Teachers’ and Administrators’ Perceptions of Police-to-Student Encounters: The Impact of Student Race, Police Legitimacy, and Legal Authoritarianism

Abstract

The present study reflects an exploration of student race and attitudes toward the legal system as predictors of teachers’ and administrators’ support for police-to-student physical intervention. We experimentally manipulated student race (Black vs. White) in a hypothetical scenario depicting physical police intervention stemming from a student’s misbehavior. Teachers and administrators were significantly more punitive (i.e., requested juvenile detention and expulsion) toward the Black student than the White student. Moreover, endorsement of police legitimacy and legal authoritarianism (LA) predicted increased punitive attitudes toward the student, the belief that the student is dangerous, perceived likelihood that the student would recidivate, and perceived appropriateness of police officer behavior. Finally, the relationships between police legitimacy, LA, and perceived police behavior appropriateness were stronger when the student was portrayed as Black than White.

Keeping kids in school through prearrest diversion: School disciplinary outcomes of the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program.

“…The between-sample similarity in incident-related suspension rates through approximately age 14 might suggest greater consistency in disciplinary approaches to student behaviors—regardless of diversion or arrest decision—among district elementary and middle schools than among district high schools. Then, as students get older and enter high school, school personnel may be more likely to respond to a school-based incident that resulted in arrest by removing the student via suspension, perhaps because of fears related to arrested youths’ dangerousness and risk to other students (Curran et al, 2019; Watson & Stevenson, 2020). In contrast, district-wide emphasis on improving graduation rates (School District of Philadelphia, 2017; 2020) and implicit or explicit knowledge about the relationship between suspension and school dropout (Heitzeg, 2014; Suh & Suh, 2007) may lead school personnel to prioritize finding alternative measures of discipline for older diverted students to increase their likelihood of graduating from school.…”

A Systematic Review of Early Childhood Exclusionary Discipline

“…Although ECCE settings differ from K-12 environments in many ways, they are at their core educational settings situated in communities that utilize relationship-based instruction to promote student learning. As such, we can expect to see empirical attention to similar factors across levels of the ecological model (e.g., student characteristics [Wallace et al, 2008], teacher perception and motivation [Skiba et al, 1997;Watson & Stevenson, 2022], school policy and administrator characteristics [Raffaele Mendez et al, 2002;Skiba et al, 2014;Theriot et al, 2010]). In ecological systems theory, children's development is conceptualized as occurring in and being influenced by various contexts.…”

A call to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems.

“…In contrast, White children are disproportionately likely to be diverted from the justice system and instead provided with alternative education settings and mental health services (Lee et al, 2017). Indeed, experimental research shows that teachers are differentially more likely to support punishment (Okonofua & Eberhardt, 2015) and even criminal arrest (Watson & Stevenson, 2022) solely based on whether a child involved in a school fight is depicted as Black rather than White. This is a critically important problem because exclusionary school discipline triggers subsequent socioemotional, cognitive development, and behavioral problems and is also associated with delinquency and incarceration (Arcia, 2006; Christle et al, 2007; Greenwood et al, 2002; Lee et al, 2011; Shollenberger, 2015).…”