Unraveling the Contextual Effects on Student Suspension and Juvenile Arrest: The Independent and Interdependent Influences of School, Neighborhood, and Family Social Controls

• NCJ Number: 227313
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 47 Issue: 2 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 479-520
• Author(s): David S. Kirk
• Date Published: May 2009
• Length: 42 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the independent and interdependent influence on student suspension and juvenile arrest of school, neighborhood, and family contexts.

Abstract

The findings suggest that social controls within schools are loosely linked with social controls in neighborhoods and families, such that neighborhoods characterized by concentrated poverty and a lack of informal collective social controls will not necessarily have dangerous schools and unstable families. School-based and family-based informal social controls combine their features to reduce the likelihood of juvenile school suspension and arrest. Findings also show evidence of interacting effects for neighborhood collective efficacy with school-based control, although the form of moderating effects differs for suspension and arrest. For suspension, results support the hypothesis that a compensatory relationship exists between the extent of collective efficacy in schools and in the surrounding neighborhood, such that the controlling influence of school collective efficacy on suspension is relatively greater in neighborhoods that lack collective efficacy; however, for arrest, an accentuating relationship was found between neighborhood collect efficacy and student-teacher trust, rather than a compensatory effect. A lack of neighborhood collective efficacy and a lack of school-based social controls combine to exert a significant increase in the likelihood of juvenile arrest. These findings suggest the importance of a multi-contextual approach in understanding the etiology of youth behavior, particularly for the age range of sixth through eighth graders. Future analyses that widen the age range of study might show whether the influence of particular contextual effects varies with age. The study sample was drawn from the 1997 Student Survey of the Chicago Public Schools. This involved a sample of 80 elementary schools and a sample of approximately 7,500 students in grades six and eight. Dependent variables were suspension and arrest, and independent variables pertained to social-control variables in the spheres of school, family, and neighborhood. 3 tables, 2 figures, and 71 references