School Securitization and Its Alternatives: The Social, Political, and Contextual Drivers of School Safety Policy and Practice

Abstract

A dramatic transformation of school safety practices in American public schools has occurred during the last four decades. Scholars have argued that exaggerated fears and moral panics over youth violence, changing perceptions and responses to various risks in schools and society, and broader neoliberal political agendas expanded the criminalization and securitization of schools. This article considers the utility of divergent explanations for school securitization and criminalization (and recent decriminalization and medicalization efforts), suggests potential opportunities for theoretical integration, and reviews research on the relationship between school context (such as crime rates, racial composition, population density, and resources) and school safety practices. Based on this analysis of the social, political, and contextual drivers of school safety and security, implications for future research, practice, and policy are discussed.

Impact and Implications

The sustained securitization of schools is an outgrowth of multiple social and political forces. By examining the onset as well as the ebbs and flows of these forces, this article reveals particular contexts and historical moments when (openings for) alternatives to securitization emerge or prevail. When fears and punitive sentiments are lessened and notions of risk are reconceptualized or redirected, school helping professionals may find new opportunities to expand school-based mental health and evidence-based violence prevention approaches.

Keywords:

• school safety,
• school security,
• moral panic,
• sociology of fear,
• school criminalization,
• neoliberalism,
• sociology of risk,
• school-to-prison pipeline

ASSOCIATE EDITOR:

• Shane Jimerson

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eric Madfis

Eric Madfis is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma. His research examines the causes and prevention of school violence, hate crime, and mass murder. His latest book, How to Stop School Rampage Killing: Lessons From Averted Mass Shootings and Bombings, explores how to prevent school rampage attacks.

Paul Hirschfield

Paul Hirschfield is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. He has focused on expanded criminalization and surveillance in American schools, and racial disparities therein. Currently, he studies efforts to decriminalize school discipline by expanding nonpunitive disciplinary alternatives. He also studies variation across societies and governments in responses to lethal policing.

Lynn A. Addington

Lynn A. Addington is a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at American University. Her research focuses on fatal and nonfatal violent victimization (with an emphasis on adolescents, emerging adults, and school environments) as well as policy responses for preventing violence and serving victims.