Citation

May DC, Barranco R, Roberts PC, Robertson AA. J. Crime Crim. Behav. 2023; 3(2): 329-352.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Academic Research Foundations (ARF))

DOI

10.47509/JCCB.2023.v03i02.04

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For the past two decades, scholars have argued that School Resource Officers (SROs) have increased the size of the school-to-prison pipeline by referring students to the justice system for minor offenses committed at school. Nevertheless, most of these studies (1) do not clearly distinguish between arrests initiated by the school, law enforcement responding to violations on school property, and those initiated by the SRO and (2) do not provide details on the type of offenses for which Black and White students are referred. In this paper, we use referral data from a southeastern state to begin responding to those questions. Our findings suggest that SROs look similar to schools in terms of the type of incidents for which students are referred to the justice system, Black students are disproportionately referred to the justice system for all types of offenses, and SRO referrals for minor offenses are similar for Black and White students. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.

Language: en