IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v72y2021ics004723522030218x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

School police officers' roles: The influence of social, developmental and historical contexts

Author

Listed:
  • Ghavami, Negin
  • Thornton, Bryan E.
  • Graham, Sandra

Abstract

Amid national protests over police brutality, debates over law enforcement in schools have been reignited. Though research has focused on the consequences of police presence in schools, few studies have investigated the roles of school police officers (SPOs) and whether the larger contexts influence them. Using a bioecological framework (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006), we examined how historical, social and developmental contexts shape SPOs' views of their roles and the challenges and opportunities they encounter. Nineteen 90-min focus groups with 45 SPOs from one large school police department were conducted. Analysis revealed that SPOs perceived their roles as multifaceted, encompassing both formal (e.g., law enforcer, educator) and informal (e.g., confidante, counselor) roles. These roles were enacted differently depending on the school level and neighborhood context. Furthermore, the challenges and opportunities SPOs reported were also contextualized emerging from changes in school policies, the rise in technology and social media and increased professionalization of their police department. Implications for theory and research as well as for training and policy are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghavami, Negin & Thornton, Bryan E. & Graham, Sandra, 2021. "School police officers' roles: The influence of social, developmental and historical contexts," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:72:y:2021:i:c:s004723522030218x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101724
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723522030218X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101724?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, Ben, 2006. "Understanding and assessing school police officers: A conceptual and methodological comment," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 591-604.
    2. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Ziad El-Khatib & Celina Herrera & Giovanna Campello & Elizabeth Mattfeld & Wadih Maalouf, 2021. "The Role of Law Enforcement Officers/Police in Drug Prevention within Educational Settings—Study Protocol for the Development of a Guiding Document Based on Experts’ Opinions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-12, March.
    6. Johanna Lacoe, 2013. "Unequally Safe," Working Paper 9312, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
    7. Rocque, Michael & Snellings, Quincy, 2018. "The new disciplinology: Research, theory, and remaining puzzles on the school-to-prison pipeline," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 3-11.
    8. Philip Matthew Stinson Sr. & Adam M. Watkins, 2014. "The Nature of Crime by School Resource Officers," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(1), pages 21582440145, February.
    9. 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).
    10. Devlin, Deanna N. & Santos, Mateus Rennó & Gottfredson, Denise C., 2018. "An evaluation of police officers in schools as a bullying intervention," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 12-21.
    11. Agustina Laurito & Johanna Lacoe & Amy Ellen Schwartz & Patrick Sharkey & Ingrid Gould Ellen, "undated". "School Climate and the Impact of Neighborhood Crime on Test Scores," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 22946c6212374659afcb48ce0, Mathematica Policy Research.
    12. Paez, G.R., 2020. "School safety agents’ identification of adolescent bullying," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).

    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:eee:jcjust:v:72:y:2021:i:c:s004723522030218x. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    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.