Do School Resource Officers Contribute to Net Widening? Evidence from a Southern State
ORCID
May: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8275-6773
MSU Affiliation
College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Sociology
Creation Date
2026-06-01
Abstract
There has been considerable recent scholarly commentary about the existence of a school-to-prison pipeline. In this research, several authors have questioned whether the presence of school resource officers (SROs) has increased the proportion of students being referred to juvenile justice systems for status or minor offenses. Research to date, however, has not established a clear relationship between the presence of SROs and these referrals. In this study, we examine the relationship between referrals made in urban and rural schools to determine whether rural students are disadvantaged by net widening when compared with their urban counterparts. To carry out this study of justice by geography, the referrals of 57,005 urban and rural students into the juvenile justice system of a southeastern state over a three-year period were analyzed. The findings presented here suggest that there are important rural/urban differences in the impact of the Department of Human Services and schools in the expansion of the school-to-prison pipeline. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed.
Publication Date
8-31-2016
Publication Title
Journal of Rural Social Sciences
Publisher
Southern Rural Sociological Association; University of Mississippi
Rights
Copyright © by the Southern Rural Sociological Association
Recommended Citation
May, David, Raymond Barranco, Rick Ruddell, and Angela Robertson. 2016. "Do Rural School Resource Officers Contribute to Net-Widening? Evidence from a Southern State." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 31(2): Article 5. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol31/iss2/5
