Exclusionary School Discipline During Childhood and Adolescent Delinquency

Previous research links school suspension with delinquency and arrest. The majority of the research in this area, however, has primarily focused on suspensions in adolescence and has not examined the role of exclusionary discipline at younger ages. This study addresses this gap in the literature by examining associations between age of first suspension and delinquency in a representative sample of Florida adolescents. Accordingly, this study employs a novel typology of suspension exposure that incorporates both timing of first suspension and exposure to suspensions in the last year. In addition, this study also tests whether the relationship between suspension and delinquency varies by race. The findings reveal that age at first suspension and recent suspensions are significantly related to delinquency.