Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Lori Demeter

Abstract

AbstractUnarmed, nonviolent public school students and sworn law enforcement officers carrying firearms and nightsticks making school-based arrests in a southeastern school district may contribute to the United States maintaining its distinction as the world leader in its use of incarceration. On any given day, nearly 60,000 youth under age 18 are incarcerated in juvenile jails and prisons in the United States. Arrest records for students are barriers to their college, employment, housing, military and immigration status. School Resource Officers are the entry point to the criminal justice system and the direct targeting of vulnerable groups by way of arrests. There is limited scholarly research that specifically states the required cultural competency training for SROs in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study is to explore whether there was a statistically significant relationship between SROs’ cultural competency training and the percentage of school-based arrests of marginalized students in a southeastern school district. Cultural competence theory served as the framework for this research. Data collected were based on government archival records retrieved from the public domain for school years (2016-2019) that resulted in the identification of 10,058 school-based arrests by SROs in one southeastern public K to 12 school district. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used to answer the research question. While statistically significant relationships were not supported by current data, the results of this study highlighted positive social change through the need for additional research on the cultural competency training of SROs in public schools with large populations of marginalized students.

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