Criminology & Criminal Justice

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    THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SUSPENSION OR EXPULSION AND LATER SCHOOL SANCTIONS: DIFFERENCES BY STUDENT RACE AND SCHOOL RACIAL COMPOSITION
    (2024) Potter, Abbey Nicole; Jacobsen, Wade; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The present study investigates the relationship between early childhood suspension or expulsion and students’ odds of experiencing exclusionary discipline in adolescence. In particular, the study examines whether the relationship between childhood suspension and expulsion and the likelihood of experiencing exclusionary discipline in adolescence differs by the combination of student race and school racial composition. While labeling theory can speak to the role of individual student characteristics such as race in the labeling process, the theory is limited in that it says little about the role of social context. This study examines the impact of one aspect of school context, school racial composition, on the relationship between childhood and adolescent experiences of exclusionary discipline, drawing on insights from racial threat theory. The study uses data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a prospective longitudinal study of youth born in large US cities between 1998 and 2000. Main findings include a positive relationship between childhood and adolescent experiences of exclusionary discipline, an independent effect of student race on year 15 suspension risk, and heightened risk for Black, previously-suspended youth in majority-minority school settings. Implications for labeling theory in context and surveillance of youth are discussed.
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    THE EFFECTS OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN MAINTAINING DISCIPLINE ON SCHOOL CRIME: COMMUNITY AND CRIME TYPE VARIATIONS
    (2018) Devlin, Deanna Nicole; Gottfredson, Denise C; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Although crime on school grounds is lower than it has been in previous years, school crime still remains prevalent. Concern for school safety has resulted in school administrators, policy makers and parents seeking new ways to reduce school crime. Many of these efforts involve school staff in maintaining order. However, in addition to these efforts, schools have also begun forming partnerships with external parties to reduce crime on school grounds. These partners have consisted of law enforcement, community organizations, social service agencies, and sometimes parents. Typically, parental involvement has involved activities such as participating in PTA meetings, attending parent-teacher conferences and monitoring children’s homework. However, parents also have the potential to help reduce school crime when they collaborate with schools in maintaining safety on school grounds. Parents, when engaged in this way, can affect school crime by influencing important aspects of the school climate such as the culture of the school and discipline management. However, it is likely that these effects may vary by the type of community in which the school is located and where the families reside. To date, this type of parental involvement has not been rigorously evaluated. This study used a longitudinal sample from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) for the years 2004, 2006, and 2008, to examine the effects of parental involvement in maintaining discipline on school crime. These effects were assessed across differing types of communities and across different crime types. Further, this study tested whether this type of parental involvement serves as a mediator in the relationship between community disadvantage and school crime. Overall, the findings indicated that parental involvement in maintaining discipline was not associated with any of the school crime types. Additionally, this effect was not moderated by level of community disadvantage.
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    Exploring the Relationship Between Educational Attainment and Arrest
    (2017) Kamerdze, Amy Sariti; McGloin, Jean M; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The Forgotten Half are the segment of the population in the United States aged 16-24 who do not pursue postsecondary education. Several negative outcomes are associated with this group, including an increased risk of criminal behavior. Most research has focused on the relationship between dropping out and offending. However, heterogeneity in educational attainment exists within this group, and it is not clear whether this variation in amount of education is related to variation in offending rates. Furthermore, while a strong correlation exists between the Forgotten Half and crime, the mechanisms responsible for this relationship are less clear. Social control theory argues that the stronger an individual’s social bonds are, the fewer crimes he or she will commit. Higher levels of educational attainment are expected to be inversely related with arrest rates. Identity theory argues that the strength of one’s identity, present and future, will affect his or her offending rates. This dissertation uses the first 14 waves of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) to examine the relationship between educational attainment and arrest. Regressions were run to assess the effect of educational attainment on arrest for the Forgotten Half, as well as by gender and racial and ethnic group. Results from these zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regressions confirm a relationship, with dropouts being arrested the most, high school graduates the least, and stopouts falling in the middle. Results for both childhood social control theory and identity theory models found that inclusion of concepts from these theories weakened the relationship between stopping out and arrest so much that the relationship became insignificant. Dropping out, on the other hand, was only slightly affected by the addition of these theoretical constructs. The relationship between dropping out and arrest was diminished more by the inclusion of theoretical variables measured during adulthood. The dissertation also considers the theoretical and policy implications of these findings.