Journal article
Information Gathering in School Contexts: A National Survey of School Resource Officers
Law and human behavior, v 45(4), pp 356-369
01 Aug 2021
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Objective: Despite the presence of law enforcement personnel in schools (i.e., school resource officers or SROs) and the increased recognition of the importance of developmentally appropriate questioning practices, the school context remains underexamined within the juvenile interrogation literature. In the present study, we sought to take an initial step in addressing this gap by conducting a national survey of SROs in the U.S. regarding their questioning practices with children and youth in schools and SROs' associated developmental knowledge and training. Hypotheses: We made several predictions including that SROs would (1) report regular involvement in questioning students. particularly adolescents; (2) demonstrate accurate developmental knowledge in some respects, generally viewing children as more developmentally limited than adolescents; and (3a) consider age and the nature of the offense in their questioning of students while (3b) demonstrating some gaps in applying their developmental knowledge to interrogative contexts (e.g., endorsing some developmentally inappropriate questioning practices). Method: SROs across the United States (N = 287, 81% male. M-age = 42 years, 93% White) completed a survey examining their perceptions of child/youth development and interrogation practices and training as well as their responses to hypothetical scenarios. Results: SROs reported regular involvement in questioning students about criminal behavior. SROs demonstrated awareness of some important developmental limitations of children/youth but, at times, did not appear to apply this knowledge when questioning juveniles themselves. Approximately half of the sampled SROs had not received training regarding juvenile interrogation. and most indicated a need for more structured training on the topic. Conclusion: SROs serve as information gatherers within the school setting who may benefit from additional juvenile interviewing/interrogation training.
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Details
- Title
- Information Gathering in School Contexts: A National Survey of School Resource Officers
- Creators
- Mark D. Snow - University of Ontario Institute of TechnologyLindsay C. Malloy - University of Ontario Institute of TechnologyNaomi E. S. Goldstein - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Law and human behavior, v 45(4), pp 356-369
- Publisher
- Educational Publishing Foundation-American Psychological Assoc
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- 752-2019-1596 / Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Ontario Tech University Internal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Small Grant (SSHRC Institutional Grant Program)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000704237100006
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85119196066
- Other Identifier
- 991019302292204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Law
- Psychology, Social