Schools and Delinquency

JUVENILE

DELINQUENCY

THE CORE 5E

Chapter 9:

Schools and Delinquency

Modern American Schools

 School plays a significant role in shaping values of youth

 Today, more than 90% of school-age children attend school

 School has become the primary instrument of socialization

 Because young people spend a longer time in school, their

adolescence is prolonged

 Young people rely increasing on school friends and become less

interested in adult role models

Modern American Schools

• Primary determinant of social/economic status

• School itself is an engine of social change and

improvement

• African American youth

educated in states where

a higher proportion of

their classmates are

European American

experience lower

incarceration rates

Education Trends and Issues

 There has been some improvement in reading, math, and

science achievement during the past decade, but

improvements have been minimal

 Many secondary math and science teachers did not major in the

subjects they teach

 US devotes less of its resources to education than do many other

nations

Economic Disadvantage and Educational

Achievement

 Economically disadvantaged children usually enter school

lagging behind their more advantaged peers

 They face substantial gaps in reading and math proficiency, in

prosocial behaviors and behavior problems, and in readiness to

learn

 Many disadvantaged children fail to meet grade-level expectations on

core subjects

 They face higher rates of special education placement and grade

repetition

Dropping Out

 Nearly 1/3 of all high school students leave the public school system

before graduating, especially minority students and students with

disabilities

 Effects of dropping out mixed

 Some say significantly increases delinquency

 Some find no link

 Reasons for dropping out:

 Educational factors:

 Kids who show disinterest in school are more likely to drop out - failed courses, low

grade point average, absences, falling behind and getting pushed out

 Social factors:

 Left because they did not like school, they wanted to get a job, could not get along with

teachers, had been expelled or were suspended

 Poverty and family dysfunction increase chances of dropping out

Race and Dropping Out

 Minority students drop out at a higher rate than European

American students

 According to Dorn, the relatively high dropout rate among minorities

is the legacy of disciplinary policies enacted when educational

administrators opposed school desegregation

 Dorn believes that the dropout problem is a function of inequality of

educational opportunities, rather than the failure of individual students

 Payne and Welch found that administrators and teachers in urban

schools were more likely to respond to misbehavior in a punitive,

as opposed to a restorative, manner

Dropping Out and Crime –

Current Example

Academic Performance & Delinquency

• Chronic underachievers are most likely to be delinquent

• Chronic underachievement is a stronger predictor of delinquency

than class membership, race, ethnicity, or peer influence

• Children who report they don’t like school or don’t do well

in school are most likely to self-report delinquency

• At-risk youths who do well in school often avoid delinquent

involvement

School Failure and Delinquency

 Three independent views on the association between

school failure and delinquency are:

① School failure is a direct cause of delinquent behavior

② School failure leads to emotional and psychological problems

that are the actual cause of antisocial behavior

① School failure and delinquency share a common cause

Correlates of School Failure

• Personal problems • Dysfunctional family

• Psychological abnormalities

• Low self control

• Social class • Lower-class children more likely to drop out

• Likely reason is lower economic status often requires students to work part time to help family; takes away from time spent on schoolwork

• Tracking • Involves dividing students into groups according to ability

• Keeps certain students from having any hope of achieving academic success, thereby causing lack of motivation, which can lead to delinquent behavior

• Alienation • Youths who don’t like/care about school are more likely to be

delinquent

Delinquency in School

• According to Soule and his associates, juvenile victimization and delinquency peak during school hours, whereas substance use peaks over the weekend

• Bullying

• Repeated negative acts committed by one or more

youth against another

• Students who are chronic victims of bullying

experience more physical and psychological problems

• According to Klein, bullies are motivated by need to

prove their masculinity

• According to Loeber, bullies have a long history of

antisocial behaviors that precedes their school

experience

Grandma Bullied –

Current Example

School Shootings

 Highly publicized events

 Many shooters had history of abuse, bullying, and real or perceived lack of support from peers, parents, and teachers

 Nature and Extent of Shootings:

 Most shootings occurred around the start of the school day, the lunch period, or the end of the school day

 Shooters were also likely to have expressed some form of suicidal behavior prior to the shooting

 Who is the School Shooter?

 Shooters developed a plan of attack well in advance

 Experience mental anguish

 Come from a wide variety of backgrounds

 Have a history of feeling extremely depressed or desperate

 The most frequent motivation was revenge

 Most shooters had experience with guns and/or other weapons

Causes of School Crime

 School-Level Causes

 High proportion of students who commit crime at school read below

grade level, are welfare recipients, and live in socially disorganized

areas

 Individual-Level Causes

 Emotional/psychological causes, isolation, alienation, and

substance abuse linked to school delinquency

 Community-Level Causes

 Socially disorganized neighborhoods experience higher rates of

drug abuse and crime in schools

 Factors such as single parent families, high population density, and

transient populations can lead to higher rates of school crime

Reducing School Crime

 School security efforts

 Locked or monitored doors/gates, limited or controlled access to

campus, metal detectors, security cameras, and limited access to

social networking websites

 Employing law enforcement

 Some have undercover officers

 Some assign School Resource Officers to work on campus

 Improving school climate

 Critics argue that security measures reduce morale

 The most effective methods of reducing disorder and crime in

schools includes the encouragement of order and organization and

an emphasis on student-bonding

Role of School in Delinquency Prevention

 Advocates called for reforming the system to make it more

responsive to needs of students

 No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 increased accountability for

schools

 School-based prevention efforts:

 Cognitive

 Affective

 Behavioral

 Environmental

 Therapeutic

Legal Rights in School

• Right to Personal Privacy

• New Jersey vs. T.L.O. (1984):

• School officials can legally search students when

there are reasonable grounds to believe a student has

violated the law

• Drug Testing

• The Supreme Court allows school authorities to conduct

random drug tests on the grounds that they are less intrusive

than a search of a student’s body

• The Court extended the right to test for drugs without

probable cause to all students as long as the drug-

testing policies were “reasonable” (Board of Education

of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie

County el al. v. Earls et al.)

Legal Rights in School

• Academic Privacy

• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974)

• Restricts disclosure of information from a student’s education

records without parental consent

• In 1994, Congress allowed educational system to disclose

education records under four circumstances:

①State law authorizes the disclosure

②The disclosure is to a juvenile justice agency

③The disclosure relates to the justice system’s ability to provide

preadjudication services to a student

④State or local officials certify in writing that the institution or

individual receiving the information has agreed not to disclose it

to a third party other than another juvenile justice system agency

Legal Rights in School

 Two main categories of free speech:

① Passive speech:

 Unless it can be shown that the forbidden conduct will interfere with the

discipline required to operate the school, the prohibition cannot be

sustained (Tinker v. Des Monies Independent Community School

District, 1969)

② Active Speech:

 The Court extended the right of school officials to censor active speech

when it ruled the principal of Hazelwood School District could censor

articles in a student publication (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier,

1988)

Legal Rights in School

• Off-campus: The Supreme Court (2002) ruled that school officials can control student speech at off-campus events • Speech in Cyberspace:

• The Court noted that as long as the online content created by a student is his or her own, uses his/her

own resources and is not disruptive to the learning

environment, the student cannot be disciplined

• School prayer: • Prayers led by “elected” students undermine the

protection of minority viewpoints – school-sanctioned

prayer is therefore severely limited at public school

events (Santa Fe Independent School District,

Petitioner v. Jane Doe, 2000). However, space for after-

school religious groups must be provided (Good News

Club v. Milford Central School, 2001).

Legal Rights in School

• School Discipline • Corporal punishment allowed in 20 states

• Under in loco parentis: • Discipline is one of the parental duties given to the

school system

• In the 1977 case Ingraham v. Wright • Court held that neither the 8th nor the 14th

Amendment was violated by a teacher’s use of corporal punishment to discipline students

• According to the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, almost a quarter of a million US public school children are subjected to corporal punishment each school year

• Suspensions/expulsions require due process hearing (Goss v. Lopez, 1976)

No-Tolerance Policy -

Current Example

Summary

Know the role of education in human development

Be familiar with issues facing the U.S. educational system

Understands the hazards facing dropouts

Describe the school failure/delinquency association

List personal/social factors linked to school failure

Discuss factors contributing to school delinquency

Know nature/extent of school shootings

Be familiar with efforts to reduce school crime

Understand types of school-based delinquency efforts

Be familiar with legal rights of students