Disproportionality in Daily Metal Detector Student Searches in U.S. Public Schools |
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Authors: | Billie Gastic Dominique Johnson |
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Affiliation: | Independent Scholar, New York, NY, USA |
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Abstract: | While the effectiveness of metal detectors to improve school safety remains debated, many public schools continue to rely on this technology to control school violence. Among them is the 1% of public schools where students are searched on a daily basis by metal detector. This study examines the school-level risk factors associated with daily searches to estimate the disproportionality of their use in high-violence, majority-minority public schools. Analyzing data from the 2007?2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, this study finds that 91% of public schools that perform daily metal detector searches of students are high-violence, majority-minority schools. However, the results also show that, among high-violence schools, those with majority-minority enrollments are significantly more likely than others to conduct these searches. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of policy responses to school violence that are distinct and disproportionate according to student demographics, rather than safety conditions. |
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Keywords: | metal detectors urban schools disproportionality students of color school violence |
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