Law Enforcement Presence in America's Schools: Preliminary Findings about Differences in City, Suburb, Town and Rural

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

The previous preliminary study reported significant predictors in the prediction of the number of reported incidents to the police (Criminal Justice Association of Georgia, 2016). It will be very hard for school police and staff to suggest possible solutions without understanding the nature of school crime. The higher number of gang activities on campus, number of full-time officers, sexual harassment and racial or ethnic tensions were significant predictors to increase more reports to the police (CJAG, 2016). Community oriented policing emphasizes involvement between community and police, thus, we added this predictor to the model. The result said that the community and police involvement variable significantly increased the number of reports to the police. Additionally, we analyzed whether locations of school-city, suburb, town and rural-have any association with previously significant predictors in reporting to the police. When the current study investigated the subset of the data by locations of schools, interestingly, the predictors showed differences than the previous results used a total sample. The changing relationships of the predictors in urbanicity and the number of report can suggest meaningful insight to both police and people on campus.

Authors

• Ji Seun Sohn, Georgia College & State University

• Shelby Hatcher, Georgia College & State University