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Abstract

This chapter provides a broad overview of school-based criminalization of youth across the US educational institutions and in the process, explores explanations for the surging of what a growing body of scholarship defines as the ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ (STPP). We show that the STPP metaphor refers to a harmful relationship between school-based criminalization of youth, disproportionately those of colour, and the likelihood that criminalized youth will come into contact with the US juvenile and/or criminal justice system. We present key explanations for, and implications of, this phenomenon, as well as possible directions for research on this issue that very clearly deters educational equity and equality in the United States as well as suggested how STPP may be occurring internationally.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    School Resource Officers (SROs) are sworn-in law enforcement officers of the local police department that are specifically assigned to public schools in their jurisdiction.

  2. 2.

    A related important fact is that one in five LGBT students reports being bullied for racial and ethnic aspects of their identities and reports being not provided the same protection from bullying as their White classmates (Advancement & Gay Straight Alliance Network 2015).

  3. 3.

    In some states and jurisdictions, juveniles can be convicted of felonies, or adjudicated with the equivalent of a felony offense that cannot be sealed at the age of majority (18 years old). Juvenile courts differ from state to state.

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King, S., Rusoja, A., Peguero, A.A. (2018). The School-to-Prison Pipeline. In: Deakin, J., Taylor, E., Kupchik, A. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of School Discipline, Surveillance, and Social Control. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71559-9_14

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