Policing and the Safety Logic in the School Context: Perceptions of Danger and Definitions of Law Enforcement Academic Article uri icon

Abstract

  • How police construct definitions of law enforcement has been a longstanding
    inquiry in criminology. This research has demonstrated that police subculture
    values, such as how police are socialized to hyperfocus on danger and safety,
    can have a strong influence on officer decisions. These cultural logics can
    intersect with conditions of the environment to shape definitions of law
    enforcement. Particularly, school police offer an opportunity to elucidate how
    these cultural logics are used to construct definitions across contexts. We
    draw from 26 interviews with school police to investigate what cultural logic is
    used to construct law enforcement definitions. We illustrate how definitions
    were driven by a safety logic, which structured wide-ranging student behaviors
    as underspecified signals of danger mandating legal intervention.

Publication Date

  • 2024-03-01