School Survey On Crime And Safety Research Articles

Student Race, School Police, and the School-To-Prison Pipeline: Mixed Evidence of Indirect Pathways

ABSTRACT While research consistently finds that increases in a school’s SRO/police presence correspond with increases in the rate of school referrals of student disciplinary incidents to law enforcement agencies, direct evidence of distributional concerns across various student subgroups is scant. Drawing on data from the 2017–2018 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this study explores the possibility that student racial effects might indirectly inform school law enforcement reporting activity. While results from a generalized structural equation modeling strategy (SEM) do not preclude the possibility, direct evidence of indirect student race effects on school police reports is mixed, at best.

Segregation, Securitization, and Bullying: Investigating the Connections Between Policing, Surveillance, Punishment, and Violence

Over the past twenty years, scholarly research on the disproportionate control, surveillance, and punishment of racial/ethnic minority students within U.S. public schools have indicated that these youth are subject to greater levels of violence and bullying. Many scholars have conceptualized the term “youth control complex.” This term references the hyper-criminalization of racial and ethnic minority youth across the U.S., which leads to greater levels of over-policing, surveillance, and punishment in U.S. public schools with large populations of racial and ethnic minority students. Using the 2015–2016 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) data, this study addresses two major research questions. First, do racially/ethnically segregated schools have higher rates of policing, surveillance, and punishment? Second, do policing, surveillance, and punishment within segregated schools moderate the rate of bullying? Our findings indicate that majority-Black and majority-Latina/o/x schools do in fact experience hyper-criminalization in U.S. public schools in comparison to majority-White schools. Yet, these increased crime control and punishment efforts in majority-Black and majority-Latina/o/x schools do not have a significant impact on the rate of bullying. Moreover, our findings highlight the educational inequities between majority-Black, majority-Latina/o/x, and majority-White schools.

School Violence and Safety Policies and Practices in Urban and Rural Communities: Does Location Matter?

While there is a large body of literature on school violence and security policies in urban areas, school violence in rural areas has gained considerably less academic attention. Recent research in this area has indicated that rural schools and communities have experienced rates of violence that are similar to their urban counterparts. However, the generalizability of findings from these exploratory research projects is limited. The current study investigated the impact of school location on school violence incidents and compared correlates of school violence in rural schools to correlates of school violence in urban schools. Specifically, upon analyzing the 2010 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) data, this study found that rural schools reported more incidents of school violence than urban schools, and different predictors affected school violence based on school location. In light of these findings, potential implications for location-specific school safety strategies are discussed within.

Weapons at School: Examining the Significance of Place

ABSTRACTAs demonstrated in extant research, there are significant distinctions across urban, suburban, and rural communities both in the experience of school violence and in the resources allocated toward safeguarding schools from violence. What remains unknown is how the relationship between weapons at school (i.e., possession of a weapon and attacks with a weapon) and school safety policies and practices (i.e., policy against weapons, punishment practices specifically for weapons, and teacher training) differs across school locales. This study draws from the nationally representative 2015–2016 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) to address two questions about the relationship between weapons at school and school safety policies and practices across different school locales. First, do rates of weapons at school and school safety policies and practices vary across school locales? Second, if there are distinctions, how is the relationship between weapons at school and school safety policies and practices moderated by place?

Indiscipline and Safety in Public Schools: Teachers and Principals at Odds

This report summarizes analyses of survey responses of approximately 101,310 teachers and principals who, between 1999-00 and 2011-12, answered the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) and the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), two national surveys. Their responses to most recurrent discipline incidents and to most serious problems facing schools were cross-referenced with their responses to safety initiatives, programs, and other practices that were implemented to curb indiscipline and crime. The findings reflect efforts underway nationwide to transition from zero tolerance policies to non-retributive, non-exclusionary discipline practices. For teachers, indiscipline incidents and major problems facing schools continue plaguing schools, and increasingly put their careers at risk. By contrast, compliance requirements of the transition period seem to have pushed principals to under-report the incidents and problems. It appears that a genuine dialogue is needed between administrators and teachers to agree on the overarching implications of indiscipline and safety in schools. Non-retributive and non-exclusionary discipline policies can only be effectively implemented when teachers and administrators are equally committed to their success, and when parents and students are provided opportunities to support initiatives .

Self-protection against crime: what do schools do?

ABSTRACTMost economic research about self-protection against crime concentrates on self-protection by individuals, households, and stores – private economic agents. We know much less about self-protection in public economic settings, such as by schools; this article takes a step towards learning more. An economic agent who self-protects benefits by reducing vulnerability to crime but incurs self-protection costs whether a victimization occurs or not; should a crime occur, the agent further bears the cost of the victimization itself. The agent, a school administrator in this application, must determine the optimal level of self-protection within this environment. Empirical results obtained using data from the 2004 and 2006 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) show that schools self-protect (use professional security personnel) much in line with theoretical predictions. Among other findings, schools located in larger cities and that have a larger and older student body self-protect more prevalently than other schools, while schools with more academically able students self-protect less than schools with less productive student inputs.

Policing Schools: Examining the Impact of Place Management Activities on School Violence

The present study examines whether the presence of school resource officers (SROs) and their level of involvement in place management activities are associated with higher or lower rates of school-based serious violence. This study uses data from the 2010 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) conducted by National Center for Educational Statistics. Propensity score matching is used to create a quasi-experimental design and isolate the influence of SROs and their level of involvement in place management activities on school-based serious violence. The analysis reveals that schools with a school resource officer are associated with higher rates of reported serious violence and those schools with SROs that participate in more place manager duties are also associated with higher rates of reported serious violence. These findings do not support the notion that SROs are acting as effective place managers and through this place management, reducing reported serious violence. Rather, it appears that the presences of a SRO and their execution of place manager duties is associated with an increase in the reporting of serious violence. Policy implications and limitations of the current research are also discussed.

Exploring the Effects of Parental and Community Involvement on the Implementation of School Safety Strategies in United States High Schools

Recent incidents of school-based violence have led to the widespread implementation of safety strategies in United States schools. However, there is little research concerning the influence of parental and community involvement on the implementation of these strategies. This study examines the effects of parental and community involvement on the implementation of school safety strategies in United States high schools using data from the 2007?2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) (N = 936). Structural analyses suggest both parental and community involvement significantly influence the types of school safety strategies implemented in United States high schools. Implications for school public relations are provided.

School Mobility and Students’ Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

The study examined estimated effects of school mobility on students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. Based on data for 2,560 public schools from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) 2007-2008, the findings indicate that schools serving a total student population of more than 50% minority students, high schools, and urban schools tend to have more school mobility than their counterparts. After controlling for crime prevention programs, violence, and school background characteristics, school mobility is negatively associated with principals’ perceived students’ aspiration and school achievement and positively associated with students’ insubordination. Policy implications for school leaders are offered.

A Mandatory Uniform Policy in Urban Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2003-04

The main purpose of the study is to examine the relations between a mandatory school uniform policy and student problem behavior. The study is based on the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) 2003-04 data. Analyzing data from 421 urban schools, the study found that schools adopting a mandatory uniform policy are negatively associated with rates of student problem behaviors except at the high school level. As with other school safety initiatives, parental involvement at the elementary school level, and teacher training and community efforts at the high school level were revealed as negative predictors of student problem behavior.