Comprehensive Longitudinal Study of School Violence and the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Root Causes and Consequences of and Implications for Restorative Justice Approaches, Oregon, 2004-2015 (ICPSR 37830)

Version Date: Feb 11, 2026

Cite this study |

Principal Investigator(s):
Emma Espel, RMC Research Corporation

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37830.v1

Version V1

Slide tabs to view more

Summary

This study used a multi-systems approach to understand the root causes of school violence in the state of Oregon (United States), accounting for factors within the individual, family, school, juvenile justice, child protective services, and social services systems and how they work together in predicting school violence. The effort was guided by four Research Questions:

  1. What are the potential root causes and related factors that contribute to school violence?
  2. What are the disciplinary responses to school violence, and are rates of suspensions and expulsions equivalent across demographic subgroups of students?
  3. What is the sequence of events that lead from a school-related disciplinary incident to an arrest and to juvenile or adult court involvement and disposition, and which individual, family, school, and neighborhood factors influence this trajectory?
  4. What are the responses to and consequences of shootings in K-12 public settings?

To answer these questions, RMC Research, with support from the the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) and the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), conducted a secondary analysis of existing data on 15 cohorts of students between kindergarten and grade 12. Research Questions 1, 2, and 3 were addressed using a multi-level cohort design with longitudinal data provided by OYA (n=5,129,815 observations across time from 855,580 unique youth). Research Question 4 was addressed through an extensive review of research on school safety strategies.

This collection contains 16 SPSS syntax files used to clean and analyze the secondary data, detailed guides to data preparation and data-related decisions made by the research team, and a list of obtained data files and variables. There are no data files in this collection.

Citation

Espel, Emma. Comprehensive Longitudinal Study of School Violence and the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Root Causes and Consequences of and Implications for Restorative Justice Approaches, Oregon, 2004-2015. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2026-02-11. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37830.v1

Export Citation:

  • RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
  • EndNote

Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2016-CK-BX-0014)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Hide

Time Period(s)

2004 -- 2015

Date of Collection

2004 -- 2015

Data Collection Notes

  1. Materials in this collection have been released as a zipped package for download. Please refer to the ICPSR README for information about the files.

  2. The state agencies that shared data for this study do not allow any data, including de-identified data, to be circulated after a project concludes. Any researcher wishing to replicate the analysis will need to contact each agency to obtain the variables used, which are listed in the Variable List file. Agency websites are listed below for convenience:

Hide

Study Purpose

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate root causes and related factors that contribute to school violence using a multi-systems approach to account for interrelated risk factors and how they may operate due to varying contexts (e.g., neighborhood, family).

Study Design

The research team used a multi-systems approach by analyzing 10 years (15 cohorts) of longitudinal data from several state-based agencies: Oregon Department of Education (ODE), Oregon Youth Authority for Juvenile Justice (JJIS), Oregon Health Authority (OHA), and Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS). Integrated Client Services created a masked identification code for each student in Oregon to support matching records. The full merged dataset contains 5,129,815 student-level observations from ODE for academic years 2004/2005 through 2012/2013 for all students kindergarten through twelfth grade (n=855,580 unique youth). Additional data from JJIS for years 2014-2015 was provided to model longer-term outcomes.

The initial study design also included a qualitative case study, conducting interviews with staff across two Oregon high schools that experienced a school shooting. Research staff were only permitted to speak with school principals, and only a single interview was conducted. As a result, the team pivoted to conducting an extensive review of research on school safety strategies.

Time Method

Longitudinal: Cohort / Event-based

Universe

Oregon school students, kindergarten through twelfth grade

Data Source

Oregon Health Authority (OHA)

Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS)

Oregon Department of Education (ODE)

Oregon Youth Authority for Juvenile Justice (JJIS)

Data Type(s)

Description of Variables

Variables are organized by data source.

Oregon Department of Education (ODE):

  • Student characteristics: Age, race/ethnicity, gender, English proficiency, language of origin, qualification for free- or reduced-price lunch, receipt of special education services, emotional/behavioral disorder indicator
  • Student performance: attendance records, grade 3 test scores, gifted and talented program placement, school transitions indicator, diploma receipt, any repeated grades
  • Student behavior: age at first violent behavior in school; suicidal behavior indicator; school tobacco or alcohol use, possession, or sale; reports of fighting, bullying, school threats, weapons (including type), or other behavior problems
  • Disciplinary actions: number and duration of exclusionary discipline experiences, in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, student arrests
  • School-level information: school ID, district ID, enrollment, grade span, percentages of students by subgroup (race/ethnicity, special education, poverty-level, gifted and talented, foster care, history of maltreatment, proficiency on state tests), exclusionary discipline rates

Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS):

  • Child maltreatment: Number of child protective services claims, reasons for referrals, substantiated maltreatment claims information, referral outcomes
  • Claim history: History of caregiver disabilities, caregiver alcohol/drug problems, domestic violence, and inadequate housing
  • Self-sufficiency: Receipt of services from refugee programs, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Division of Medical Assistance Programs (DMAP), Employment Services, Child Care Services, and Temporary Financial Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); dates of service enrollment; county/region of service receipt
  • Foster care: Number of placements, duration, whether placement was voluntary, placement type

Oregon Health Authority (OHA):

  • Mental health treatment services: Counts of service receipt, indicators for serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance, living arrangement during treatment, treatment referral source, dates of enrollment
  • Alcohol/drug treatment services: State service records, primary drug, treatment dates, count of episodes

Oregon Youth Authority for Juvenile Justice (JJIS):

  • Dispositions (with type)
  • Dates of referral to justice system
  • Age at first referral
  • Indicator of nonviolent vs. violent
  • Risk assessment

Hide

Original Release Date

2026-02-11

Hide

Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.

NACJD logo

This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.