How government social programs can help reduce bullying

Once accepted as part of adolescents’ school experiences, policymakers are now concerned with the causes and effects of bullying on other children and those who bully themselves. Bryan L. Sykes, Alex R. Piquero, and Jason P. Gioviano take a close look at how neighborhood and cumulative disadvantage, as well as participation in needs-based social programs, can work to increase or decrease the risk of bullying among adolescents. Sykes and his colleagues find that adolescents are more likely to bully if they come from families that have difficulty covering the basics, but are not on social program assistance, and that such social programs reduce the chances that blacks and Hispanic adolescents will bully

The Art of Rehabilitation: Extracurricular Activities and the Disruption of Intergenerational Incarceration

The United States is the world leader in incarceration. Prior to the Wars on Drugs and Crime, the incarceration rate was fairly stable, vacillating at almost 80 per 100,000 (Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2008; Blumstein & Cohen, 1973). Now, with close to 2.3 million Americans behind bars, and another 5 million under community supervision, roughly 1 per cent of the adult population is incarcerated (West & Sabol, 2009; Glaze, 2010; Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol, 2011; Pew Center on the States, 2008). Research shows that the most disadvantaged members of society have the highest risk of spending time in prison. One in nine African American men is imprisoned, and over a third of young, Black, male high-school dropouts are in prison or jail on any given day (Pettit & Western, 2004; Western & Pettit, 2010; Pettit, 2012)

The School-to-Prison Pipeline in America, 1972–2012

The rise of mass imprisonment has affected millions of Americans in the criminal justice system, resulting in a copious amount of research on the socioeconomic consequences of incarceration for disadvantaged men. A parallel thread of research is burgeoning in scholarly literature under the metaphor of “the school-to-prison-pipeline” to explain juvenile punishment. This article argues that the school-to-prison pipeline has its origins in social transformation of work and its distribution of rewards, racialized and gendered punishment practices that are differentially employed to curtail recalcitrant behavior, and differences in the ecological contexts of childhood development. The article begins by reviewing research on race and class inequalities in penal and educational institutions. Next, it presents new estimates of juvenile incarceration rates to show how adolescent incapacitation mirrors adult incarceration rates. Finally, policy prescriptions to disrupt, redress, and retard the school-to-prison pipeline are discussed