The Differential Impacts of Justice System Involvement on Educational Outcomes

• In Event: The Role of the Juvenile Justice System in Youth Outcomes

Abstract

Prior research suggests that justice system involvement negatively impacts educational outcomes. One question that emerges from this prior research is whether system involvement impacts all youth equally. Disparities in the impacts of system involvement on educational outcomes could be explained through either a differential involvement or differential impact perspective. The current study investigates how the relationship between justice system involvement and educational outcomes may differ between youth. I explore how justice system involvement impacts suspension, graduation, and postsecondary enrollment among the 2013 ninth grade Maryland public school cohort (total N = 57,776). I use propensity score matching stratified by race, sex, socioeconomic status, and the intersection of these characteristics to test this relationship. I also test how these impacts may differ between youth in different school districts. I find that differences in the impact of justice system involvement on educational outcomes between youth cannot be solely explained through differential involvement in the justice system. Rather, this study supports a differential impact framework for understanding how the negative consequences of juvenile justice system contact on prosocial outcomes differ between youth.

Author

• Erin Tinney, University of Maryland, College Park