Dissertation

Functions of School Resource Officers in Relation to Incidents within Schools

Heffler, Jennifer

2023

Overview

Despite a lack of empirical support for its efficacy in reducing violence, there remains a strong tendency among schools to respond to the threat of school violence via increased security measures, such as school resource officers (SROs) (Jonson, 2017). Although the implementation of SROs continues to center on their law enforcement background and violence reduction, their tasks have extended to include mentoring and/or teaching roles. In response to these expanding functions, researchers have designated a triad of responsibilities as a template for SRO tasks (McKenna et al., 2016; NASRO, n.d.). However, despite the proposal of the triad as a model for SRO functionality in schools, there is minimal evidence regarding SRO engagement in the triad or how this engagement relates to school violence.The purpose of this study was to examine this triad in greater detail, examining both its implementation in the study sample as well as the relationship between triad engagement and problematic incidents within schools. The School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), (NCES, 2019) provided a sample of 2,762 schools to accomplish this objective. Among schools with an SRO present, the most prevalent triad engagement level was high, or those participating in all three triad arms. Schools with low engagement SROs, those participating in only law-enforcement tasks, were least prevalent. Overall, SRO presence was associated with significantly more problematic incidents recorded and reported to police. Finally, triad engagement was found to be a significant predictor of problematic incidents, though this relationship differed based on engagement group and incident type.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: Education Policy / Educational psychology / School counseling
• ISBN: 9798371979889