The Role of Perceptions Towards Law Enforcement, Crime Suppression, and the Reentry Process

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Across many criminological perspectives, individual or group-level perceptions of criminal opportunities, agents of social control, and personal identities have been demonstrated to be integral in understanding the etiology of criminal behavior as well as changes in offending. The papers on this panel explore the impact of perceptions on shaping experiences in schools and in the community and provide commentary on how empirical tests of these ideas influence broader discourse of criminological concepts. The first two papers on this panel are derived from a study examining the roles and impact of school resource officers (SROs) in a large Canadian city. The first paper explores the predictors of student perceptions of whether SROs promote safer school environments. The second paper investigates the experiences and roles of SROs through semi-structured interviews with current and former SROs. The third paper focuses on the reentry experience among female inmates in Chile and evaluates longitudinal changes in self-perceptions of delinquent identity. Finally, the fourth paper offers a critical analysis of the literature on the framework of ‘super controllers’ in crime prevention and evaluates how scholarship has shaped our understanding of this concept.

Subtopic

• Topic 6: Perceptions of Crime and Justice / Attitudes about Punishment and Criminal Justice System

Chair

• Zachary Rowan, Simon Fraser University

Individual Presentations

• An Evaluation of Student Perceptions of the Role of School Resource Officers’ in Promoting School Safety - Zachary Rowan, Simon Fraser University; Jennifer Wong, Simon Fraser University

• Examining the Roles and Experiences of School Resource Officers in a Canadian Context - Jennifer Wong, Simon Fraser University; Zachary Rowan, Simon Fraser University

• Identity Change in the Context of Reentry - Pilar Larroulet, Rutgers University; Holly Nguyen, Pennsylvania State University