Arrest Decision Making by School Resource Officers

• Author: Kerrin C. Wolf
• DOI: 10.1177/1541204013491294
• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Date: 01 April 2014
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Arrest Decision Making by

School Resource Officers

Kerrin C. Wolf

1

Abstract

Over the past two decades, school resource officers (SROs) have become an increasingly common

fixture on the American educational landscape. Despite their prominence in schools, significant

investigation into their arrest-making behavior has not occurred. This article uses responses to a

statewide survey of SROs in Delaware to explore SRO arrest decision making. Guided by Black’s

general theory of arrest, it analyzes the effect of the school context on SROs’ arrest decisions. The

SROs’ survey responses indicate that the factors highlighted by Black as influential to arrest decisions

remain prominent in SRO arrest decision making, but the school context influences their arrest

decisions in a variety of critical ways.

Keywords

school resource officers, arrest decision making, school discipline, criminalization of schools

Introduction

During the 1990s, school resource officers (SROs) emerged as prominent actors in increasingly

punitive school discipline policies adopted in public schools across the United States. With their

ranks growing beyond 20,000 nationally and their presence in a majority of middle and high schools,

SROs are now commonplace in America’s schools (Theriot, 2009). Following the mass shooting at

Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, many are calling for an expansion of SRO programs

as a way to safeguard American school children from such tragic events (e.g., Hutchinson, 2013; St.

George & Wiggins, 2013). Despite this, limited research exists that explores how SROs perform

their various duties in school (Brown, 2006; May, Fessel, & Means, 2004). SROs’ arrest powers hold

particular significance because they threaten to fundamentally disrupt the lives of the youth that bear

their effects, whether by obstructing employment prospects and college admission or by propelling

at-risk students into the ‘‘school-to-prison pipeline.’’ Moreover, the presence of SROs in schools

renders interactions between students and the police more likely to occur and arrest decisions more

frequent. Thus, a comprehensive understanding how SROs wield their arrest powers is essential.

Little has been written about how SROs make the decision of whether a student should be arrested

for alleged misbehavior. Theriot (2009) analyzed school arrest data in schools with and without

1

Beasley School of Law, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kerrin C. Wolf, Beasley School of Law, Temple University, 1719 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.

Email: kerrinwolf@temple.edu

Youth Violence and JuvenileJustice

2014, Vol. 12(2) 137-151

ªThe Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/1541204013491294

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