Restorative justice: a qualitative analysis of school security perspectives

ABSTRACT

Grounded in Restorative Justice theory, the current study examines the perspectives of School Resource Officers (SROs) and other School Security Personnel (SSPs) during a professional development training on restorative-problem solving. Specifically, focusing on how school security staff are currently using restorative justice in their work, how they can use these practices in the future, and any variations in perspectives towards restorative justice based on their job title. A qualitative phenomenological methodology was used to analyze qualitative responses to training logs from SROs and SSPs (n = 99). Throughout the module, participants were asked to reflect on five different situations and provide examples of how they would address these issues using restorative justice. Codes and memos were used to summarize the themes across participants. Both SROs and SSPs are aware of restorative practices and use them to some capacity in their roles. However, additional training is needed to ensure that practices are used consistently and effectively across positions and schools. To abolish the U.S. school-to-prison pipeline, all school staff including security should receive mandatory, ongoing, evidence-based professional development for school-wide implementation of restorative justice as an alternative to punitive disciplinary strategies that disproportionately harm students of color and their families.

KEYWORDS:

• Restorative justice
• school security
• school safety
• school violence
• discipline

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded with a grant from National Institute of Justice [2017-CK-BX-0019] to Dorothy Espelage (PI). The findings and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the National Institute of Justice.

Notes on contributors

Luz E. Robinson

Luz E. Robinson is a doctoral student in School Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include school-based violence prevention, school safety, mental health promotion, transformative social-emotional learning, and resilience among Latinx and other marginalized youth.

Ashley B. Woolweaver

Ashley B. Woolweaver, MPS., is the research coordinator for the Espelage RAVE lab. She has a Master of Professional Studies in Criminal Justice Policy and Administration from Penn State University. Her research interests include improving social systems to better support youth and families to increase their quality of life as well as to reduce risky criminal behaviors and involvement in the justice system.

Dorothy L. Espelage

Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., is a William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina. She is recipient of the APA Lifetime Achievement Award in Prevention Science and the 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, and is a Fellow of APS, APA, and AERA.  She is a member of the National Academy of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University in 1997. Over the last 22 years, she has authored over 200 peer- reviewed articles, six edited books, and 70 chapters on bullying, homophobic teasing, sexual harassment, dating violence, and gang violence. Her research focuses on translating empirical findings into prevention and intervention programming.

Grace Little

Grace A. Little is a preschool teacher with Bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests include restorative justice and equity in schools.