Racial and Ethnic Identity, Gender, and School Suspension: Heterogeneous Effects Across Hispanic and Caribbean Subgroups
Author | Peter S. Lehmann,Ryan C. Meldrum |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00224278221120689 |
Published date | 01 March 2023 |
Date | 01 March 2023 |
Subject Matter | Articles |
Racial and Ethnic
Identity, Gender, and
School Suspension:
Heterogeneous
Effects Across
Hispanic and
Caribbean Subgroups
Peter S. Lehmann
1
and
Ryan C. Meldrum
2
Abstract
Objectives: This study explores the effects of racial/ethnic identity on youths’
likelihood of receiving a suspension from school as well as whether these
disparities further vary by gender. In light of recent demographic shifts
within the U.S., alternative theoretical rationales emphasizing such issues
as “exotic threat,”“stereotype lift,”and “reflected race”present conflicting
expectations regarding whether and how the disadvantages in school disci-
pline experienced generally by minority students might extend to youth in
certain Hispanic and Caribbean subgroups. Methods: We analyze data from
1
Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville,
TX, USA
2
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida International University, Miami, FL,
USA
Corresponding Author:
Peter S. Lehmann, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Sam Houston State
University, P.O. Box 2296, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA.
Email: psl003@shsu.edu
Thematic Issue: Centering Race in the Study of Crime and Criminal Justice
Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency
2023, Vol. 60(2) 167–212
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00224278221120689
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the 2018 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, which provides a large
statewide representative sample of youth enrolled in Florida public middle
and high schools (N=54,611). Results: Youth who are Black/non-Hispanic,
Haitian, West Indian/Caribbean, and Dominican are most likely to receive a
suspension from school, and these effects are particularly pronounced
among female students. Mixed evidence of Hispanic-White differences in
suspension is found, except for a heightened risk among Puerto Rican
youth. Conclusions: Some of the findings imply the importance of skin
tone and appearance over subgroup-specific perceptions of cultural or
criminal threat. However, the disadvantages experienced by Puerto Rican
students may represent an institutional response to their unique status as
recent migrants to Florida.
Keywords
school discipline, race/ethnicity, stereotypes, group threat, FYSAS
Over the past several decades, profound changes have occurred within the
racial and ethnic composition of the United States due to a notable influx
of immigrants from Latin American and Caribbean countries. Many scholars
have observed that these trends have been attended by hostility toward
members of minority groups (Brader et al. 2008; Chavez 2013; Wang
2012) and a desire to respond by mobilizing various social control mecha-
nisms, including the criminal justice system (e.g., Baker et al. 2018;
Buckler et al. 2009; Pickett 2016). These concurrent trends in demography
and public sentiment are salient for broader issues concerning racial/ethnic
stratification in the U.S.; indeed, emerging evidence suggests that traditional
distinctions between “White”and “non-White”increasingly are becoming
replaced by a more fluid and pluralistic social order where gradations of
Whiteness are paramount (Bonilla-Silva 2018; Gonlin 2020). Thus, in an
effort to measure race/ethnicity not solely as an immutable individual attri-
bute but rather as dependent on group dynamics and social contexts, schol-
ars have argued in favor of expanding conventional representations of race
that consider such issues as national origin and skin tone (e.g., Hirschman
2004; Khanna 2012; Morning 2018).
These transformations to the racial terrain of the U.S. have important
implications for how racial and ethnic identity are conceptualized by
researchers and, in turn, how punitive responses levied against minorities
by the criminal justice system and other institutions are understood. Of
168 Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 60(2)
particular interest to scholars in recent years has been the pervasive expan-
sion of out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and other forms of discipline in
American middle and high schools (Hirschfield 2018; Kupchik 2010),
which has occurred despite declining rates of juvenile delinquency and vic-
timization both in and out of school (Wang et al. 2020). The vast literature
on inequalities in the application of school discipline consistently has
revealed that minority youth are at disparate risk of receiving these out-
comes, even after accounting for a wide range of student- and school-level
factors (e.g., Anyon et al. 2014; 2018; Owens and McLanahan 2020;
Rocque 2010). In spite of these important developments, however, most
scholarship on youths’unequal exposure to this “new disciplinology”
(Rocque and Snellings 2018) fails to adequately consider the nuances of
racial, ethnic, and national identity, which increasingly are becoming
central to discussions of race more broadly.
Given the complexities surrounding race and ethnicity in the U.S., the
possibility of heterogeneity in the effects of minority status on the likelihood
of receiving punitive school sanctions represents an important line of inquiry
that heretofore remains unexplored. For instance, it is unclear whether the
disciplinary disadvantages associated with being Black are similar to, are
amplified among, or are mitigated for those with Caribbean ethnic identities,
including Haitian, Dominican, and West Indian youth. Relatedly, prior
scholarship has yet to establish whether the school discipline penalties expe-
rienced by Hispanic youth are consistent across all such subgroups or
whether differences might emerge among Mexican, Central American,
Puerto Rican, and Cuban students. Further, given the evidence regarding
the interactive relationship between race/ethnicity and gender in school
sanctioning (e.g., Carter et al., 2017; Morris and Perry 2017), the extent
to which the effects of racial/ethnic identification might vary between
male and female youth represents an unstudied dimension of these relation-
ships. Recent shifts in scholarly understandings of racial and ethnic identity
in the U.S. have highlighted the salience of these questions, and for this
reason the deconstruction of conventional, monolithic conceptualizations
of race represents a new direction for research on disparities in application
of institutional social control.
The aim of the current study is to address these issues by investigating (1)
whether there is heterogeneity in the likelihood of receiving a suspension
from school according to youths’racial or ethnic identity as measured
using 13 subgroups, and (2) if the effects of membership in these racial/
ethnic groups on the likelihood of suspension vary by gender. In the pro-
ceeding discussion, we first provide a review of the literature on school
Lehmann and Meldrum 169
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