Department of Psychology, Drexel University.
Law Hum Behav. 2021 Dec;45(6):497-511. doi: 10.1037/lhb0000453.
Developed to keep youth in school and out of court, the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program allows youth to avoid arrest for specified school-based summary and misdemeanor offenses. This study examined whether diverted youth were also less likely to experience exclusionary discipline, both in response to the referring incident and in the following calendar year.
We predicted that diverted youth-compared to youth arrested in schools the year before program implementation-would have been less likely to receive a suspension for their school-based incident, receive a suspension in the year following the incident, and be referred for permanent school removal in the year following the incident.
Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined data from 1,281 diverted youth and 531 comparable youth arrested in Philadelphia schools in the year before program implementation. These 1,812 students (67% male, 75% Black) ranged from 10 to 22 years of age. After using propensity score matching techniques, we conducted mixed-effects logistic regression analyses to compare the matched groups on 3 outcomes: incident-related suspension, postincident suspension, and postincident referral for permanent school removal.
No statistically significant group differences in likelihood of incident-related suspension emerged; however, age and gender moderated the relationship between diverted/arrested status and incident-related suspension. Diverted youth were less likely than matched arrested youth to experience both postincident suspension and postincident permanent school removal referral.
The Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program shows promise in reducing the likelihood that youth will experience future exclusionary discipline following a school-based incident. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
费城警察学校转处计划旨在让年轻人留在学校，避免因特定的学校内轻罪和轻微犯罪而被捕。本研究考察了转处的年轻人是否也不太可能受到排斥性纪律处分，无论是对转处事件本身还是在接下来的一学年。
与实施计划前一年在学校被捕的年轻人相比，我们预测转处的年轻人——他们的学校内事件——不太可能因该事件而被停学，不太可能在该事件后的一年中被停学，也不太可能在该事件后的一年中被永久开除出学校。
使用准实验设计，我们研究了 1281 名转处青年和 531 名在实施计划前一年在费城学校被捕的可比青年的数据。这 1812 名学生（67%为男性，75%为黑人）年龄在 10 至 22 岁之间。在使用倾向得分匹配技术后，我们进行了混合效应逻辑回归分析，比较了匹配组在 3 个结果上的差异：与事件相关的停学、事件后停学和事件后永久开除学校的转处/逮捕。
在与事件相关的停学可能性方面，没有出现统计学上显著的群体差异；然而，年龄和性别调节了转处/被捕身份与与事件相关的停学之间的关系。与匹配的被捕青年相比，转处青年不太可能经历事件后的停学和事件后的永久开除学校的转处。
费城警察学校转处计划在减少年轻人在学校事件后经历未来排斥性纪律处分的可能性方面显示出希望。（心理学信息数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。
