School Arrest and Justice System Pathways: Contextual Effects on Justice System Outcomes of School Arrest

• In Event: Contextual and Mediating Effects in Juvenile Justice Outcomes

Abstract

Research on the school to prison pipeline has examined the negative effects of school discipline on the life trajectories of youth, including adverse effects on educational attainment and increased likelihood of criminal justice system contact. A considerable amount of research has focused on individual and student level factors associated with risk for receiving discipline, finding disparities across demographic groups. More recent research has also begun to consider how school and community factors and context may be associated with disciplinary outcomes. Much of this research has focused on school suspension. Less is known about how school arrest and subsequent criminal justice processing and outcomes may be related to individual, offense and school context factors. The present study matches individual and offense data from school arrests to school and community characteristics, and justice system outcome data from the state of Colorado from 2014 to 2022 to examine the relationship between individual, school, and community factors and justice system outcomes for school arrests.

Authors

• Jorge M. Chavez, University of Colorado Denver

• Jack Reed, Colorado Division of Criminal Justice

• Ruben Viramontez Anguiano, University of Colorado Denver

• Laurence Lucero, Colorado Division of Criminal Justice