RT Article
T1 Policing and the Safety Logic in the School Context: Perceptions of Danger and Definitions of Law Enforcement
JF Crime & delinquency
VO 71
IS 10
SP 3336
OP 3361
A1 Higgins, Ethan M.
A1 Fisher, Benjamin W.
A1 Overstreet, Suzanne
A1 Dawson-Edwards, Cherie
A2 Fisher, Benjamin W.
A2 Overstreet, Suzanne
A2 Dawson-Edwards, Cherie
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1935040472
AB 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.
K1 School crime
K1 Subculture
K1 Policing
DO 10.1177/00111287241237982