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School Discipline & Juvenile Crime

December 29, 2016 3:37 PM | Posted by Michael Rushford | 4 Comments
Mall violence, usually caused by roving gangs of teenagers, has been in the headlines over the holidays.  in most of the news stories on this issue, law enforcement and security officials speculated that social media had contributed to these incidents, presumably by allowing perpetrators to quickly alert other teens where and when to gather and riot.  Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald  suggests that a larger contributing factor is the Obama Administration's years of pressuring schools to stop suspending unruly students in order to prevent racist teachers from disproportionately disciplining black students.  This practice, called "restorative justice", seems to have caused significant increases in school violence in districts which have fully embraced it.  With little or no discipline at home or at school, who is surprised that teen mobs are beating people and damaging property at shopping malls?   

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4 Comments

notablogger | December 30, 2016 8:42 AM | Reply

This is a huge stretch. School "discipline" means suspension or expulsion, which means more teens on the streets rather than in school. How does that translate into less violence committed by teens?

Also, the Seattle homicide cited in the op-ed piece was allegedly committed by three boys who were homeless and living in an illegal tent camp under a freeway overpass that was riddled with drugs and violence -- would suspending them from school have prevented this crime?

This appears to me to be a classic case of correlation vs. causation, and thus, a logical fallacy. I do not dispute that juvenile violence needs a stronger response -- but I do dispute whether suspending or expelling teens from school would have anything other than an undesirable effect.

TarlsQtr | December 30, 2016 9:40 AM | Reply

I have no way of supporting this, but I suspect the cumulative impact of telling kids your actions have no negative consequences significantly outweighs any crimes committed by students while suspended.

There is also not much of a reason to believe that the kids deserving of suspension would be crime free in school if they were not suspended.

Kent Scheidegger replied to comment from notablogger | December 30, 2016 11:14 AM | Reply

But school discipline shouldn't mean just suspension or expulsion. Back when schools did discipline right, most discipline was within school, and suspension and expulsion were last resorts, employed much more sparingly than they are today.

Putting aside for a moment the particular points Ms. MacDonald makes, I do think that the degradation of school discipline over the last several decades has been a significant "root cause" of crime. School should be a mini-society in which kids see and experience that doing the right thing produces the best results for yourself as well as for others.

When kids look around and see that cheaters do indeed prosper, the implications for our society are grave.

mjs | December 30, 2016 1:41 PM | Reply

Consistent school discipline may be a students first introduction to the concept that "actions have consequences."

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