Disproportionate School Disciplinary Responses: An Exploration of Prisonization and Minority Threat Hypothesis Among Black, Hispanic, and Native American Students

• Author: Meghan M. Mitchell,Todd Armstrong,Gaylene Armstrong
• Date: 01 February 2020
• Published date: 01 February 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403418813672
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403418813672

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2020, Vol. 31(1) 80 –102

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403418813672

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Article

Disproportionate School

Disciplinary Responses: An

Exploration of Prisonization

and Minority Threat

Hypothesis Among Black,

Hispanic, and Native

American Students

Meghan M. Mitchell1, Gaylene Armstrong2,

and Todd Armstrong2

Abstract

This research tests two potential explanations of school disciplinary responses:

minority threat hypothesis and prisonization of schools. Data from the Arizona Safe

and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) survey and Arizona Youth Survey (AYS) are analyzed

using ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions. Findings demonstrate that the

percentage of Black, Hispanic, and Native American students was not associated with

exclusionary responses to school misconduct, but was linked to decreases in mild

and restorative disciplinary practices. Findings support the hypothesis that minority

threat reduces access to mild and restorative disciplinary responses. Although,

further research is needed on the roles of mental health professionals and counselors

in school disciplinary procedures to better guide policy and school administrator

expectations.

Keywords

school discipline, school misconduct, restorative justice, racial disparities, minority

threat hypothesis

1University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA

2University of Nebraska Omaha, USA

Corresponding Author:

Meghan M. Mitchell, University of Central Florida, 12805 Pegasus Drive, Orlando, FL 32816-2200, USA.

Email: mmitchell@ucf.edu

813672CJPXXX10.1177/0887403418813672Criminal Justice Policy ReviewMitchell et al.

research-article2018

Mitchell et al. 81

Despite declines in both school violence and the use of exclusionary discipline prac-

tices in general (Musu-Gillette et al., 2018; Musu-Gillette, Zhang, Wang, Zhang, &

Oudekerk, 2017), scholars have demonstrated that exclusionary discipline practices

are disproportionately applied to minority racial and ethnic groups (Kupchik & Ellis,

2007; Skiba & Peterson, 2000; Wallace, Goodking, Wallace, & Bachman, 2008;

Welch, 2017). Specifically, scholars have found that Black and Hispanic students are

punished more harshly than their White counterparts across suspensions, expulsions,

and school penalties (Gregory & Weinstein, 2008; Peguero & Shekarkhar, 2011;

Shollenberger, 2015; Skiba et al., 2011; Welch & Payne, 2010). While numerous

scholars have evaluated disparities in school discipline for Black and Hispanic stu-

dents, this research has not been extended to Native American students. This is an

important limitation given that Native American males experience the fourth highest

suspension rates for all students (Losen & Skiba, 2010).

The disproportionate application of exclusionary discipline practices has been

explained with the minority threat hypothesis and through the prisonization of schools.

Within schools, the minority threat hypothesis holds that changes in disciplinary prac-

tices may stem from increases in minority groups size, as powerful groups attempt to

maintain their hegemony. Studies have found the minority threat hypothesis to be

valuable in explaining increases in punitive disciplinary measures (Welch & Payne,

2010) and decreases in mild and restorative responses to school misconduct (Payne &

Welch, 2010, 2015). The increasing prisonization of schools and school policies may

also contribute to the use of exclusionary disciplinary responses. Since the 1990s,

schools have increasingly implemented systems of formal punishment including zero

tolerance policies (Advancement Project, 2005) and augmented security measures

(e.g., security cameras, locked premises, and metal detectors). These procedures make

it more common for schools to rely upon formal responses within the juvenile justice

system when serious offenses occur either in school or on school grounds (Kupchik &

Monahan, 2006; Rocque & Snellings, 2017). Despite these two potential explanations

of the variation in use of exclusionary disciplinary responses in schools, scholars have

not yet determined whether these theoretical explanations work in tandem or in con-

trast to account for the use of school discipline.

The contribution of the current study to the existing literature is twofold. First, this

study advances prior research by testing the extent to which school disciplinary prac-

tices are influenced by both minority threat and the prisonization of schools. Second,

this study extends prior work on the minority threat hypothesis by assessing the impact

of the presence of students who are Black, Hispanic, or Native American on disciplin-

ary responses, while accounting for contextual variation in minority threat. In doing

so, this study uses a sample of schools drawn from the 2004 wave of the Arizona Youth

Survey (AYS) and Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) survey conducted in Arizona.

Due to the large representation of Hispanic and Native Americans students within

Arizona schools, these data create an ideal opportunity to test the influence of minority

threat and school prisonization on discipline responses in schools.