The Reciprocal Effects of Registered Minority Voters on Imprisonment: A Threat Perspective

• In Event: State and Individual Level Responses to Crime

Abstract

A wealth of research asserts that increases in the aggregate proportion of minorities correspond, to an extent, with a rise in mechanisms of state social control. More specifically, minority threat perspective argues that social political threats, such as increases in minority voters, may be perceived and subsequently subdued with the use of imprisonment. However, research has yet to address whether this model may be reciprocal – that is, while racial or ethnic political threat anticipates rises in imprisonment rates, mass incarceration may also result in aggregate voting disenfranchisement among minorities in the community. The objective of this study is to examine the two-way relationship between registered minority voters and imprisonment rates. To this end, we use data from the Florida Department of Corrections, Florida State Department: Division of Elections, and Bureau of Economic and Business Research to examine the reciprocal association between percentages of black voters and the rate of incarceration.

Authors

• Peter Lehmann, Florida State University

• Samuel Scaggs, Florida State University

• Melissa Nadel, Florida State University