Matching Items (2)
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- All Subjects: Desistance
- Creators: Stolzenberg, Stacia
Description
The Zero Tolerance Policy began appearing in secondary schools in the early 1990's. In the late 1980's, crimes committed by juveniles were at an all-time high. Fears that the violence would spill onto campus propelled lawmakers and school officials to take preventative measures. With the creation of the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990 and Gun-Free Act of 1994, any individual caught with a weapon on campus would be found in violation of the Act and be punishable by law. In addition to the Acts, School Resource Officers (SROs) became more prominent on campus. SROs were originally on campus to teach drug prevention programs, however SROs began to take on more of a disciplinary role to support the Zero Tolerance Policy. Furthermore, educators began turning towards SROs to handle less serious incidents such as behavioral outbursts. As SROs took a more active role, arrests among students started to rise. Many think this is a direct pathway to our criminal justice system, more commonly known as the school-to-prison pipeline. This pipeline disproportionately affects African Americans. This paper will examine the creation, aims and purpose of the Zero Tolerance Policy as well as what incidents helped create and install the policy. This paper will look at what the Zero Tolerance Policy looks like since it has been enacted. Moreover, there will be a focus on which students are affected the most and if this policy will lead to criminal justice contact in the future. Lastly, alternatives to the Zero Tolerance Policy will be discussed and if the policy can be improved or should it be eliminated.
ContributorsSoto, Tatyana E. (Author) / Sweeten, Gary (Thesis director) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / School of Social Work (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
There is a wealth of knowledge about the harmful effects of prisons. This expertise on negative experiences has resulted in a limited understanding of incarcerated people’s strengths and how prisons may be places where growth can occur. Some researchers have discovered narratives of positivity and identity reconstruction among people in prison who have described their experiences as transformative. However, there is little knowledge about the nuanced aspects of their positive experiences and less understanding about how this information can be translated into practice. The effects of age on positive experiences have also gone unexamined within this literature, despite known linkages between age and positive outcomes such as fulfillment in life and desistance from crime. Through structured interviews with 100 incarcerated women, the current study uses thematic analysis to identify themes within women’s responses to a prompt about a time they felt their best in prison and how these themes vary according to their ages. Four major themes were identified across all responses: accomplishments, personal growth, healthy relationships, and helping and supporting others. While accomplishments and personal growth remained the most common themes across responses from women of all adult life stages (i.e., young, middle, and late adulthood) the theme of helping and supporting others was more often the focus in responses from women in middle and late adulthood (ages 35-83) compared to women in young adulthood (ages 21-34). The results have important implications for taking action to identify the sources of incarcerated people’s positive experiences and provide the means to generate and reinforce them.
ContributorsWhite, Hannah Rose (Author) / Wright, Kevin A (Thesis advisor) / Young, Jacob T N (Committee member) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022