literature review

Thomas (2013) explains that in the 21st century, mass incarceration of African American men is at an all-time high. He argues that there is institutional racism that normalizes imprisonment for minorities that dates back to the rhetoric of “law and order”, which was first mobilized in the 1950s. Rios (2008) discusses how “get tough” legislation specifically targeted Black and Latino youth, for example, California’s Proposition 21 in the year 2000 turned situations that would previously have been misdemeanors into felonies. This resulted in turning delinquency into serious crime. Together they demonstrate how current and previous policies have resulted in the incarceration of minorities.

During the 1990s, conservative criminologists and politicians developed influential ideas and policy recommendations for controlling ‘‘superpredator’’ ‘‘teenage time-bombs,’’ a message that the media consistently spread to the public. Both Rios (2008) and Schept, Wall and Brisman (2014) discuss the idea that in the mid 1990’s there was a rise of the idea of “youth superpredator”. Although the “youth superpredator never arrived, the policies sustaining and perpetuating the pipeline remain. The superpredator thesis exacerbated the youth crime problem leading to the hyper criminalization of black and Latino youth (Rios, 2006). The development of punitive juvenile justice policy in the 1990s was influenced by racialized constructions of Black and Latino youth as ‘‘superpredators’’ by intellectuals, politicians, and the media

In the articles The Consequences of the Criminal Justice Pipeline on Black and Latino Masculinity (2009) and The Hyper-Criminalization of Black and Latino Male Youth in the Era of Mass Incarceration (2006), Rios discusses how Black and Latino youth are socially constructed to be criminals. Rios discusses how Black and Latino youth are hyper criminalized and labeled as “deviants”, even before they commit a crime. These youth are put on a path of crime from every direction, even from spaces like school which are traditionally intended to nurture. These young males are hyper criminalized not only by the criminal justice system, but also in their schools, homes, and community centers. Rios calls this the “youth control complex” where “a network of racialized criminalization and punishment deployed from various institutions of control and socialization has formed to manage, control, and incapacitate Black and Latino youth” (Rios, 2006, p. 40). The same way these men are taught they are criminals, they are taught to express in a violent and aggressive manner. The young men that pass through the criminal justice system or as Rios states “criminal justice pipeline” are encouraged to express hypermasculinity. This important to note because young boys of color tend to be affected more than females of color.

The school to prison pipeline is a phrase used to describe the phenomena where youth are pushed out of the public school system into criminal justice systems. It is complicit with the mass incarceration of minorities, where those being pushed out of the public school system tend to be the youth of color, such as young black and Latino boys. Black and Latino students are pushed with out-of-school suspensions at a higher rate than white students and for less serious infractions. This is because school policies and practices result in the criminalization of students rather than educating them (Thomas, 2013). School discipline procedures are also directly connected to the hierarchies of race and color (Hunter, 2013). The problems at school can place some youth at risk for school removal through the form of suspension and expulsion which places the youth at risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. (Monahan, 2014).

Since the 1990’s, implementation of zero tolerance policies in schools has led to increased use of school suspension and expulsion as disciplinary techniques for students with varying degrees of infractions (Monahan, 2014). This demonstrates how the zero-tolerance disciplinary policies contribute to the school to prison pipeline. According to Schept, Wall & Brisman, the zero tolerance policies had a greater effect due to the Reagan-era approaches of War on Drugs, which further criminalized youth of color. A suspension can affect the likelihood of a child either dropping out and going to prison (Hanon, 2013). The growth of zero discipline policies in schools across the nation have also resulted in an increase use of school police at Black and Latina/o schools, and punitive juvenile justice policies passed in the legislature have led to vastly disproportionate disciplining of students of color (Hunter, 2013).

Schept, Wall & Brisman state that although few people express approval for the “pipeline”, many argue for increased law enforcement presence in schools and greater use of police power to discipline students. However having physical law enforcement present at the school only further criminalizes the youth, which becomes counter intuitive. Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, & Valentine elaborate on the idea of the self fulling prophecy. Where they state that the labeling theory suggests that schools that discipline black youth disproportionately can create a self-fulfilling prophecy where those youth become delinquent at higher rates than their white counterparts.

When the Routine Activity Theory is applied to school discipline it suggests that suspension or expulsion from school would increase the likelihood of criminal behavior because of the absence of a capable guardian (Monahan, 2014). The zero tolerance policies in schools have lead to an increase number of youth being either suspended or expelled. This leaves them unsupervised, with the high probability of committing crime and being in contact with the police therefore being channeled down the school-to-prison pipeline. Therefore there is push for school based programs that offer alternatives to suspension and suspension and promote disciplinary equity in order to alleviate the racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system. (Nicholson-Crotty, 2009).

Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, & Valentine argue that disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline by schools create patterns of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) that are replicated in referrals to juvenile court. They believe that evidence of even some differential treatment bolsters their argument that decisions made by schools are having meaningful impact on patterns of racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system. Research suggests that African-American students are more likely than whites to receive corporal punishment. Rocque and Paterson (2011) discusses the racial threat theory that argues that when the proportion of the black population increases beyond a particular threshold within a given environment, the white population feels threatened by the black population, especially if the white group views minorities as economic or political threat, therefore school discipline can be understood within the same context. This is because teachers may perceive black students as possessing a threat to the school environment. As other studies have shown black students are more likely to receive a disciplinary consequence.

Although it has been discussed that the black and Latino community are disproportionately affected by the school to prison, it is important to note that darker skin tone significantly increases the odds of suspension. According to Hannon (2013), the odds of suspension were about 3 times greater for young African women with the darkest skin tone compared to those with the lightest skin. Hunter (2013) states that the inequality by skin tone is known as colorism and it contributes to larger patterns of racial inequality for African Americans and Latina/os. Males tend to get suspended more than girls, this is because male suspension tends to be related to the stereotype that they are “dangerous”, while for girls it tends to be for “being loud”, and not following the white norm of feminine rather than the potential for violence. The Relationship Between Skin Tone and School Suspension for African Americans (2013), cover the importance of both skin tone and the intersectionality it plays with gender, while Hunter (2013) focuses on the effects colorism has on African Americans and Latina/os students.

Both of these articles note that lighter-skinned students of color may seem more attractive because of the While and Anglo beauty standards. Taking this into account demonstrates a possible reason on why lighter skin students of the same race are perceived to have fewer behavioral problems. This shows that the school-to-prison pipeline not only criminalizes black and Latino youth, but those who have darker skin complexion. Colorism and gender roles play a big role into criminalizing the young men of color

In summary, the literature in this area demonstrates that minority youth are receiving exclusionary discipline. Black and Latino youth are getting kicked out of the schools and being lead straight to the jail system. The school-to-prison pipeline is contributing to the criminalization of these individuals by reinforcing policy and practices started in the 1990’s.

References

Hannon, L., DeFina, R., & Bruch, S. (2013). The relationship between skin tone and school