Punitive vs. Medicalized Responses to Childhood Behavior Problems and Performance in High School

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 11. School Context and Characteristics: Session II

Abstract

Recently, scholars have documented two contemporary trends involving misbehavior in public schools in the United States - a growing reliance on suspension and expulsion as punishment and medicalization, or the use of medical diagnoses and treatment. Despite these trends, we know little about how school punishment and medicalization influence long-term social and economic well-being. In particular, we are unclear about how the social construction of child behavior contributes to involvement in the school to prison pipeline, a process in which children with behavior problems are pushed out of school and into crime and incarceration.
This paper begins to consider the relationship between childhood social control and school performance within the context of the school to prison pipeline. Specifically, I argue that one of the most popular forms of control child misbehavior – school suspension – damages school performance and decreases the chances of high school graduation. On the other, the use of therapy and/or medication for behavior problems, may not have the same negative implications for academic performance that school suspension does and, instead may keep kids in school and out of the criminal justice system.

Author

• David Michael Ramey, Pennslyvania State University