The Influence of Subjective and Objective Rural School Security on Law Enforcement Engagement, Nebraska, 2017-2018 (ICPSR 37915)

Version Date: Jul 28, 2021

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Mario Scalora, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37915.v1

Version V1

Slide tabs to view more

Summary

This study is to understand how perceptions and the organization of school safety and security are associated with the level and type of law enforcement engagement in rural schools. A triangulation mixed methods design was used to collect and examine individual, school, and community level quantitative and qualitative data. The social-ecological theory of violence prevention guides the research by predicting that an interplay of factors at multiple levels influences the type and level of law enforcement engagement in rural schools.

Specifically, it was predicted that the more organized and coordinated a school is in the area of safety and security, the more likely it is to be formally engaged with law enforcement. Formal engagement is defined as use of some version of the school resource officer (SRO) model or defined roles and responsibilities for law enforcement in schools that are articulated in documents such as a memorandum of agreement or understanding.

Citation

Scalora, Mario. The Influence of Subjective and Objective Rural School Security on Law Enforcement Engagement, Nebraska, 2017-2018. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-07-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37915.v1

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2016-CK-BX-0019)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

2017-01-01 -- 2018-12-31

Date of Collection

2017-01-01 -- 2018-12-31

Data Collection Notes

  1. This study collected qualitative data that is not included in this release. Qualitative data will be included in a future update.

Hide

Study Purpose

The purpose of this study was to develop a taxonomy of law enforcement engagement in rural schools by assessing:

  1. the level of implementation of safety/security measures in rural schools.
  2. the effects of elements of school safety and security on the relationship on law enforcement engagement in rural schools.
  3. the influence of individual perceptions, school variables, and community context on law enforcement engagement in rural schools.

Study Design

There are existing data and new data as part of this research. Existing data includes: school safety and security self-assessments, school safety plans, crime statistics, risk and protective factor school survey data, and census data. New data collected includes: in-person school assessments to validate fidelity of self-assessments and online surveys with law enforcement and school personnel.

The first step in analysis was to match and merge data from school self-assessments, objective assessments, law enforcement and school surveys, and school / community characteristics. Schools included in the final dataset have at least one of the following: objective assessment, law enforcement survey, school survey, school safety plan. Most of these also have self-assessment data. All schools included in the final dataset were assigned a number to de-identify the school building.

Sample

There were 189 rural school districts and educational service units in Nebraska representing 88 of the 93 counties in the state. These schools served over 70,000 students. Each school district had multiple buildings that were surveyed as part of the self-assessment process by school principals. It estimated that 80 percent of these schools (n=151) would comply with the self-assessment requirement during the research period. Schools must voluntarily opt into the next phase, which included an objective assessment and surveys of school personnel and law enforcement serving the area. This assessment did not result in individualized reports to each school; rather, it was marketed to the schools by the Department of Education as a tool to collect objective data that can be aggregated to identify areas of general improvement needed in rural school safety and security.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Unit(s) of Observation

School

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

The variables include variables on community characteristics, as well as variables capturing schools' responses to surveys.

Response Rates

80 percent

Hide

Original Release Date

2021-07-28

Hide

Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.