Debtors’ Blocks: How Monetary Sanctions Make Between-neighborhood Racial and Economic Inequalities Worse

Abstract

Although recent scholarship has enumerated many individual-level consequences of criminal legal citations and sentences involving fines and fees, we know surprisingly little about the structural consequences of monetary sanctions or legal financial obligations (LFOs). We use social disorganization and critical race theories to examine neighborhood-level associations between and among LFO sentence amounts, poverty, and racial and ethnic demographics. Using longitudinal data from the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts, and the American Community Survey, we find LFOs are more burdensome in high-poverty communities and of color, and that per-capita rates of LFOs sentenced are associated with increased future poverty rates across all neighborhoods.

Clearing cannabis criminal records: A survey of criminal record expungement availability and accessibility among US States and Washington DC that decriminalized or legalized cannabis

“…We were unable to find prior research assessing the impacts of administrative fees on cannabis-related record holders or applicants for expungement. However, legal financial penalties disproportionately burden minorities and persons of lower socioeconomic status ( Bing et al, 2022 ) and are associated with increased poverty ( O'Neill et al, 2022 ). Although multiple states permit courts to grant indigency waivers, judges do not always allow this assistance ( Slavinski & Spencer-Suarez, 2021 ).…”

Minnesota’s Mandatory Court Surcharge and the Failure of the Fee-for-Service Criminal Justice System

“…61 Even when accounting for higher poverty rates, BIPOC communities have been found to have higher court debt burdens than white communities. 62 This traps individuals in court debt, with one study finding that the mean court debt for formerly incarcerated Black men was 222% of their estimated average annual earnings after incarceration. 63 This debt has long-term negative effects on low-income and BIPOC communities.…”

Payday lenders and premature mortality

“…The existing literature on debt typically focuses on individual borrowing behavior (see Borck et al ( 42 ), O'Neill et al ( 43 ), and Simone and Walks ( 44 ) for exceptions). This includes people's borrowing from the alternative financial services industry ( 45 – 48 ) and the potential consequences to their finances and health ( 1 – 5 , 12 , 13 , 49 – 51 ).…”