Adding Insult to Injury: Arrests Reduce Attendance through Institutional Mechanisms

• Published in: Sociology of education Vol. 95; no. 3; pp. 189 - 215
• Main Authors: Mark, Nicholas D. E., Geller, Amanda, Engberg, John
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2022; American Sociological Association
• Subjects: Arrests; Attendance; Attendance Patterns; Black students; Black white relations; Courts; Crime; Discipline; Educational objectives; High School Students; Injuries; Learner Engagement; Middle School Students; Police; Racial differences; Student participation; Students; inequality; arrest; police contact; causal inference; attendance
• ISSN: 0038-0407; 1939-8573
• DOI: 10.1177/00380407221099649

Students across the United States experience high levels of contact with the police. To clarify the causal relationships of this contact with educational outcomes and the mechanisms by which such relationships arise, we estimate the effects of arrest on student engagement with school using daily attendance data. Recently arrested students missed significantly more school than did students who would be arrested later in the school year. The effects of arrest on attendance can be attributed to suspensions and court appearances; we found little evidence of changes in absences due to health or skipping school. These results suggest that institutional, not student centric, mechanisms drive the relationship between arrest and educational outcomes. Were it not for institutional channels, particularly exclusionary discipline, arrested students would likely remain more engaged in school. Estimates are similar for white and black students, but black students are differentially affected because they are arrested at higher rates.