DOI: 10.3886/icpsr37915.v1
title: The Influence of Subjective and Objective Rural School Security on Law Enforcement Engagement, Nebraska, 2017-2018
title: Version 1

description: This study is to understand how perceptions and the organization of school safety and security are associated with the level and type of law enforcement engagement in rural schools. A triangulation mixed methods design was used to collect and examine individual, school, and community level quantitative and qualitative data. The social-ecological theory of violence prevention guides the research by predicting that an interplay of factors at multiple levels influences the type and level of law enforcement engagement in rural schools. Specifically, it was predicted that the more organized and coordinated a school is in the area of safety and security, the more likely it is to be formally engaged with law enforcement. Formal engagement is defined as use of some version of the school resource officer (SRO) model or defined roles and responsibilities for law enforcement in schools that are articulated in documents such as a memorandum of agreement or understanding.
description: The purpose of this study was to develop a taxonomy of law enforcement engagement in rural schools by assessing: the level of implementation of safety/security measures in rural schools. the effects of elements of school safety and security on the relationship on law enforcement engagement in rural schools. the influence of individual perceptions, school variables, and community context on law enforcement engagement in rural schools.
description: There are existing data and new data as part of this research. Existing data includes: school safety and security self-assessments, school safety plans, crime statistics, risk and protective factor school survey data, and census data. New data collected includes: in-person school assessments to validate fidelity of self-assessments and online surveys with law enforcement and school personnel. The first step in analysis was to match and merge data from school self-assessments, objective assessments, law enforcement and school surveys, and school / community characteristics. Schools included in the final dataset have at least one of the following: objective assessment, law enforcement survey, school survey, school safety plan. Most of these also have self-assessment data. All schools included in the final dataset were assigned a number to de-identify the school building.
description: The variables include variables on community characteristics, as well as variables capturing schools' responses to surveys.
description: Response Rates: 80 percent
description: There were 189 rural school districts and educational service units in Nebraska representing 88 of the 93 counties in the state. These schools served over 70,000 students. Each school district had multiple buildings that were surveyed as part of the self-assessment process by school principals. It estimated that 80 percent of these schools (n=151) would comply with the self-assessment requirement during the research period. Schools must voluntarily opt into the next phase, which included an objective assessment and surveys of school personnel and law enforcement serving the area. This assessment did not result in individualized reports to each school; rather, it was marketed to the schools by the Department of Education as a tool to collect objective data that can be aggregated to identify areas of general improvement needed in rural school safety and security.
description: Datasets: DS1: The Influence of Subjective and Objective Rural School Security on Law Enforcement Engagement, Nebraska, 2017-2018
description: record abstracts; on-site questionnaire; web-based surveyThis study collected qualitative data that is not included in this release. Qualitative data will be included in a future update.