2022/07/01 by Vanessa Drew, Mary Louise Wilson, Susan McCarter · 1 voice · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Education Discipline and Inequality #Critical Race Theory in Education #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
paper · doi:10.1332/204986021x16535461234260
openalex publication_date 2022/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
Black girls are suspended at five-and-a-half times the rate for White girls in the US. Of all racial and ethnic groups, Black girls are the only group to demonstrate consistent disparities in school discipline after controlling for offence rate and type. Furthermore, for the same types of offences, Black girls are punished more severely than White girls. For girls, race is a more significant predictor than gender for entering the school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline needs to be examined through a lens of intersectionality that includes: race, ethnicity and culture; socio-economic status; gender identity and sexual orientation; ability status; and trauma. This article incorporates several theories to critique the roles that explicit and implicit bias (including anti-Blackness, misogynoir and White supremacy), as well as gendered policies and practices, play in the overcriminalisation of Black girls in education and juvenile justice systems. Finally, the authors detail four evidence-based recommendations.