Fear of a Black (and Poor) School: Race, Class, and School Safety Policy Preferences

• Author: Raven Lewis,Adam Dunbar,Aaron Kupchik,Cresean Hughes
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368719881679
• Date: 01 April 2022
• Published date: 01 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Fear of a Black (and Poor)

School: Race, Class,

and School Safety

Policy Preferences

Adam Dunbar

1

, Aaron Kupchik

1

,

Cresean Hughes

1

, and Raven Lewis

1,2

Abstract

School security and punishment practices have changed throughout the United States

since the 1990s. Yet we know little about public support for these practices nor how

this support varies when considering different students. The current study uses an

experimental approach to assess public preferences for school punishment and

security practices and how public opinion relates to student body race and class, as

well as attitudes about crime. Results indicate that participants prefer security mea-

sures for schools with more low-income students and mental health services for

schools with more high-income students. We also find that participants with racialized

views of crime, along with those who view crime as a growing problem and fear

victimization, are more supportive of carceral disciplinary policies and less supportive

of therapeutic polic ies. We conclude by considering how ostensibly race-neutral

mechanisms, such as attitudes about poverty and crime, may contribute to racially

disparate surveillance and punishment practices.

Keywords

public opinion, school security, school discipline, race/ethnicity, fear of crime

Despite substantial long-term declines in student crime and misbehavior, schools

nationwide have, since the 1990s, turned to increasing use of suspensions and

expulsions as well as security practices such as metal detectors, drug-sniffing police

1

Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

2

School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ

Corresponding Author:

Adam Dunbar, Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, Turlington Hall,

Room 3108B, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.

Email: dunbara@ufl.edu

Race and Justice

ªThe Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368719881679

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2022, Vol. 12(2) 344–\ 367

Article

dogs, and armed securityguards (Kupchik, 2010; Nance,2017). Prior work shows clear

racial disproportionality in the impact of these practices, with youth of color being

more likely to be suspended, expelled, or arrested while at school (Fabelo et al., 2011;

Rocque & Paternoster, 2011; Skiba et al., 2014; U.S. Department of Education, 2018).

Nevertheless, we know little about public preferences for school security and

punishment. That is, are school security practices and exclusionary punishments (like

suspensions) preferred over other approaches? Additionally, do these preferences vary

based on the racial and class composition of a school? Given that locally elected

school boards make decisions about school policies and spending, it is important for

research to examine public preferences about school policies when considering var-

iation in school security and punishment.

The current study addresses this limitation by assessing public attitudes about

school security and punishment relative to other approaches to school safety.

In particular, using an experimental design, we consider how (1) the racial and class

composition of student bodies and (2) attitudes about crime, particularly racialized

fears of crime, influence participants’ preferences for school security and punishment

practices. Our analyses contribute to our understanding of public support for the kinds

of school practices that have become commonplace since the 1990s and how they may

be based on broadly shared racialized and classist perceptions of students and schools.

In the remainder of the article, first, we survey research on public opinions related

to school safety, noting gaps in our understanding of this topic. Second, we briefly

review the substantial literature on race, class, and school punishment, highlighting

why the racial and class composition of a school may inform policy preferences

related to punishment and security. We also discuss research revealing how attitudes

about crime, specifically racialized concerns about crime, can shape attitudes toward

punishment more broadly, which may extend to support for school policies oriented

toward security and punishment. Third, we describe the methodological details of our

study, the approach used to analyze our data, and key findings from our analyses.

Finally, we discuss how our findings contribute to a broader understanding of support

for school security and punishment practices as well as the specific implications for

conceptualizations of race/ethnicity and social control.

Public Preferences for School Security and Punishment

Increased punishments for student misbehavior and tighter school security date back

to the early 1990s, predating the shooting at Columbine High School and other more

recent school tragedies (Kupchik, 2010). Yet recent school shootings, such as the

events in Newtown, CT (in 2012), and Parkland, FL (in 2018), have intensified fears

about violence in schools (Cornell, 2006). One recent national poll, conducted in July

of 2018, finds that more than one third of parents fear for their child’s safety while at

school, marking the highest levels of fear among parents in two decades (Richmond,

2018). Another nationally representative poll in March 2019 finds that 67%of adults

believe that schools are less safe today than they were 20 years ago (Associated Press-

National Opinion Research Center [NORC], 2019). These fears among the public

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Dunbar et al.