Date Approved

2026

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

First Advisor

Brian Sellers, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Julian M. Murchison, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Ann R. Eisenberg, Ph.D.

Abstract

This study critically examines how neoliberal social controls and school-based criminalization efforts emerged in response to a series of moral panics surrounding perceived increases in school violence and mass shootings. Largely, this response manifested in the form of rigid zerotolerance disciplinary policies focused on deterrence and retribution. However, research reveals the application of these policies produce racial and income-based disparities in how school discipline is administered, which contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline (i.e., a pathway for youth to be funneled out of education and into incarceration). As such, it is believed that racial threat dynamics may be contributing to the inequalities evident in the application of zero-tolerance punitiveness. This process reflects the same disparities seen in the U.S. criminal justice system, which disproportionately affects people of color and less affluent citizens who face imprisonment through mass incarceration. In this study, U.S. school disciplinary trends from the School Survey on Crime & Safety data from 2003-2010, collected by the National Center for Education Research, will be analyzed using a series of Analysis of Variances (ANOVAs) premised on testing the racial threat hypothesis. Additionally, the effectiveness of existing successful programs will be evaluated and strategies for their effectual deployment will be explored. Specifically, it will be argued that the implementation of viable program alternatives that aim to build skills and capacities within students to deal with conflict positively, while educating students on character and socio-emotional development to improve school climates and cultivate conditions for these preventative strategies to flourish.

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