For Love and Justice: The Mobilizing of Race, Gender, and Criminal Justice Contact

Abstract

This paper examines the political implications of the criminal justice system for those who experience it indirectly: the friends and extended families of individuals who become caught up in the criminal justice system through heightened police surveillance, arrest, probation/parole and incarceration, which scholars have termed “custodial citizenship” (Lerman and Weaver 2014, 8). Contact with the criminal justice system is increasingly common in the United States, which incarcerates more of its citizens than any other western democracy (West, Sabol, and Greenman 2010). In addition to the 2.3 million people currently behind bars scholars estimate that more than 19 million have a felony (Uggen, Manza, and Thompson 2006). Fully 23% of Black adults have a criminal background, and Latinos make up 50% of federal inmates, highlighting extreme racial disparities in American criminal justice (Meissner et al. 2013). A growing body of research explores the impact of criminal justice contact on political participation finding that depressed voter turnout is the result whether one has been incarcerated, arrested, or lives in a high-contact community (Burch 2011, 2013; Lerman and Weaver 2014).

Investment and Invisibility

“…Within this investigation into the role of social movements, one might also consider the role played by Black Lives Matter and its attempt to create political engagement through the connection between government and the police. While the results presented here are disheartening in this regard, further research could engage with scholarship showing how CJS contact can result in greater political participation under certain contexts as a way to consider conditions in which the demobilization found in this analysis could be reversed (Owens and Walker, 2018;Walker and García-Castañon, 2017). That is to say, are there contexts in which the political distrust fostered by CJS experiences could be turned into a politically mobilizing device?…”

The Ripple Effect: The Political Consequences of Proximal Contact with Immigration Enforcement

“…Conceptually, proximal contact is designed to capture the power of relational ties to shape political outcomes. While all sorts of relationships can teach civic lessons, proximal contact is most politically salient when the connection is familial or to an otherwise important figure in one's life (Walker and García-Castañon 2017). Proximal contact promises to be particularly meaningful in the area of immigration, where interactions with enforcement officers can lead to detention, deportation, and family separation (Sanchez et al 2015).…”

“…Scholars theorize that participation outcomes hinge on whether individuals view their experiences as a reflection of a larger set of institutional biases that disadvantage them on the basis of race, or alternatively, as a product of the poor choices of their loved one caught up in the system. Vicarious experiences with punitive policy impart powerful lessons about the nature of government and one's relationship to it, and research in criminal justice demonstrates the voracity of proximal linkages to the system (Walker 2014; 2016; Walker and García-Castañon 2017). Viewing one's proximal experiences as systemically biased can mobilize (Walker 2016), while viewing them as basically just demobilizes (Burch 2013; Lerman and Weaver 2014).…”

Family Matters? Voting Behavior in Households with Criminal Justice Contact

“…Do they become less likely to undertake political action, either because of the practical costs that incarceration imposes on households or because of alienation or distrust in government (Burch 2013a; Lee, Porter and Comfort 2013; Sugie 2015; Weaver and Lerman 2014)? Or do they instead become politically activated (Walker 2014; Walker and García-Castañon 2017)?…”