Exclusionary School Discipline during Childhood and Adolescent Police Encounters

ABSTRACT

A growing body of literature demonstrates exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspension, expulsion) elevates the risk of arrest and incarceration. Even so, the bulk of research to date overlooks the influence of exclusionary discipline during childhood on police contact experiences that may not result in a formal arrest. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), we find that, regardless of early delinquent involvement, early exclusionary discipline increases the risk of being stopped by police. Further analyses demonstrate that among youth reporting police stops (N = 918), early exclusionary discipline increases the risk of 1) a younger age at first stop, 2) multiple stops, and 3) experiencing officer intrusiveness during the stop. Finally, stopped youth with a history of exclusionary discipline reported more traumatic responses to police stops, and experiences of officer intrusiveness explain a significant portion of this association. Implications for school and criminal justice policies are discussed.

Notes

¹ Alternative age cutoffs (e.g., <15) did not alter the substantive results of the present study.

² Factor analysis revealed that only one factor emerged with an eigenvalue above 1 (2.35), with the second factor showing substantial drop-off from the first factor (eigenvalue = 0.44).

³ Ancillary analyses revealed no issues related to collinearity in models employing this list of covariates (all VIFs under 2).

⁴ Ancillary analyses that re-estimated these analyses by racial/ethnic subgroups revealed no significant differences in the association between childhood exclusionary discipline and being stopped by police across groups.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study was provided by the NICHD through Grants R01HD36916, R01HD39135, and R01HD40421, as well as a consortium of private foundations (see http://www.fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/funders.asp for the complete list).

Notes on contributors

Dylan Jackson

Dylan B. Jackson is an assistant professor in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research largely examines child and adolescent health in the context of violence, crime, and the criminal justice system. He also examines the intersections between food insecurity and various domains of child development and well-being. His recent publications have been featured in Health Affairs, Journal of Adolescent Health, Academic Pediatrics, Journal of Pediatrics, and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Alexander Testa

Alexander Testa is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at The University of Texas at San Antonio. His research interests include the consequences of criminal justice contact, the impact of social structure on crime and punishment, criminal justice decision-making, and the social determinants of health. His recent published research appears in Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Academic Pediatrics, Journal of Pediatrics, Journal of Adolescent Health, Preventive Medicine, Social Science & Medicine, and PLOS ONE.

Jelena Todić

Jelena Todic, MSW, PhD is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas at San Antonio College for Health, Community and Policy. Her research focuses on understanding how place affects health. She studies current and historical infrastructures that produce health in/equity as well as praxis that can create and sustain health affirming places.

Jonathan Leos-Martinez

Jonathan Leos-Martinez recently earned his Masters of Science in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His thesis focuses on the role of police contact in the connection between early exclusionary discipline and legal cynicism among urban-born, at-risk youth.