What Voting Leaves Out: Criminal Justice Contact and Political Voice

• In Event: 444 - Section on Political Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. Political Institutions and Territories

Abstract

Previous research shows that people with criminal justice contact are less likely to vote. The same research suggests that this is likely due to mistrust between this population and the government due to punitive encounters. Further, forming a sense of self-efficacy and adopting a prosocial identity are positively correlated with a successful reentry. As such, it is important to understand which types of political behavior are attractive to people with criminal justice contact. In this project, I seek to fill this gap by showing the relationship between people with criminal justice contact and non-voting forms of political participation. I do this by analyzing a cross-sectional dataset from the 2014 Chicago Area Study (n=1794) which measures political knowledge, efficacy and participation in Illinois. With this analysis, I present two findings. First, there is no relationship between criminal justice contact and non-voting forms of political participation and second, there is a relationship between criminal justice contact and number of non-voting types of political participation engaged in. The mechanism through which this relationship operates is internal political efficacy. By uncovering this mechanism, we can work towards cultivating a sense of self-efficacy in people who have had contact with the criminal justice system in hopes that it will empower them to participate in political activities, and thus avoid recidivism.

Author

• Erin Eife, University of Illinois at Chicago