The authors address a significant gap in the literature on school punishment by being the first to examine the cumulative effect of school suspension on future contact with the criminal justice system. Using longitudinal hierarchical generalized linear models, the authors discovered two important findings: 1) youth who receive school suspension have an increased likelihood of experiencing arrest over time, and 2) youth who are suspended are more likely to be arrested than their non-suspended counterparts. From a theoretical standpoint, the authors conclude that school suspension may serve as a negative turning point within the life history of youth who are affected, thus fitting in with the life-course perspective. School suspension is also …show more content…
While they initially found that race significantly predicted the likelihood of arrest over time, they later found that race became no longer significant when school suspension was accounted. The authors admit that this result was unanticipated and suggest that the effect of school discipline on future arrest may traverse race-ethnicity, however their discussion does not go much beyond this statement (p. 20). Since their study is “the first to demonstrate the cumulative effect of school suspension on formal sanctions within the criminal justice system,” they present a finding that not only extends the literature in a consequential way, but also has important implications (p. 19). Therefore, a deeper and more thorough discussion of this finding seems …show more content…
In underscoring the need for research which examines school discipline as a potential negative turning point within the context of an increasingly punitive society, they establish the overall importance of their research.
Coherence and Coverage of the Literature
5 The literature review is concise and artfully describes life-course perspective’s intersection with labeling theory and how this theoretical framework is suitable for examining the impact of school disciplinary actions. Overall, their coverage of the literature was well-executed and illustrative of the significant gap concerning the effects of school discipline over the life course.
Theoretical Contribution
5 The authors detail the tendency of life-course researchers to focus on desistance from criminal conduct by way of positive turning points (e.g., marriage and employment), while neglecting negative turning points, such as school discipline, which provoke criminal sanctions (p.4). In filling this gap, they offer a meaningful contribution to the life-course literature and illustrate the use of this perspective within a non-traditional
Under the NPM umbrella, public sector has also been experiencing a shift to greater competition. The need to remove monopoly of service delivery and create contestability, through privatization, public tendering, and term contracts, justifies the adoption of competition principle (Dunleavy 1994; Hood 1991). Insisting to do bureaucratic provision on public services instead of contracting them out, knowing that private sector can deliver them better, it is believed would only force governments to lose comparative advantages on price, efficiency, and effectiveness (Dunleavy 1994. p.49). This way, governments are able to fulfil their responsibility in providing services and the financing, while simultaneously stimulate greater competition among providers under market dynamics. However, it is hard to instigate public service ethos in private parties. Therefore, the capacity of private entities to act consistently with the public interest is greatly questioned in this scenario. Are concerns such as public health and safety, environment sustainability, and social equity likely to be sacrificed underneath market mechanisms? When power is shared with organizations which have business objectives apart from government’s goals, the fundamental issue is how to detect which missions they are carrying out. Many public services being delivered by third parties are targeted for vulnerable sections of the community which can pose a higher risk of potential abuse, neglect, exploitation, and
Within these, there were 4.905 students in 195 classrooms and 77.9% (3,820) achieved parent consent, 78% (2,972) finished all three waves of data, and method deletion cut it down to the final 2,614 students. Wiley et al. initiated four dependent variables—anticipated guilt, neutralization, negative peer commitment, and delinquency frequency--one treatment variable--police contact--and covariate variables—demographics, controls, and risk factors. Furthermore, they used “propensity score matching to determine whether being stopped or arrested affects subsequent attitudes and behavior” (Wiley et al. 2016: 293). A double-edged sword, the psmatch 2 module for Stata 12.0 decreased the likelihood of poor matches, but dropped over 300 cases that failed to meet within the parameters.
A trend has developed in our society in recent decades. This concerning trend shows that African American youth are finding their way into the criminal justice system at a much higher rate than their peers. This trend starts in schools where students as young as fifth graders are being suspended from school for minor issues. Police officers are being used more and more to handle situations in the schools rather than teachers. Does this kind of discipline really help students of color or does it have the opposite effect? When taken out of school for disciplinary reasons, African American student’s behaviors do not improve but criminal activity is more likely. School
“The racial disparities within the two systems are so similar and so glaring that it becomes impossible not to connect them.” The causes of why they are so deeply connected lie within the educational system. “It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the school-to-prison pipeline; however, the reasons are many, but the solutions are not as plentiful” (Travis). The best practices to implement into the educational system is to allow room for change and to not label students based on past experiences and history. Students cannot be expected to change if there is no opportunity or support for change. Another practice is to completely assess the individual as a whole before deciding a suitable administrative punishment. Teachers should not be quick to judge a person by their actions, but by the reason behind their actions. After pinpointing the source of their behavior, can the education officials truly begin rehabilitating student, but enables them to realize their mistake of their disciplinary actions. The education system needs to create a balance between a system which will provide discipline and reasonable punishment for each offense. Students should not be expelled for disruptive behavior and there should be equal punishment to every student when applicable. Be able to provide the much needed support to students instead of sending them home, to the police, or to juvenile detention centers. The statistics only worsen as minorities transition into adulthood and the educational system should decrease the number of minorities going through the school-to-prison pipeline and increase the number of graduates among minority students. “One and three African Americans and one and six Latinos males will be incarcerated in their lifetime”
Out of school suspensions (OSS) are often enforced with the assumption that students receiving the suspension are less likely to repeat the problem behavior in the future. However, this has been proven to be false. Suspending a student for engaging in a certain behavior does not in fact serve as a deterrent from the behavior but as a deterrent from attending school instead. In actuality, receiving just a single suspension can increase the probability of a student experiencing academic failure, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Knowing this, some educators still believe that for many students, suspension can serve as an effective lesson. One of the greatest concerns that educators and administrators face is the matter of classroom management. It is part of their job to ensure a safe, productive and supportive classroom allowing students to learn and grow to their greatest potential. Though there are several strategies gauged towards managing a classroom, the most severe offences often lead to either in or out of school suspension. Some of the largest concerns faced with out of school suspensions is that they are often ineptly applied, used unfairly against students of color and seemingly ineffective at producing better behavior. Also known as exclusionary discipline, the majority of offenses that led to OSS have not been centered around violence but instead emphasised issues of classroom insubordination and defiance. In some rather extreme cases
Often times it’s the student’s needs and the school being unable to meet the student’s needs that lead to the student being disciplined. Kids who are behind academically, and unable to perform at the same level as their peers often act out in frustration or humiliation (Noguera, 2003). Once these students are labelled as difficult, incorrigible, and unteachable they tend to believe these things about themselves and act out more in class which leads to a cycle of discipline that can ultimately lead to permanent expulsion. For some of these students, these continued rule violations lead to run-ins with the police and the criminal justice system. School administrators who are at times frustrated themselves from failed attempts to steer children from a “bad path” don’t realize that in throwing their hands up and giving up on these students, are in a way helping shuttle students from school to the penitentiary (Noguera, 2003).
From policing to a trial and the trail sentencing racial disparities persist at every stage of the United States Criminal Justice System. There are not a single factor that has contributed to racial profiling than the War on Drugs. All ethnic groups use and sell drugs at the same rate. Blacks and Hispanics comprise over 50% of these offenses. Whether on the federal, state, or local level police officers exercise discretion when determining whether someone’s behavior is suspicious enough that an investigation is done. Racial bias keeps more people of color in prisons and on probation than ever
(e) These findings will allow me to stress the negative consequences of harsh school discipline, as well as allow me to compare students in the state of Florida to those I will study in Utah.
The school-to-prison pipeline in the United States is a figure of speech used to describe the increasing patterns of interaction students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a consequence of procedures used by many school systems. A specific procedure would be the zero tolerance policies and the use of officers in schools. Currently in today’s American schools many children of color are being unfairly judged and treated by the public school systems zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies have been implemented in schools in the last 20 years that include inserting school resource officers in schools and cracking down on all behavior that any authority figure may deem as a form of bad behavior. The policy is based upon deterring future misbehavior and is central to the philosophy of zero tolerance, and the effect of any punishment on future behavior is what defines effective punishment (Skinner, 1953). Zero tolerance policies causes the school environment to feel more like a prison and ultimately leads to black and Latinos being judged and guided to the prison system. A zero-tolerance policy orders predetermined penalties or punishments for specific wrongdoings.
Most people have preconceived notions regarding the relationship between social class and delinquency. A common assumption is that lower-class juveniles are more likely to engage in delinquent behavior than their higher-class counterparts. Criminologists have performed a large number of studies examining the socio-demographic characteristics of delinquents, which often yielded contradictory results. When analyzing the extent and trend of juvenile delinquency in the United States conclusions can be drawn from estimates derived from arrest records, self-reports, and victimization data. Arrest estimates, self-reported information, and victimization data provide different estimates of the extent of delinquency in the United States (Maxfield et
HOW TEACHERS CAN AVOID CONTRIBUTING TO DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS IN SCHOOLS: COULD I BE PART OF THE PROBLEM? (2014). National Forum of Educational Administration & Supervision Journal (pp. 64-70). National Forum Journals
Racial disparities in school discipline have garnered recent attention in national reports issued by the U.S. Department of Education and Justice (U.S. Department of Education, 2014; Gregory, Hafen, Ruzek, Mikami, Allen, & Pianta, 2016). Suspension rates Black students are two to three times higher than those from other racial and ethnic groups. Various research has documented that Black students remain overrepresented in school discipline sanctions after accounting for their achievement, socioeconomic status, and teacher- and self-reported behavior (Gregory et al, 2016). There is a difference as to the reasons why White students are sent to the office versus Black students. Black students are sent to the office for subjective reasons such as “disrespect” and “perceived threat”, while White students are more than likely to be referred for more objective reasons including, smoking, vandalism, and leaving school without permission. (Gregory, et al, 2016). African Americans and especially African American boys, are more likely to be disciplined and often receive more out-of-school suspensions and expulsions than white students (Todd Rudd, 2014). Suspending students is taking away time from them being in the classroom. Students who receive suspensions, lose instructional time, fall behind on course work, become discouraged, and ultimately drop out…recent research has shown each suspension a student receives can decrease their odds for high graduation by any
Student behavior and discipline in the classroom have been impacted by legislation and litigation as was discussed in an article written by Mitchell Yell and Michael Rozalski, The Impact of Legislation and Litigation on Disciple and Student Behavior in the Classroom. The authors believe that all students should receive their education in safe, orderly, and well-disciplined schools but maintaining these environments has become a major challenge for educators (Yell, M & Rozalski, M, 2008). Most states have laws that govern discipline in schools which also protect the rights of students in public education (Yell, et.al, 2008). These state laws control the actions of school officials when they carry out certain discipline-related functions, such as gathering evidence (e.g., searching students, their lockers, or their personal property), seizing contraband from students’ backpacks, or conducting any administrative actions that restrict a student’s property interest to attend school (e.g., suspension, expulsion) (Yell, et.al, 2008). A student’s entitlement under state law to a public education is
These studies propose that while criminal behavior cuts across race and class lines, the common response to these behaviors may significantly influence the course of a potential criminal career. Decisions concerning the most effective balance of responses by law enforcement, social services, and community intervention are critical in determining many of these outcomes.
School discipline is to ensure that students and the campus staff are safe and peaceful. According to the U.S. Department of Education on Rethinking Discipline (2017), “Teachers and students deserve school environments that are safe, supportive, and conducive to teaching and learning.” The idea is to decrease bad behavior and school violence which will lead to fewer suspensions and expulsions. There are rules and limitations when it comes to student discipline; there are acts in which students can and must be disciplined. For examples, if a student quality’s for special needs some different guidelines protect them under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA). Furthermore, the Education Code, Section 48900 was implied to discipline students who committed any wrongful doing such as attempting or threatening to physical harm another person. In the case f any wrongfulness, the student is forced to be disciplined by being suspended or expulsed from school.