The recent influx of police officers into US public schools has reshaped the context and frequency of children’s interactions with police. Yet we know little about how the presence of these officers in schools impacts the legal socialization of students, and whether youth of color might be affected or socialized in different ways than white youth. In this study, we analyze data from interviews with school police officers as well as focus group data from school staff, parents, and students that shed light on how school police interact with youth. In particular, school police officers discussed their desire to build relationships with students that instill trust in police among students. Officers discussed their efforts to teach students that police should be trusted and relied on, and that negative views of policing and involvement with the justice system are the result of a negative news media and individual citizens’ criminality, respectively. Importantly, officers discussed how they devote particular attention to imparting these lessons on youth of color and others who may see police in a negative light. We consider how these outreach efforts, what we call acting as police ambassadors, might have different impacts on youth of color compared to white youth, given existing racial disparities in interactions with police.

中文翻译：

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警察大使：学校和法律社会化中的学生警察互动

最近涌入美国公立学校的警察改变了儿童与警察互动的背景和频率。然而，我们对这些官员在学校的存在如何影响学生的合法社会化，以及有色人种青年是否可能以与白人青年不同的方式受到影响或社会化知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们分析了对学校警察的采访数据以及来自学校工作人员、家长和学生的焦点小组数据，这些数据揭示了学校警察如何与青年互动。特别是，学校警官讨论了他们希望与学生建立关系，从而在学生中灌输对警察的信任。警官们讨论了他们为教导学生应该信任和依赖警察而做出的努力，对警务和司法系统的负面看法分别是负面新闻媒体和公民个人犯罪的结果。重要的是，警官们讨论了他们如何特别注意向有色人种青年和其他可能对警察持负面看法的人传授这些课程。鉴于与警察互动中存在的种族差异，我们考虑这些外展工作（我们称之为警察大使）可能对有色人种青年与白人青年产生不同的影响。