Making Schools Safer and/or Escalating Disciplinary Response: A Study of Police Officers in North Carolina Schools

Abstract

The “defund the police” movement has recently called for the removal of police—or school resource officers (SROs)—from schools. This call is driven by concerns that SROs may heighten student contact with criminal justice or lead to disproportionately harsh disciplinary consequences. This study uses linked disciplinary, academic, juvenile justice, and adult conviction data from North Carolina to estimate the effects of middle school SROs on a variety of student outcomes. Our findings indicate that SROs not only decrease the incidence of serious violence but also increase the use of out-of-school suspensions, transfers, expulsions, and police referrals. This study provides new insights into the effects of police in schools and implies new directions for policies, training, and accountability.

Keywords

middle schools disparities educational policy law/legal econometric analysis policy analysis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allison

P. D.

Waterman

R. P.

(2002). Fixed-effects negative binomial regression models. Sociological Methodology, 32(1), 247–265.

Anderson

K. A.

(2018). Policing and middle school: An evaluation of a statewide school resource officer policy. Middle Grades Review, 4(2), Article 7.

Anyon

Zhang

Hazel

(2016). Race, exclusionary discipline, and connectedness to adults in secondary schools. American Journal of Community Psychology, 57(3–4), 342–352.

Bacher-Hicks

Billings

S. B.

Deming

D. J.

(2019). The school to prison pipeline: Long-run impacts of school suspensions on adult crime (NBER Working Paper No. 26257). https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w26257/w26257.pdf

Balfanz

Herzog

Mac Iver

D. J.

(2007). Preventing student disengagement and keeping students on the graduation path in urban middle-grades schools: Early identification and effective interventions. Educational Psychologist, 42, 4223–4235.

Barnes

L. M.

(2008). Policing the schools: An evaluation of the North Carolina school resource officer program [Dissertation]. Proquest LLC.

The Best Schools. (2020, March 23). Cops in schools: Have we built a school-to-prison pipeline. https://thebestschools.org/magazine/cops-schools-built-school-prison-pipeline/

Brown

Benedict

W. R.

(2005). Classroom cops, what do the students think? A case study of student perceptions of school police and security officers conducted in an Hispanic community. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 7(4), 264–285.

Chavez

(2020, June 28). A movement to push police out of schools is growing nationwide. Here is why. Digital CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/28/us/police-out-of-schools-movement/index.html

10.

Childress

(2016, June 28). The problem with “broken windows” policing. PBS Frontline. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-problem-with-broken-windows-policing/

11.

Cook

P. J.

Gottfredson

D. C.

(2010). School crime control and prevention. Crime and Justice, 39(1), 313–440.

12.

Cooper

Beatty

(2006). Keeping North Carolina schools safe and secure. North Carolina Departments of Justice and Crime Control and Public Safety.

13.

Curran

Viano

Kupchik

Fisher

B. W.

(2021). Interactions with school resource officers predict students’ likelihood of being disciplined and feelings of safety? Mixed-methods evidence from two school districts. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373720985904

14.

Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention—Center for the Prevention of School Violence. (2010). Annual school resource officer census 2008-2009. https://files.nc.gov/ncdps/div/JJ/SRO_Census_08_09.pdf

15.

Executive Office of the President. (2016). Report: The continuing need to rethink discipline. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED575980.pdf

16.

Fagan

Davies

(2000). Street stops and broken windows: Terry, race, and disorder in New York City. Fordham Urban Law Journal, 28, 457.

17.

Fisher

Hennessy

(2016). School resource officers and exclusionary discipline in U.S. High Schools: A Systematic review and meta-analysis. Adolescent Research Review, 1, 217–233.

18.

Girvan

E. J.

Gion

McIntosh

Smolkowski

(2017). The relative contribution of subjective office referrals to racial disproportionality in school discipline. School Psychology Quarterly, 32(3), 392–404.

19.

Goldstein

(2020, June 12). Do police officers make schools safer or more dangerous? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/schools-police-resource-officers.html

20.

Goodman-Bacon

(2018). Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing (No. w25018). National Bureau of Economic Research.

21.

Gottfredson

D. C.

Crosse

Tang

Bauer

E. L.

Harmon

M. A.

Hagen

C. A.

Greene

(2020). Effects of school resource officers on school crime and responses to school crime. Criminology & Public Policy, 19, 905–940.

22.

Harcourt

B. E.

Ludwig

. (2006). Broken windows: New evidence from New York City and a five-city social experiment. The University of Chicago Law Review, 73(1), 271–320.

23.

Harper

Ryberg

Temkin

(2019). Black students and students with disabilities remain more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions, despite overall declines. Child Trends.

24.

Heitzeg

N. A.

(2009). Education or incarceration: Zero tolerance policies and the school to prison pipeline. In Forum on public policy online (Vol. 2009, No. 2). Oxford Round Table. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ870076.pdf

25.

Hirschfield

P. J.

(2008). Preparing for prison? The criminalization of school discipline in the USA. Theoretical Criminology, 12(1), 79–101.

26.

James

McCallion

(2013). School resource officers: Law enforcement officers in schools. Congressional Research Service.

27.

Kaymenetz

(2018, December 17). Suspensions are down in U.S. schools but large racial gaps remain. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2018/12/17/677508707/suspensions-are-down-in-u-s-schools-but-large-racial-gaps-remain#:~:text=The%20proportion%20of%20all%20students,of%20the%20biggest%2Dpopulation%20states

28.

Kelling

Coles

(1996). Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. Martin Kessler Books.

29.

Kupchik

(2010). Homeroom security: School discipline in an age of fear. New York University Press.

30.

Kupchik

Curran

F. C.

Fisher

B. W.

Viano

S. L.

(2020). Police ambassadors: Student-police interactions in school and legal socialization. Law & Society Review, 54(2), 391–422.

31.

Langberg

Robinson

(2015). A guide to juvenile court for youth & parents in North Carolina. Youth Justice North Carolina. https://www.dconc.gov/home/showdocument?id=11955

32.

Lee

(2015, July 14). Chokeholds, brain injuries, beatings: When school cops go bad. Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/police-school-resource-officers-k-12-misconduct-violence/

33.

Losen

D. J.

Hodson

C. L.

Keith

M. A.

II Morrison

Belway

(2015). Are we closing the school discipline gap? The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2t36g571

34.

May

D. C.

Barranco

Stokes

Robertson

A. A.

Haynes

S. H.

(2018). Do school resource officers really refer juveniles to the juvenile justice system for less serious offenses? Criminal Justice Policy Review, 29(1), 89–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403415610167

35.

May

D. C.

Fessel

Means

(2004). Predictors of principal’s perceptions of school resource officer effectiveness in Kentucky. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 29, 75–93.

36.

Gottfredson

D. C.

(2011). Police officers in schools: Effects on school crime and the processing of offending behaviors. Justice Quarterly, 30(4), 1–32.

37.

Nance

J. P.

(2016). Students, police, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Washington University Law Review, 93, 919–987.

38.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). Proactive policing: Effects on crime and communities. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/24928

39.

National Association of School Resource Officers. (2012). To protect and educate: The school resource officer and the prevention of violence in schools.

40.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Indicators of school crime and safety. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/index.asp

41.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). School crime and safety. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cld.asp

42.

National Research Council. (2004). Fairness and effectiveness in policing: The evidence. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/10419

43.

National Research Council. (2013). Reforming juvenile justice: A developmental approach. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/14685

44.

New York Times Editorial Board. (2013, April 18). Criminalizing children at school. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/opinion/criminalizing-children-at-school.html

45.

Nolan

(2011). Police in the hallways: Discipline in an urban high school. The University of Minnesota Press.

46.

North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2007). 2007 annual report.

47.

North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2009). 2009 annual report.

48.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2019). Statistical briefing book: Juvenile arrest rate trends. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/jar_display.asp

49.

Osher

Bear

G. B.

Sprague

J. R.

Doyle

(2010). How can we improve school discipline? Educational Researcher, 39(1), 48–58.

50.

Owens

(2017). Testing the school-to-prison pipeline. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 36(1), 11–37.

51.

Pentek

Eisenberg

(2018). School resource officers, safety and discipline: Perceptions and experiences across racial/ethnic groups in Minnesota secondary schools. Children and Youth Services Review, 88, 141–148.

52.

Pittsburgh Board of Directors. (2020). Reimagine school safety in Pittsburgh public schools resolution. https://go.boarddocs.com/pa/pghboe/Board.nsf/files/BTRKGU51DAF5/%24file/Amended_Reimagine%20School%20Safety%20in%20Pittsburgh%20Public%20Schools_Clean%20Version_Final.pdf

53.

President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. (2015). Final report of the President’s task force on 21st century policing. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

54.

Public Schools of North Carolina. (2020). Consolidated data report, 2018-2019, report to the North Carolina General Assembly. State Board of Education, Department of Public Instruction.

55.

Ramey

(2015). The social structure of criminalized and medicalized school discipline. Sociology of Education, 88(3), 181–201.

56.

Raymond

(2010). Assigning police officers to schools. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

57.

Sabol

Johnson

Caccavale

(2019). Trends in correctional control by race and sex. Council on Criminal Justice.

58.

Sharkey

(2020, June 12). Why do we need the police? The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/12/defund-police-violent-crime/?arc404=true

59.

Skiba

R. J.

Arredondo

Williams

(2014). More than a metaphor: The contribution of exclusionary discipline to a school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 546–564.

60.

Skogan

W. G.

(2006). Advocate: The promise of community policing. In Weisburd

Braga

(Eds.), Police innovation: Contrasting perspectives (pp. 27–43). Cambridge University Press.

61.

Sorensen

L. C.

Bushway

S. D.

Gifford

E. J.

(2021). Getting tough? The effects of discretionary principal discipline on student outcomes. Education Finance and Policy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp_a_00341

62.

Steinberg

M. P.

Lacoe

(2017). What do we know about school discipline reform? Assessing the alternatives to suspensions and expulsions. Education Next, 17(1), 44–53.

63.

Theriot

M. T.

(2009). School resource officers and the criminalization of student behavior. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(3), 280–287.

64.

Theriot

M. T.

(2016). The impact of school resource officer interaction on student’s feelings about school and school police. Crime and Delinquency, 62, 446–469.

65.

Theriot

M. T.

Orme

J. G.

(2016). School resource officers and students’ feelings of safety at school. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 14(2), 130–146.

66.

Thurau

L. H.

Wald

(2009). Controlling partners: When law enforcement meets discipline in public schools. The New York Law School Law Review, 54, 977.

67.

Valdebenito

Eisner

Farrington

D. P.

Ttofi

M. M.

Sutherland

(2019). What can we do to reduce disciplinary school exclusion? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 9, 1–35.

68.

Weisburst

E. K.

(2019). Patrolling public schools: The impact of funding for school police on student discipline and long-term education outcomes. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 38(2), 338–365.

69.

Wilson

J. Q.

Kelling

G. L.

(1982, March). Broken windows. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/03/broken-windows/304465/

70.

Wolf

K. C.

(2014). Arrest decision making by school resource officers. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 12(2), 137–151.

71.

Zhang

(2019). The effects of a school policing program on crime, discipline, and disorder: A quasi-experimental evaluation. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 44, 45–62.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

14.05 MB