Education & Criminal Justice
Madison Klement, mmklement2003@gmail.com
McLennan Community College, with Dr. Jessica Zbeida
Education
A National Crisis - The Psychology Behind School Shootings
School shootings have increased in the last 30 years than prior to the 21st century. From 1970- 2000, there were 707 school shooting incidents, while from 2001-2022, there were 1,510. In 2022 alone, there were 304 school shooting incidents, and in 2023 thus far, there have been 188 school shootings (https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings). When they occur, people often offer suggestions that are based on emotional reactions which leads to heated arguments. More research needs to be done on potential causes of these shootings to better see possible preventions. Mental health is a large component in these shootings, and this research will include psychological and developmental research to discover whether the mass school shooters and shootings have any commonality to further determine what can be done in prevention. Many sources were analyzed during this research, such as interviews with college professionals and the police chief at MCC, databases with statistics, books with analysis of older shootings, and news articles with analysis of recent shootings. I have come to the conclusion that untreated mental health is a large component in these shootings, and if there was more access to mental health treatments, and acknowledging the problem in schools, lots of future shootings can be prevented. In the future, I would like to take the research I did with this project and research better ways to help behavioral students and at-risk students, since that is typically what the shooters were labeled in school as.
Brangelitee Orozco Ayala, borozco@nevada.unr.edu
University of Nevada, Reno, with Dr. Matthew C. Leone
Criminal Justice
Examining the Relationship Between School Quality and Incarceration: The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Northern Nevada
Disparities in school quality and educational opportunities drive school failure, potentially making crime more likely and even necessary for survival (Pesta, 2018). These disparities, however, are not applied evenly across school districts. Urban schools with greater Black, Hispanic, and poor student populations are more likely to be disadvantaged relative to their suburban counterparts, which is related to punitive responses (rather than restorative responses) to student misbehavior (Ann Payne & Welch, 2010). While studies have shown that adult incarceration may result from structural racism in schools, (recognized as the school-to-prison pipeline), the relationship between school suspension in adolescence and later interactions with the criminal justice system remains poorly resolved (Novak, 2019). Further, the relationship between real and perceived disadvantage and dropping out has not been fully explored. This study will examine the perceptions and experiences of high school-aged residents in the Reno/Sparks area and compare them with the perceptions and experiences of inmates in the Washoe County Regional Detention Facility (WCRDF). The proposed study will employ two different data collection strategies. For the high school youth, data will be collected via snowball sampling wherein respondents will provide the QR code which leads to the Qualtrics survey to their friends. The inmates from the WCRDF will be interviewed via video and their responses will be recorded on paper and entered into the Qualtrics database. The data will be used to test the interconnections between school discipline and incarceration and to identify the impact of real and perceived disadvantages to school failure and ultimately the school-to-prison pipeline. A better understanding of this pipeline could result in policy changes and fewer incarcerations.
Naomi Casanova, ncasanova22sp@ollusa.edu
Our Lady of the Lake University, with Dr. Brittany Chozinski
Criminal Justice/Criminology, Psychology
Are We Really Protecting the Youth?
Children who grow up in an unstable home, who are neglected and or abused, face many challenges later in life. Specifically, these children in particular are at greater risk of making poor decisions that may result in incarceration. Giving their up bringing these children are socially influenced to accept these behaviors as the norm. As a result, they follow that pathway and make a wrong call. This study aims to determine what protective factors help prevent children who have been abused or neglected to stay out of the criminal justice system later in life. This qualitive study will utilize interviews with current and former employees of Child Protective Services. Following each interview, the data will be transcribed, coded, and analyzed. The resulting data will determine what protective factors the Child Protective Service Employees believed would have a positive influence on the children’s lives and prevent them from interacting with the justice system. This research will identify a variety of protective factors for consideration in future research. The identified conditions can be tested for efficacy ultimately leading to the identification of a preventative approach with the greatest change of resulting in a positive outcome.