scholarly journals A School-to-Prison Pipeline? Exclusionary Discipline and the Production of Delinquency

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Mittleman
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Labeling Theory ◽  
Fragile Families ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
Contextual Data ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
School Suspensions ◽  
Discipline Policies ◽  
Juvenile Arrests

There is growing concern that school discipline policies increase children’s risk of contact with the justice system, promoting a “school-to-prison pipeline.” Despite the popularity of this concern, the evidence of discipline’s impact on arrests remains limited in important ways. The current study leverages a unique combination of data sources to provide plausibly causal evidence that school suspensions mark a turning point in children’s lives, increasing their risk of later arrest. Combining fifteen years of data from the Fragile Families and Childhood Wellbeing Study with contextual data on neighborhoods and schools, I estimate that suspended children are two times more likely to experience an adolescent arrest than otherwise similar children. Although suspended children experienced significantly greater escalations in delinquency than their peers, post-suspension changes in behavior are unable to explain the association between childhood suspension and adolescent arrest. Instead, the data are consistent with a labeling theory of school sanctions, whereby suspended children face higher rates of subsequent discipline in ways that are largely unexplained by their reported behavior. At a time when juvenile arrests can permanently alter youth’s risks and opportunities, this study highlights an important mechanism by which schools shape inequality across the institutions that govern children’s lives.

U.S. Juvenile Arrests

2010 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 1407-1432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Tapia
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Labeling Theory ◽  
Gang Membership ◽  
Protective Effects ◽  
Poisson Models ◽  
Status Interaction ◽  
Juvenile Arrests ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
Very High

This study addresses the link between gang membership and arrest frequency, exploring the Gang × Socioeconomic status interaction on those arrests. Notoriously poor, delinquent, and often well-known to police, America’s gang youth should have very high odds of arrest. Yet it is unclear whether mere membership in a gang increases the risk of arrest or whether it must be accompanied by high levels of delinquency to have an effect. There are surprisingly few tests of the arrest risk associated solely with group membership. The several studies that provide such a test have yielded mixed results. Revisiting this issue with longitudinal youth data for the nation, random effects Poisson models find main effects for gang membership and SES on arrest, controlling for demographic and legal items. However, interaction effects obtain paradoxical findings consistent with research on “out-of-place” effects for high-SES gang youth, and protective effects for low-SES gang youth. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for labeling theory and the federal initiative on disproportionate minority contact (DMC) with the juvenile justice system.

RING THE ALARM

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jelisa S. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Boys ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Discipline Policies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In this research, I use theories of framing and social construction to investigate how race and gender are featured in national news coverage of the school-to-prison pipeline, and how policies and practices funnel students from school to the criminal justice system. Results indicate that there are three primary narratives surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline. The first is a narrative that harsh disciplinary practices in schools are irrational and negatively impact all students. The second narrative crafts the school-to-prison pipeline as a social problem for all Black students irrespective of gender. The final narrative emphasizes the impact of exclusionary discipline on Black boys. Each of these narratives functions to erase the experiences of Black girls. Ultimately, I argue that we need to take a more intersectional approach to school discipline policies and take into account how Black women and girls are situated within popular and policy discussions.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 237-268
Author(s):  
Mark R. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
Educational Justice ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Social Justice Movements ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
White Nationalism ◽  
Justice Movements ◽  
The Impact

The concluding chapter documents the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline movement on reducing suspensions and challenging policing practices in schools. It then highlights the features that help explain the growth and success of the movement and its emerging intersectional nature—like centering the participation of people most impacted by injustice. It draws lessons from this study for reconceptualizing social justice movements as ones that “nationalize local struggles.” It considers the enduring challenges facing the movement to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline, including the persistence of racial disparities in exclusionary discipline, tensions between local and national organizing, and the difficulties of implementing restorative alternatives that serve to transform deep-seated racialized processes. It ends with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities to building racial and educational justice movements powerful enough to fully transform entrenched systems of racial inequity and educational injustice, particularly in an era that has witnessed the rise of white nationalism.

Charged with Instability: Are Paternal Arrests and Criminal Charges Enough to Shake the Marital Stability of American Couples?

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 2423-2447
Author(s):  
Antonius D. Skipper ◽  
Douglas S. Bates ◽  
Zachary D. Blizard ◽  
Richard G. Moye
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Probability Model ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Marital Stability ◽  
Fragile Families ◽  
Linear Probability Model ◽  
Paternal Incarceration ◽  
Criminal Charges ◽  
Linear Probability ◽  
The Relationship

With the growing rate of divorce, increasing efforts are being made to identify the factors that contribute to relationship dissolution for many American couples. One commonly noted, and particularly concerning, factor toward relationship instability is the incarceration of husbands and fathers. Although paternal incarceration and familial stability have been studied, little is known about the relationship between criminal charges and divorce. The current study utilized data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to understand the effect of paternal criminal charges on divorce for 725 families. Utilizing a logistic regression and two-stage least squares linear probability model, results show that, even without incarceration, being charged with a crime as a husband significantly increases the likelihood that a couple will get divorced. These findings have significant implications for understanding how encounters with the criminal justice system affect familial well-being and stability.

Civil Citation

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa R. Nadel ◽  
George Pesta ◽  
Thomas Blomberg ◽  
William D. Bales ◽  
Mark Greenwald
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
Implementation Fidelity ◽  
Interrupted Time Series ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Interrupted Time Series Analysis ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Juvenile Arrests ◽  
Net Widening

Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to assess potential variation across Florida’s counties of their implementation of civil citation and the outcomes associated with that implementation. Methods: Interrupted time-series analysis is used to determine whether the trends in juvenile arrests and the total delinquent population referred to the juvenile justice system (either through arrests or through civil citation) were significantly affected by the implementation of civil citation in each county. Results: There were immediate and gradual diversion effects of the civil citation program in a number of Florida’s counties. As a result, there is evidence of successful implementation with a few cases of net widening. Conclusions: While there was variation between counties in their implementation of civil citation, overall, Florida’s civil citation program was found to provide a diversion from arrest rather than a net-widening outcome. The study concludes with the identification of county-specific factors that characterized the local jurisdictions that were able to successfully overcome the major impediments associated with diversion and other reform programs’ implementation fidelity.

Examining the School-to-Prison Pipeline Metaphor

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayla Crawley ◽  
Paul Hirschfield
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Justice System ◽  
School Dropout ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Scientific Concept ◽  
Mental Health Systems ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Policies And Practices

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is a commonly used metaphor that was developed to describe the many ways in which schools have become a conduit to the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The STPP metaphor encompasses various disciplinary policies and practices that label students as troublemakers, exclude students from school, and increase their likelihood of involvement in delinquency, juvenile justice, and subsequent incarceration. Many external forces promote these policies and practices, including high-stakes testing, harsh justice system practices and penal policies, and federal laws that promote the referral of certain school offenses to law enforcement. Empirical research confirms some of the pathways posited by STPP. For example, research has shown that out-of-school suspensions predict school dropout, justice system involvement and adult incarceration. However, research on some of the posited links, such as the impact of school-based arrests and referrals to court on school dropout, is lacking. Despite gaps in the empirical literature and some theoretical shortcomings, the term has gained widespread acceptance in both academic and political circles. A conference held at Northeastern University in 2003 yielded the first published use of the phrase. Soon, it attained widespread prominence, as various media outlets as well as civil rights and education organizations (e.g., ACLU, the Advancement Project (they also use “schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track”), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Federation of Teachers) referenced the term in their initiatives. More recently, the Obama administration used the phrase in their federal school disciplinary reform efforts. Despite its widespread use, the utility of STPP as a social scientific concept and model is open for debate. Whereas some social scientists and activists have employed STPP to highlight how even non-criminal justice institutions can contribute to over-incarceration, other scholars are critical of the concept. Some scholars feel that the pipeline metaphor is too narrow and posits an overly purposeful or mechanistic link between schools and prisons; in fact, there is a much more complicated relationship that includes multiple stakeholders that fail our nation’s youth. Rather than viewing school policies and practices in isolation, critical scholars have argued that school processes of criminalization and exclusion are inextricably linked to poverty, unemployment, and the weaknesses of the child welfare and mental health systems. In short, the metaphor does not properly capture the web of institutional forces and missed opportunities that can push youth toward harmful choices and circumstances, often resulting in incarceration. Many reforms across the nation seek to dismantle STPP, including non-exclusionary discipline alternatives such as restorative justice and limiting the role of school police officers. Rigorous research on their effectiveness is needed.

Suspending Progress

2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (6) ◽  
pp. 1067-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brea L. Perry ◽  
Edward W. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
Strong Argument ◽  
Collateral Consequences ◽  
Discipline Policies ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Criminological Perspective ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
School Records ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

An influential literature in criminology has identified indirect “collateral consequences” of mass imprisonment. We extend this criminological perspective to the context of the U.S. education system, conceptualizing exclusionary discipline practices (i.e., out-of-school suspension) as a manifestation of intensified social control in schools. Similar to patterns of family and community decline associated with mass incarceration, we theorize that exclusionary discipline policies have indirect adverse effects on non-suspended students in punitive schools. Using a large hierarchical and longitudinal dataset consisting of student and school records, we examine the effect of suspension on reading and math achievement. Our findings suggest that higher levels of exclusionary discipline within schools over time generate collateral damage, negatively affecting the academic achievement of non-suspended students in punitive contexts. This effect is strongest in schools with high levels of exclusionary discipline and schools with low levels of violence, although the adverse effect of exclusionary discipline is evident in even the most disorganized and hostile school environments. Our results level a strong argument against excessively punitive school policies and suggest the need for alternative means of establishing a disciplined environment through social integration.

scholarly journals Ontario Safe Schools Act And Its Effects On Racialized Immigrant Youth: 'School To Prison Pipelone'

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofiya Kovalenko
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
School Discipline ◽  
Zero Tolerance ◽  
Immigrant Youth ◽  
Minority Youth ◽  
Safe Schools ◽  
Police Contact ◽  
School Suspensions ◽  
Canadian Studies ◽  
Disciplinary Procedures

It is recognized that racialized youth are significantly over-represented in the Canadian Criminal Justice System relative to their population percentages. Research also determined that similar disproportion exists with respect to school discipline. Similar to US research, a number of Canadian studies found that racialized youth are being disproportionately affected by zero-tolerance school disciplinary policies, such as the Ontario Safe Schools Act. Such research also hypothesized about a "school-to-prison pipeline" for minority youth. This MRP explores the link between immigration, policing, and school disciplinary policies in Ontario, Canada. In particular, the MRP investigates the racialization of school disciplinary procedures that largely affect immigrant youth, and the criminalization of certain behaviors that may lead visible minority youth, including immigrant youth, to having disproportionate police contact. The findings suggest that there is a relation between racial disproportion of school suspensions and expulsions and the racial disproportion in the likelihood of youth- police contact.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document