Introduction In today's society, 65 percent of public schools recorded that one or more violent incidents involving students had taken place, amounting to an estimated 757,000 incidents (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2017). In order to reduce crime, more police officers are being placed in schools. These school specific officers are called school resource officers, or SROs, who are employed by local police departments, sheriff's agency, or school systems where they typically work closely with school administrators to attempt to create a safer environment (US Department of Justice, 2016). Their main tasks are to be an educator on crime prevention, informal counselor, and law enforcer (Thomas, B., Towvim, L., Rosiak, J., & Anderson,
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This review will focus on what student resource officers are trained for, crime by students in high school, and how some believe the school resource officers create a pathway for students to enter the …show more content…
Furthermore, it is to describe how some youth become disconnected with school, drops out, and later enters the justice system (Institute of Behavioral Science, 2009). So, this is causing lasting harm to youth, as arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system disrupt the educational process. It can disrupt the educational process since the consequences can include suspension, expulsion, or other alienation from school, which all would require the student to miss class (Justice Policy Institute, 2011). Many believe that this School to Prison Pipeline theory can be avoided because without SROs in school, the deans can handle issues on their own. In fact, when there are officers on campus, smaller incidents that would have been handled by the school are taken to a high level with greater punishment by police in the building. Additionally, a study conducted at the University of Maryland found that schools with SROs have reported more serious crimes, more minor crimes, and higher rates for student expulsions than schools without SROs (Na & Gottfredson, 2013). This generally gives a negative view from students on SROs since their intentions in high schools are to reduce crime, but in reality reported crime is increasing. Even though these studies conclude that student resource officers result in an increase of crime
This review will focus on what student resource officers are trained for, crime by students in high school, and how some believe the school resource officers create a pathway for students to enter the …show more content…
Furthermore, it is to describe how some youth become disconnected with school, drops out, and later enters the justice system (Institute of Behavioral Science, 2009). So, this is causing lasting harm to youth, as arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system disrupt the educational process. It can disrupt the educational process since the consequences can include suspension, expulsion, or other alienation from school, which all would require the student to miss class (Justice Policy Institute, 2011). Many believe that this School to Prison Pipeline theory can be avoided because without SROs in school, the deans can handle issues on their own. In fact, when there are officers on campus, smaller incidents that would have been handled by the school are taken to a high level with greater punishment by police in the building. Additionally, a study conducted at the University of Maryland found that schools with SROs have reported more serious crimes, more minor crimes, and higher rates for student expulsions than schools without SROs (Na & Gottfredson, 2013). This generally gives a negative view from students on SROs since their intentions in high schools are to reduce crime, but in reality reported crime is increasing. Even though these studies conclude that student resource officers result in an increase of crime