The Culture of Control in Schools: How Punitive and Disadvantaged Spaces Impact Race-Specific Suspension Rates

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221110984
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221110984

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(4) 384 –410

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221110984

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Article

The Culture of Control in

Schools: How Punitive and

Disadvantaged Spaces Impact

Race-Specific Suspension

Rates

Cresean Hughes1

Abstract

Across American societal institutions, a punitive culture of control and surveillance

has manifested in a variety of ways, including exponential growth in incarceration

rates and school suspension rates over the last four decades. To date, much of

the scholarship exploring the relationship between criminal justice outcomes

and school-based outcomes has focused primarily on how school punishment is

consequential for future involvement in the justice system. What remains unclear,

however, is whether an alternative relationship exists. That is, does a culture of

control foster an environment where punitiveness in the criminal justice system

is mirrored by punitiveness within schools? Drawing on carceral perspectives and

place-based stratification theories and analyzing a random sample of Florida middle

and high schools combined with school district data, several key findings emerge.

Specifically, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended in places

with higher incarceration rates; all students are more likely to be suspended in

places with greater concentrated disadvantage; and Black and Hispanic students are

significantly more likely to be suspended when attending schools in places with high

incarceration rates and greater concentrated disadvantage. These findings highlight

the interconnectedness of place and social control in the school setting.

Keywords

school punishment, incarceration, concentrated disadvantage, culture of control

1University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Corresponding Author:

Cresean Hughes, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, 18 Amstel

Avenue, 314 Smith Hall, Newark, DE 19716, USA.

Email: cresean@udel.edu

1110984CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221110984Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeHughes

research-article2022

Hughes 385

Introduction

The criminalization of American school students has been a consistent theme over the

last four decades (Hirschfield, 2008; Morris, 2016; Rios, 2011). In response to real and

perceived concerns over school violence, schools and school districts have embraced

increased security and surveillance measures and zero-tolerance policies (Simon,

2007). This intensification of disciplinary and safety strategies in schools has coincided

with increased office referrals (Rocque & Paternoster, 2011), detentions, suspensions,

and expulsions (Gottfredson & Gottfredson, 2001). The Office of Civil Rights (OCR)

reports that dating back to the 2000–2001 school year, even as student misconduct rates

have declined, at least 3 million of the approximately 50 million students in U.S.

schools have experienced exclusionary school punishment annually (U.S. Department

of Education, 2018). Notably, students of color have disproportionately borne the brunt

of this punitive school environment (Jacobsen et al., 2019; Bell, 2021). Compared to

their White counterparts, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended

(Government Accountability Office, 2018; Lehmann et al., 2021; Hughes et al., 2017),

more likely to be suspended for their first infraction (Fabelo et al., 2011), more likely to

receive office referrals (Rocque & Paternoster, 2011), more likely to be suspended for

the same or lesser offenses (U.S. Department of Education, 2018), and less likely to

receive restorative discipline (Welch & Payne, 2010). These disparities persist even

after controlling for student misconduct (Gregory & Weinstein, 2008).

As scholars have attempted to explore the factors associated with the escalation of

and the racial and ethnic disparities in school punishment, one explanation that has

received less attention is incarceration. Given the 400% increase in the U.S. incarcera-

tion rate over the last 40 years, a present-day prison population of approximately 1.5

million, and the disproportionately stratifying effects of incarceration (Brayne, 2014),

it is reasonable to consider whether the intensification in criminal justice punitiveness

is indicative of a culture of control that is reflected across other societal contexts, espe-

cially schools (Alexander, 2010; Garland, 2001). In other words, is there a culture of

control that is locally concentrated to the extent that incarceration and school punish-

ment are associated? To date, existing scholarship has given this possibility less

consideration.

Much of the research examining the relationship between schools and incarceration

has explored whether school outcomes predict future involvement in the criminal jus-

tice system (Mowen & Brent, 2016; Pesta, 2018; Wolf & Kupchik, 2017). Although

research supports the notion that school outcomes influence the likelihood of future

criminal justice contact, this study considers whether an alternative relationship exists

also—the possibility that punishment in the criminal justice system is associated with

punishment in schools. That is, are incarceration rates associated with school suspen-

sion rates? Consequently, a growing literature has highlighted how the differences in

punishment in the justice system and punishment in other institutions have become

less distinguishable (Hirschfield, 2008; Wacquant, 2001). Because of this carceral

mesh, the major themes of the modern justice system—surveillance, correction, and

control—have been expanded and adopted across societal institutions, particularly