Testing the School‐to‐Prison Pipeline
Open accessAbstract
The School‐to‐Prison Pipeline is a social phenomenon where students become formally involved with the criminal justice system as a result of school policies that use law enforcement, rather than discipline, to address behavioral problems. A potentially important part of the School‐to‐Prison Pipeline is the use of sworn School Resource Officers (SROs), but there is little research on the causal effect of hiring these officers on school crime or arrests. Using credibly exogenous variation in the use of SROs generated by federal hiring grants specifically to place law enforcement in schools, I find evidence that law enforcement agencies learn about more crimes in schools upon receipt of a grant, and are more likely to make arrests for those crimes. This primarily affects children under the age of 15. However, I also find evidence that SROs increase school safety, and help law enforcement agencies make arrests for drug crimes occurring on and off school grounds.
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The so-called pipeline between school and prison is at best indirect.
“the socalled pipeline between, say, the school and the prison is at best indirect (Owens 2017)”
From The Rise of the Carceral State: Foundations and Contours of a Rapidly Changing Criminal Legal System (2025) · cites this paper as Owens 2017
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References 33 · Cited by 150
- Authors
- Owens, E. G.
- Corresponding author
- Owens, Emily G.
- ORCID
- Owens, Emily G.
- Venue
- Journal of Policy Analysis and Management
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2016-09-28
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 11-37
- ISSN
- 0276-8739 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-6688
- OpenAlex
- W2526678220
- Cited by
- 150
- References
- 33
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 50.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education Discipline and Inequality
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Keywords
- school-to-prison pipeline, school resource officers, school crime, arrests, school safety, drug offenses, children under 15, law enforcement, student discipline
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