IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jpamgt/v42y2023i4p941-970.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The thin blue line in schools: New evidence on school‐based policing across the U.S

Author

Listed:
  • Lucy C. Sorensen
  • Montserrat Avila‐Acosta
  • John B. Engberg
  • Shawn D. Bushway

Abstract

U.S. public school students increasingly attend schools with sworn law enforcement officers present. Yet little is known about how these school resource officers (SROs) affect school environments or student outcomes. Our study uses a fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) design with national school‐level data from 2014 to 2018 to estimate the impacts of SRO placement. We construct this discontinuity based on the application scores for federal school‐based policing grants of linked police agencies. We find that SROs effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools, but do not prevent gun‐related incidents. We also find that SROs intensify the use of suspension, expulsion, police referral, and arrest of students. These increases in disciplinary and police actions are consistently largest for Black students, male students, and students with disabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucy C. Sorensen & Montserrat Avila‐Acosta & John B. Engberg & Shawn D. Bushway, 2023. "The thin blue line in schools: New evidence on school‐based policing across the U.S," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(4), pages 941-970, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:42:y:2023:i:4:p:941-970
    DOI: 10.1002/pam.22498
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22498
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/pam.22498?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emily G. Owens, 2017. "Testing the School‐to‐Prison Pipeline," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 11-37, January.
    2. Stephen Coussens & Jann Spiess, 2021. "Improving Inference from Simple Instruments through Compliance Estimation," Papers 2108.03726, arXiv.org.
    3. Marinho Bertanha & Guido W. Imbens, 2020. "External Validity in Fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Designs," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 593-612, July.
    4. Matias D. Cattaneo & Michael Jansson & Xinwei Ma, 2020. "Simple Local Polynomial Density Estimators," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 115(531), pages 1449-1455, July.
    5. Pentek, Christen & Eisenberg, Marla E., 2018. "School resource officers, safety, and discipline: Perceptions and experiences across racial/ethnic groups in Minnesota secondary schools," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 141-148.
    6. Emily K. Weisburst, 2019. "Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long‐term Education Outcomes," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 338-365, March.
    7. Ethan M Higgins & Brandon S Coffey & Benjamin W Fisher & Ivan Benitez & Kristin Swartz, 2022. "School Safety or School Criminalization? The Typical day of A School Resource Officer in the United States," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 62(3), pages 568-584.
    8. Theriot, Matthew T., 2009. "School resource officers and the criminalization of student behavior," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 280-287, May.
    9. David N. Figlio, 2007. "Boys Named Sue: Disruptive Children and Their Peers," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 2(4), pages 376-394, September.
    10. Marc F. Bellemare & Casey J. Wichman, 2020. "Elasticities and the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine Transformation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(1), pages 50-61, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benjamin W. Fisher & Anthony Petrosino & Hannah Sutherland & Sarah Guckenburg & Trevor Fronius & Ivan Benitez & Kevin Earl, 2023. "School‐based law enforcement strategies to reduce crime, increase perceptions of safety, and improve learning outcomes in primary and secondary schools: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), December.
    2. Isabelle Chort & Maëlys de la Rupelle, 2022. "Managing the impact of climate on migration: evidence from Mexico," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 1777-1819, October.
    3. Simon ter Meulen, 2023. "Long-Term Effects of Grade Retention," CESifo Working Paper Series 10212, CESifo.
    4. Blaise Melly & Rafael Lalive, 2020. "Estimation, Inference, and Interpretation in the Regression Discontinuity Design," Diskussionsschriften dp2016, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    5. Yoichi Arai & Yu‐Chin Hsu & Toru Kitagawa & Ismael Mourifié & Yuanyuan Wan, 2022. "Testing identifying assumptions in fuzzy regression discontinuity designs," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(1), pages 1-28, January.
    6. Robynn Cox & Jamein P. Cunningham, 2021. "Financing The War On Drugs: The Impact Of Law Enforcement Grants On Racial Disparities In Drug Arrests," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 191-224, January.
    7. Matias D. Cattaneo & Rocío Titiunik, 2022. "Regression Discontinuity Designs," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 821-851, August.
    8. Fisher, Benjamin W. & Fisher, Amy E., 2023. "Criminal justice system contact of students with disabilities by race and ethnicity: Examining the role of school police," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    9. Santiago Pérez-Cardona, 2022. "Let the rebels rule? Evidence on the economic effects of rebel governance in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 19941, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    10. Vera-Cossio, Diego A. & Hoffmann, Bridget & Pecha, Camilo & Gallego, Jorge & Stampini, Marco & Vargas, David & Medina, María Paula & Álvarez, Esteban, 2023. "Re-thinking Social Protection: From Poverty Alleviation to Building Resilience in Middle-Income Households," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12925, Inter-American Development Bank.
    11. Francesco Decarolis & Raymond Fisman & Paolo Pinotti & Silvia Vannutelli, 2019. "Rules, Discretion, and Corruption in Procurement: Evidence from Italian Government Contracting," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-344, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    12. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    13. Eibich, Peter & Siedler, Thomas, 2020. "Retirement, intergenerational time transfers, and fertility," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    14. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Poutvaara, Panu & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "First time around: Local conditions and multi-dimensional integration of refugees," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    15. Luis R. Martinez & Jonas Jessen & Guo Xu, 2023. "A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 68-106, January.
    16. Giuseppe Maggio & Marina Mastrorillo & Nicholas J. Sitko, 2022. "Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 385-403, January.
    17. Emanuele Amodio & Michele Battisti & Antonio Francesco Gravina & Andrea Mario Lavezzi & Giuseppe Maggio, 2023. "School‐age vaccination, school openings and Covid‐19 diffusion," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1084-1100, May.
    18. La Ferrara, Eliana & Corno, Lucia & Voena, Alessandra, 2020. "Female Genital Cutting and the Slave Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 15577, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Kirill Borusyak & Peter Hull & Xavier Jaravel, 2023. "Design-Based Identification with Formula Instruments: A Review," NBER Working Papers 31393, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Aaron Albert & Nathan Wozny, 2024. "The Impact of Academic Probation: Do Intensive Interventions Help?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 59(3), pages 852-878.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:42:y:2023:i:4:p:941-970. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/34787/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.