The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control by Jo Deakin Emmeline Taylor & Aaron Kupchik

Author:Jo Deakin, Emmeline Taylor & Aaron Kupchik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Impact of Police in Schools on Disciplinary Outcomes

Although there is speculation and concern that police in schools will contribute to the STPP, the empirical research base examining this topic is small, and data on formal school-based disciplinary actions are limited. For example, a national database containing school-based arrests does not exist (Heitzeg 2009). Much of the existing research on the contribution of police to the STPP is based on speculation, anecdotal evidence, and descriptive statistics (Theriot 2009).

Descriptive statistics reporting on aggregate changes in rates of disciplinary actions are sometimes interpreted as evidence in support of the notion that police impact school-based arrests and removals of youth from school. Several states and cities report an increase in the number of arrests and referrals to law enforcement during the time when there was an increase in the hiring of police in schools nationally (Gonzalez 2012). In Clayton, Georgia, the number of students referred to the juvenile justice system after police were deployed in schools increased substantially (about 600%) (Gonzalez 2012). Although these statistics are consistent with a claim that deploying police officers results in an increase in arrests, more rigorous research is needed to make any causal claims. That is, even if statistics indicate an increase in certain disciplinary actions following police deployment, it is not possible to conclude that the police caused the increase without first ruling out likely alternative causes. The limited empirical research that exists reports mixed findings on the impact of police in schools on these outcomes. Additionally, many of these studies lack the scientific rigor to produce confident conclusions on the impact of police in schools on the outcomes of interest. The research summarized below is based on those studies which attempted to rule out alternative explanations for the associations between police and the outcomes of interest. However, several methodological limitations remain. Taken as a whole, the body of research linking police in schools to changes in disciplinary outcomes is weak and should be interpreted with caution.

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