Deservingness Criteria and Support for Felon Voting Rights

• In Event: Perceptions of Deservingness: Rights, Justice Reinvestment, and Appropriate Punishments

Abstract

Despite the lengthy literature on various dimensions of felon disenfranchisement, few studies offer a robust empirical analysis of public opinion toward felon voting rights. In this research, we argue that support for felon voting rights can be best-explained using deservingness criteria. Deservingness reflects how respondents evaluate principles related to information about the criminal background and redemptive quality of the person in question, overall disposition toward political inclusion, and authority cues (e.g., laws) that signal access to voting as a right and entitlement. Using national survey data, we provide cross-sectional and experimental evidence in support of our deservingness criteria perspective. Our results show that predispositions like social dominance orientation, racial resentment, and conservatism reduce support for felon voting rights. However, we also find that people are more likely to support felon voting when they perceive the felons have adequately paid their debt to society by completing their sentence. Finally, we find that individuals are more likely to support voting rights for felons when they believe their state law allows felons to vote. Together these deservingness criteria provide scholars with a framework for understanding when and why the public supports rights for felon voting.

Authors

• David C. Wilson, University of Delaware

• TaLisa J Carter, University of Delaware

• Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, Quinnipiac University