKenneth C.MietheTerance D.. 1994. “Macro-micro Integration in the Study of Victimization: A Hierarchical Logistic Model Analysis of Seattle Neighborhoods.” Criminology32:387–414.
97.
RyabovIgorHookJennifer Van. 2007. “School Segregation and Academic Achievement among Hispanic Children.” Social Science Research36:767–88.
98.
SigelmanLeeWelchSusan. 1993. “The Contact Hypothesis Revisited: Black-White Interaction and Positive Racial Attitudes.” Social Forces71:781–95.
99.
SkibaRussell J.2000. Zero Tolerance, Zero Evidence: An Analysis of School Disciplinary Practice. Policy Research Report. Terre Haute: Indiana Education Policy Center.
100.
SkibaRussell J.2001. “When is Disproportionality Discrimination? The Overrepresentation of Black Students in School Suspension.” Pp. 176–87 in Zero Tolerance: Resisting the Drive for Punishment in Our Schools: A Handbook for Parents, Students, Educators, and Citizens, edited byAyersW.DohrnB.AyersR.. New York: The New Press.
101.
SkibaRussell J.HornerRobert H.ChungChoong-GeunKarega RauschM.MaySeth L.TobinTary. 2011. “Race is Not Neutral: A National Investigation of African American and Latino Disproportionality in School Discipline.” School Psychology Review40:85–107.
102.
SkibaRussell J.MichaelRobert S.NardoAbra CarrollPetersonReece L.. 2002. “The Color of Discipline: Source of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Discipline.” The Urban Review34:317-42.
103.
SkibaRussell J.PetersonReece. 1999. “The Dark Side of Zero Tolerance: Can Punishment Lead to Safe Schools.” Phi Delta Kappan80:372-82.
104.
SkibaRussell J.PetersonReece L.WilliamsTara. 1997. “Office Referrals and Suspension: Disciplinary Intervention in Middle Schools.” Education and Treatment of Children20:295-315.
105.
SlavinRobert E.1985. “Cooperative Learning: Applying Contact Theory in Desegregated Schools.” Journal of Social Issues41:45–62.
106.
SmithBrad W.HolmesMalcom D.. 2003. “Community Accountability, Minority Threat, and Police Brutality: An Examination of Civil Rights Criminal Complaints.” Criminology41:1035–64.
107.
SteffensmeierDarrellDemuthStephen. 2000. “Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More Harshly.” American Sociological Review65:705-29.
108.
SteffensmeierDarrellDemuthStephen. 2001. “Ethnicity and Judges’ Sentencing Decisions: Hispanic-Black-White Comparisons.” Criminology39:145-78.
109.
StewartEric A.MartinezRamiroBaumerEric P.GertzMarc. 2015. “The Social Context of Latino Threat and Punitive Latino Sentiment.” Social Problems62:68–92.
110.
StultsBrian J.BaumerEric P.. 2007. “Racial Context and Police Force Size: Evaluating the Empirical Validity of the Minority Threat Perspective.” American Journal of Sociology113:507–46.
111.
SumAndrewKhatiwadaIshwarMcLaughlinJoseph. 2009. The Consequences of Dropping Out of High School: Joblessness and Jailing for High School Dropouts and the High Cost for Taxpayers. Boston, MA: Center for Labor Market Studies.
112.
TaylorMarylee C.1998. “How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count.” American Sociological Review63:512-35.
113.
TownsendBrenda L.2000. “The Disproportionate Discipline of African American Learners: Reducing School Suspensions and Expulsions.” Exceptional Children66:381–91.
114.
U.S. Department of Education. 2014. Civil Rights Data Collection: Data Snapshot (School Discipline). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.
115.
van den BerghLindaDenessenEddieHornstraLisetteVoetenMarinusHollandRob W.. 2010. “The Implicit Prejudiced Attitudes of Teachers Relations to Teacher Expectations and the Ethnic Achievement Gap.” American Educational Research Journal47:497–527.
116.
VavrusFrancesColeKim Marie. 2002. ““I Didn’t Do Nothin’”: The Discursive Construction of School Suspension.” The Urban Review34:87-111.
117.
WaldJohannaLosenDaniel F.. 2003. “Defining and Redirecting a School-to-prison Pipeline.” New Directions for Youth Development2003:9–15.
118.
WangXia. 2012. “Undocumented Immigrants as Perceived Criminal Threat: A Test of the Minority Threat Perspective.” Criminology50:743–76.
119.
WangXiaMearsDaniel P.. 2010. “Examining the Direct and Interactive Effects of Changes in Racial and Ethnic Threat on Sentencing Decisions. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency47:522–57.
120.
WattsIvan E.ErevellesNirmala. 2004. “These Deadly Times: Reconceptualizing School Violence by Using Critical Race Theory and Disability Studies.” American Educational Research Journal41:271-99.
121.
WelchKelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice23:276–88.
122.
WelchKellyPayneAllison Ann. 2010. “Racial Threat and Punitive School Discipline.” Social Problems5:25–48.
123.
WelchKellyPayneAllison Ann. 2012. “Exclusionary School Punishment: The Effect of Racial Threat on Suspension and Expulsion.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice10:155–71.
124.
WelchKellyPayneAllison A.ChiricosTedGertzMarc. 2011. “The Typification of Hispanics as Criminals and Support for Punitive Crime Control Policies.” Social Science Research40:822–40.
