An evaluation of police officers in schools as a bullying intervention

•Police officers in schools are evaluated as a bullying intervention.•SRO use in schools did not impact bullying relative to no SRO use.•To reduce bullying, programs should focus on teaching social/emotional skills rather than security. Despite existing efforts to prevent bullying, research suggests...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evaluation and program planning 2018-12, Vol.71, p.12-21
Main Authors: Devlin, Deanna N., Santos, Mateus Rennó, Gottfredson, Denise C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bullying
Control Groups
Crime
Discontinued
Educational Environment
Efficacy
Intervention
Police
Police officers
School
School climate
School discipline
School environment
School resource officers
School Surveys
School violence
Social skills
Teaching
Well being
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Summary:•Police officers in schools are evaluated as a bullying intervention.•SRO use in schools did not impact bullying relative to no SRO use.•To reduce bullying, programs should focus on teaching social/emotional skills rather than security. Despite existing efforts to prevent bullying, research suggests that bullying remains a serious and common problem across the United States. Therefore, researchers should continuously propose and evaluate alternative policies that may mitigate bullying as a social issue. One such strategy that has been proposed is the use of police officers in schools, best known as School Resource Officers (SROs). The current study evaluated the efficacy of SROs as an intervention against bullying in schools in the United States. Using a longitudinal sample consisting of three years of data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (n = 480), schools that initiated, discontinued, and continued their use of SROs from one time point to another were compared to a control group of schools. The findings indicate that SROs do not have an effect on bullying in schools. Policy implications of these findings suggest that programs that focus on components such as teaching social and emotional competency skills, improving relationships between students and adults, and creating a positive school environment may be more effective in reducing bullying than a security procedure such as the use of SROs. Alternative programs should be explored to mitigate bullying and improve the well-being of students.
ISSN:0149-7189
1873-7870
DOI:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.07.004