School closures significantly reduced arrests of Black and Latinx urban youth
Files
Working Paper
Date
2022-10
DOI
Authors
Simes, Jessica
Cowger, Tori
Jahn, Jaquelyn
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Police arrests are common events for youth of color, contributing to increased risk of arrest in adulthood and population health inequities. Although schools are important sites for youth criminalization, research focuses on within-school mechanisms, with limited analysis of hot spots policing in surrounding school areas. Using COVID-19 school closures as an interruption to police activity and in-person school attendance, we estimate Black youth weekly arrests fell from 43.6 to 16.8 per 100,000, vs. 3.57 to 2.17 per 100,000 among White youth. Youth arrest rates declined during two school closure periods: at the start of the pandemic and Summer 2019. A spatial analysis shows Black and Latinx youth experience a higher percentage of arrests near schools than White youth. Our findings show school closures significantly reduce arrests of urban youth of color, and reforms addressing youth criminalization and structural racism should consider the joint spatial context of schools and policing.
Description
License
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license.