With funding from AERA and NSF, research continues into the long-term negative consequences of juvenile arrest on college enrollment.
Earlier this year, news circulated about an incident in Lansing, Michigan, where a 12-year-old African American boy was wrongfully arrested for simply taking out the trash. The young boy, whose name I have omitted for privacy reasons, was misidentified by local law enforcement as resembling a suspect in a vehicle theft. Although he was eventually released after being handcuffed, and the police department later issued an apology following public outrage, the young boy had already been traumatized.
For some, it is easy to dismiss this unfortunate incident as a simple case of mistaken identity, and thus an outlier. However, decades of social science research tell us that young Black boys experience hyper-surveillance and criminalization at rates that exceed those of their peers, placing them at a heightened risk of contact with the criminal punishment system, whether through arrest or incarceration. And such contact is not without consequences.
Roughly eight years ago, I published an article from my dissertation work drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth:97 that examined the relationship between juvenile arrest and 4-year postsecondary enrollment for Black boys. I framed this work using the life course theory of cumulative disadvantage (LCTCD), which draws on the assumptions of both social control theory (Hirschi, 1969) and labeling theory (Becker, 1963; Lemert, 1951), to suggest that an arrest could serve as a negative turning point in one’s life course, leading to a series of detachment processes that increase the likelihood of school dropout.
Results from my study revealed the long-term negative consequences of juvenile arrest on college enrollment for Black boys. Specifically, those who reported an arrest by 1997 had a probability of zero for enrolling in college.
Today, I am revisiting this important line of work with funding from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The study, Educational Consequences of Early contact with the Criminal Punishment Systems, aims to examine the varying effects of juvenile arrests on 2- and 4-year college enrollment for a larger, more racially diverse sample. This renewed focus is not just an academic exercise but a crucial endeavor to understand and address the pervasive and persistent disparities in our criminal punishment and educational systems. The Lansing incident serves as a stark reminder of why this research is essential. It exemplifies how easily a young life can be potentially derailed by systemic biases, casting a long shadow over their prospects.
Building on the findings of my previous work, this study widens the aperture to examine how these dynamics play out across different racial and ethnic groups. The theoretical framework of LCTCD remains central to this study, guiding the exploration of how early life events, like an arrest, can significantly alter life trajectories. This lens allows for a deeper understanding of the systemic forces at play and the complex interplay between societal control mechanisms and individual life paths.
The goal of this research is to inform policies and interventions that can mitigate these adverse effects. By providing empirical evidence on the long-term impact of juvenile arrests, I aim to advocate for changes that can prevent such incidents from irreversibly harming educational opportunities. This work is not just about documenting disparities; it's about sparking meaningful change to ensure that incidents like the one in Lansing become a relic of the past, not a recurring narrative in our society.
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References
Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York, NY: Free Press.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of delinquency. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Lemert, E. M. (1951). Social pathology: A systematic approach to the theory of sociopathic behavior. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
