Law enforcement officers (often called school resource officers or SROs) are an increasingly common feature in schools across the United States. Although SROs’ roles vary across school contexts, there has been little examination of why. One possible explanation is that SROs perceive threats differently in different school contexts and that the racial composition of schools may motivate these differences. To investigate this possibility, this study analyzes interviews with 73 SROs from two different school districts that encompass schools with a variety of racial compositions. Across both districts, SROs perceived three major categories of threats: student-based, intruder-based, and environment-based threats. However, the focus and perceived severity of the threats varied across districts such that SROs in the district with a larger proportion of White students were primarily concerned about external threats (i.e., intruder-based and environment-based) that might harm the students, whereas SROs in the district with a larger proportion of Black students were primarily concerned with students themselves as threats. We consider how these results relate to understandings of school security, inequality among students, racially disparate experiences with school policing, and school and policing policy.

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In the current study, we propose an integrative approach, which will incorporate elements from the social learning and self-control theories of delinquency and crime to examine violence in an understudied, marginalized, and often discriminated subpopulation group—American Indian youth. The analysis is based on survey data collected between 2009 and 2013 from a sample of American Indian adolescents ( N = 3,380) enrolled in 27 school districts located in five regions of the United States (Northern Plains, Southwest, Upper Great Lakes, Southeast/Texas, and the Northeast). The main objective of the analysis is to identify the factors more likely to predict violent offending among American Indian adolescents, a vulnerable group that has an elevated risk of violent victimization. Results of the Tobit regression analysis indicate that in both gender groups a low level of self-control, association with delinquent friends, poor school performance, and underage alcohol consumption significantly predict violence perpetration. Nonetheless, experience with direct violent victimization has the largest effect on male and female adolescents’ violent behavior. Although living with both biological parents and childhood exposure to domestic violence do not influence significantly the adolescents’ aggressive behavior, parental monitoring does have a significant violence-deterrent effect in both gender groups. Findings suggest that more opportunities should be created for indigenous communities to control their education systems and ensure American Indian students achieve academic success, which is one of the violence protective factors identified in this study. Moreover, measures meant to prevent youth violence in American Indian communities should also focus on parents/caregivers who, directly and indirectly, have the capacity to reduce the adolescents’ risk of becoming victims and/or perpetrators of violence.

This study investigates risk factors that predict the likelihood of homicide as a result of intimate partner violence. Using a subsample of the 2011 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data, we estimate binary logistic regression models comparing homicide by intimate partners to aggravated assault by intimate partners. Several victim characteristics (race, age), offender characteristics (age, race, relationship with victim), and situational characteristics (weapon use, offender alcohol use) differentiated homicide incidents from aggravated assault incidents. The findings provide evidence that characteristics of victims, offenders, and events contribute to the likelihood that intimate partner violence will escalate to homicide.

There is little empirical work examining how individuals’ characteristics and lifestyles may influence hate crime victimization. In addition, while recent research suggests that social disorganization theory is useful for understanding hate crime, more studies are needed to understand how community characteristics influence hate crime victimization. This study conducts multilevel models using survey data from approximately 3,700 individuals nested within 123 neighborhoods in order to examine whether lifestyles and neighborhood context contribute to ethnic hate crime victimization. The results identify several measures of lifestyle that are associated with hate crime victimization. In addition, neighborhood collective efficacy was related to lower risk for hate crime victimization. The results provide support for lifestyle-routine activities theory and social disorganization theory and contribute to our understanding of hate crime victimization.