The Proliferation of Driver's License Suspensions in North Carolina

• In Event: 30662 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Criminal Legal System/ Actors/ Processes

Abstract

Scholars are increasingly examining policies that allow government agencies to sanction the non-payment of legal debt. This study contributes to research on the administrative reach of punishment by analyzing variation in the outcome of a unique form of punishment: failure to comply charges. Each year, millions of people are charged with a failure to comply (FTC) with a court order, which may result in a driver's license suspension. FTCs are routinely imposed to coerce the payment of court debt. Consequently, they can result in added fees and surcharges, license suspensions, and felon disenfranchisement, among other immediate and long-term sanctions. In North Carolina, a person charged with an FTC is assessed a $50 fee. In motor vehicle cases, the FTC is reported to the DMV, which then revokes the person's driving license within 60 days. The purpose of this study is to examine the imposition of Failure to Comply (FTC) and Failure to Appear (FTA) charges and the factors associated with their prevalence and rates of expungement in North Carolina. Drawing on administrative data from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) between 1985 and 2022, I explore local factors associated with the imposition of FTC and FTA charges over time, and across sociodemographic groups. The primary goal of this study is to explore why some counties have revoked driver's licenses for unpaid court debt more than others.

Author

• Kevin Dahaghi, Rutgers University-New Brunswick