CHAPTER OUTLINE
Ciara,
1. age 11, lives in Harlem with mother and 3 siblings.
2. has problems in school behaviorally and academically
3. she challenges her teachers and seeks refuge among group of older troubled
teens and is great risk of dropout
4. Ciara is required to attend after school Drug Power, a youth leadership program
5. Ciara loves the music and connects with the youth counselors
6. Ciara learns self control and importance of rational productive decision-making
7. Ciara graduates high school and hopes to attend college
I. The School in Modern American Society
A. Role in shaping the values of children
1. today more than 90% of school-age children attend school
2. only 7% of school-age children attended school in 1890
3. today’s young people spend most of their time in school
4. adolescence is prolonged because young people spend a longer
time in school
5. they are not considered adults because they have not entered the
work world
B. Socialization and status
1. children spend their school hours with their peers
2. school has become a primary determinant of economic and social
status
3. educational achievement has become of equal determinant of
economic success
4. many youths do not meet acceptable standards of school
achievement
5. school failure continues to be a major problem for U.S. society
C. Education in crisis
1. U.S. trails in critical academic areas
2. U.S. 8th-graders lag behind students in some less affluent nations
3. U.S. devotes less of its resources to education than do many other
Nations
4. about 18 percent of children are not familiar with basic rules of print
or writing
D. Dropping out
1.
74 percent of freshman graduate high school
2.
dropouts are much more likely to be unemployed
3.
kids drop out because they do not like school or need to get a job.
Other reasons are low academic achievement, poor problemsolving ability, low self esteem, difficulty getting along with
teachers, and substance abuse. Almost half of all female dropouts
4.
did so because they were pregnant. Poverty and family
dysfunction are correlated with dropout.
each dropout costs society about 243,000 to 388,000 dollars in his
or her lifetime, and if she or he turns to crime, each future criminal
costs 1.3-1.5 million.
II. Academic Performance and Delinquency
A. Poor academic performance
1. directly linked to delinquent behavior
2. school failure is a stronger predictor of delinquency
3. delinquents are often academically deficient
4. self-report delinquent acts correlated with school attachment and
achievement
5. academic failure and delinquency is commonly among chronic
offenders
6.
only 9 percent of the chronic offenders in Wolfgang’s cohort
graduated from high school, compared to 74 percent of
non-offenders.
7. 40% of incarcerated felons had twelve or more years of education
B. School failure and delinquency
1. school experience is a direct cause of delinquent behavior
2. children who fail at school soon feel frustrated and rejected
3. school failure leads to psychological dysfunction causing antisocial
behavior
4. academic failure reduces self-esteem
5. view is that school failure and delinquency share a common cause
a. delinquents may have lower IQs than non-delinquents
b. delinquent behavior has been associated with a turbulent
family life
c. delinquency has been associated with low self-control and
impulsivity
d. drug use, depression, abuse, and disease symptoms of
troubled lifestyle
C. Causes of school failure
1. social class and school failure
a. delinquency was a phenomenon of working-class students
b. failure to live up to middle-class measuring rods
c. school disadvantages of lower-class caused by social structure
d. economic problems require them to take part-time jobs
e. boys who do poorly in school are more likely to be delinquent
i. regardless of their socioeconomic background
f. middle-class delinquents are more likely to experience school
failure
2. tracking is dividing students into groups according to ability level
a. contributor to student delinquency
b. participate less in extracurricular activities
c. some school officials begin tracking students in the lowest grade
levels
d. effects of school labels accumulate over time
alienation
e. has been identified as a link between school failure and
delinquency
f. attachment to teachers helps insulate high-risk adolescents from
delinquency
g. some students to feel that the school experience is a waste of
time
h. hundreds of thousands of youth are absent from school
III. Delinquency in The School
A. Violent Schools—Safe Schools (1977)
1.40% of robberies and 36% of physical attacks involving teenagers occur
in school
2. students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12 were victims of about
1.9 million total crimes
3. amount and rate of school crime has actually been in decline
B. Focus on Delinquency: Bullying in School
1.
bullying is repeated, negative acts toward a child
2.
may be physical or verbal
3.
30-50 percent of gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people
are harassed in an educational setting
4.
both bully and victim(s) suffer short- and long-term consequences
tend to not grow out of victim role
5.
chronic victims of bullying may suffer depression, poor
self-esteem, and other mental problems as adults
6.
aggression at age eight powerful predictor of criminality and
violence well into adulthood (up to age 30)
7.
Olweus prevention plan
a. school wide interventions
b. classroom-level interventions
c. individual-level interventions
7.
Olweus program receives positive evaluation and is used in US
and a number of countries around the world
C. School shootings
1. 10% of students report bringing weapons to school on a regular
basis
2. Secret Service has developed a profile of school shootings
and shooters
a. more than half had considered the attack for at least two
weeks and had a plan for at least two days
b. attackers’ mental anguish was well known
c. threats were communicated in more than three-fourths of
the cases
d. no accurate or useful profile of at-risk kids developed
e. drugs and alcohol had little involvement in school violence
f. shooters had a history of feeling extremely depressed or
desperate
g. most frequent motivation was revenge
3. factors linked to children who engage in serious school violence
a. social withdrawal
b. excessive feelings of isolation and being alone
c. excessive feelings of rejection
d. being a victim of violence
e. feelings of being picked on and persecuted
f. low school interest and poor academic performance
g. expression of violence in writings and drawings
h. uncontrolled anger
i. history of discipline problems
j. history of violent and aggressive behavior
k. membership in hate groups
l. drug use and alcohol use
m. inappropriate access to, possession of, and use of firearms
n. serious threats of violence
D. Who commits school crime?
1. most likely to be found in socially disorganized neighborhoods
2. high proportion of students behind grade level in reading
3. school crime is a function of the community in which the school is
located
4. school-based crimes have survival value
5. high population density and transient populations have problem-prone
schools
E. Reducing school crime
1. crime-free, weapon-free, or safe-school zone statutes
2. defined zones to include school transportation and school
-sponsored functions
3. schools have instituted strict controls over student activity
4. zero tolerance policy mandates predetermined punishments for
specific offenses
5. schools restrict entry of dangerous persons by having visitors sign
in before entry
6. most close the campus for lunch
7. mechanical security devices such as surveillance cameras
8. 4% of schools use random metal detectors
9. infiltrate undercover detectives on school grounds
10. improving the school climate and increasing educational standards
IV. Role of the School in Delinquency Prevention
A. Reform efforts
1. make the educational system more responsive to the needs of
students
2. children undergo enormous pressures while in school
3. U.S. is facing an educational crisis
4. alternative schools
a. positive learning environment
b. low student-teacher ratios
c. individualized learning
B. School-based prevention programs
1. cognitive
2. affective
3. behavioral
4. environmental
5. therapeutic
6. personalized student-teacher relationships have been recommended
7. integrate job training and experience with classroom instruction
8. growing need for after-school programs
9. Twenty-First Century Community Learning Centers
10. teens who attend after-school activities achieve higher grades
V. Legal Rights in the School
A. Right to personal privacy
1. right of school officials to search students and possessions on
school grounds
2. in 1984, New Jersey v. T.L.O.
3. students are constitutionally protected from illegal searches
4. school officials are not bound by the same restrictions as police
5. school officials legally search students based on reasonable
suspicion
B. Drug testing
1. in 1995, Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton
2. legalized a random drug-testing policy for student athletes
C. Academic privacy
1. right to expect that their records will be kept private
2. 1974 federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
3. restricts disclosure of student’s education records without parental
consent
D. Free speech
1. freedom of speech is guaranteed in the First Amendment
2. passive speech is a form of expression not associated with
speaking words
a. in 1969, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School
District
b. conduct will interfere with the discipline required to
operate the school
3. right to discipline a student who uses obscene or profane language and
gestures
4. ruled that the principal could censor articles in a student
publication
5. suspended students for posting defamatory messages on Web sites
E. School prayer
1. many view it as a violation of the principle of separation of church and
state
2. in 2000, Santa Fe Independent School District, Petitioner v. Jane Doe
3. student council chaplain delivered a prayer over the PA before
each game
4. prayer initiated and led by a student at all home games
5. prayers led by elected student undermines the protection of
minority viewpoints
6. Santa Fe case severely limits school-sanctioned prayer at public
events
7. in 2001, Good News Club v. Milford Central School
a. provide space for an after-school Bible club for elementary
students
b. it could not be perceived that the school was endorsing the
club
F. School discipline
1. most states have statutes permitting teachers to use corporal
punishment
2. concept of in loco parentis
3. in 1977, Ingraham v. Wright
4. today twenty-four states still allow physical punishment
5. in 1976, Goss v. Lopez
6. entitled to a hearing if suspended for up to ten days
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Youths spend much of their time in school because education has become
increasingly important as a determinant of social and economic success. Educational
institutions are among the primary instruments of socialization, and as such they are
bound to influence the amount of delinquent behavior by school-age children. There is a
strong association between school failure and delinquency. Those who claim a causal
link between school failure and delinquency cite two major factors: (1) academic failure,
which arises from lack of aptitude, labeling, or class conflict and results in tracking, and
(2) alienation from the educational experience, which is the result of the impersonal
nature of schools, the passive role assigned to students, and students’ perception of their
education as irrelevant to their future lives.
Student misbehaviors, which may have their roots in the school experience, range
from minor infractions of school rules (for example, smoking and loitering in the halls) to
serious crimes, such as assault, arson, drug abuse, and vandalism. In summary, schools
have the right to discipline students, but students are protected from unreasonable,
excessive, and arbitrary discipline. Truancy is a significant educational problem. Some
dissatisfied students drop out of school, and research has shown a decline in delinquency
among those who do drop out. The school has also been the setting for important
delinquency prevention efforts. Among the measures taken are security squads,
electronic surveillance, and teacher training. Students do not lose their legal rights at the
schoolhouse door. Among the most important legal issues facing students are the right to
privacy, free speech, fair discipline, and freedom of religion.