Historic Lynching and Racially Disparate Corporal Punishment in Southern Schools

• In Event: Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Looking Beyond the Classroom

Abstract

The present study considers whether practices of corporal punishment in public schools, which are concentrated in southeastern U.S. states, relate to historic lynching in the region. Utilizing school-level data, we examine these relationships in a series of multi-level logistic and negative binomial regression models. After controlling for a host of school- and county-level controls, our results reveal that rates of corporal punishment for both Black and White students are higher in areas with a history of lynching, although the relationship is particularly pronounced for black youth. These results point toward both a general and race-specific legacy effect. We discuss potential mechanisms linking histories of lynching with corporal punishment in public schools, and implications for research and policy. We recommend abolishing school corporal punishment given existing evidence of ineffectiveness and harms, its use in violation of civil rights, and our findings of an association with histories of racial violence. The practice likely perpetuates inter-generational traumas of racialized violence, socio-economic marginalization, and race-based exclusion. Given ties to lynching, the abolition of school corporal punishment presents a racial reconciliation opportunity likely to promote collective well-being in areas where this condemned practice endures.

Authors

• Geoff Ward, University of California, Irvine

• Nick Petersen, University of Miami

• Aaron Kupchik, University of Delaware

• James Pratt, University of California, Irvine