Theory of change for school-based law enforcement: deterrence logic with expected safety benefits and possible criminalizing side effects¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 7 claims (4 for, 3 mixed) · 1 study (1 quant-synthesis), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 7 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review articulates a general theory of change (Figure 1) for SBLE programs, spanning patrol strategies, school resource officer allocation, police-school liaisons, safe routes programs, and community/problem-oriented policing. The core mechanism is deterrence: "crime is less likely to occur in situations where a potential offender perceives a high risk that they will be caught," with increased surveillance expected to reduce misbehavior, raise perceived safety, and secondarily improve attendance, test scores, and school climate. The review also lays out a competing account in which police presence leads to overuse of legal responses, more punishment of marginalized students, increased fear, and harm to learning outcomes.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Sworn law enforcement officers stationed in schools on at least a part-time basis, focused on crime prevention or school safety rather than teaching a curriculum

Constraints¶

• There is no standard definition for SBLE, nor a common training, job description, or chain of authority, so the intervention has high expected heterogeneity in implementation and effects

Target Learners¶

• Primary and secondary school students (K-12)

Target Learning Objectives¶

• School safety, crime prevention, perceptions of school climate and safety, and learning outcomes such as attendance, grades, and test scores

Claims¶

• Sble Associated Greater School Level Crime Behavior Problems [+M]
• Sble Increases Exclusionary Discipline [+M]
• Sble No Beneficial Learning Effects [+M]
• The SBLE evidence base contains no randomized experiments and carries high risk of bias [~W]
• Review findings are consistent across study design features; no moderator showed meaningful relationships [~W]
• Student-level analyses find no statistically significant association between SBLE and crime or behavior outcomes, from only four reports [~W]
• Students in schools with SBLE tended to feel safer, but this finding rests on very little data [+W]

Related Theories¶

Examples¶

• Strengthen the evidence base on school-based law enforcement through rigorous experimental studies, including random assignment designs

Key Sources¶

• Lb0