Felony Disenfranchisement, Legitimacy and Violence

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

In the United States, most offenders forfeit their rights to vote upon conviction for felony offenses. Felony disenfranchisement laws in U.S. states vary, but most states implement some form of restriction on the rights of convicted felons to vote. The restriction of felons’ voting rights by U.S. states range from Maine and Vermont, which implement no voting restrictions for felons to a few states that permanently disenfranchise convicted felons.
The focus of this study is on the association between permanent felony disenfranchisement and likelihood of rearrest for a violent offense. We hypothesize that permanently disenfranchised felons would be more like to recidivate with a violent offense than released felons not permanently disenfranchised. The data utilized for this study is drawn from the Department of Justice’s Recidivism of Prisoners released in 1994 study. From the original data, a subset was created which included the 22,838 releasees, out of the sample of 38,624, that were released from prison for a felony conviction.
Binary logistic regressions were utilized to test the study hypothesis. Preliminary findings suggest that when comparing violent and non-violent felony offenders, the effects of permanent felony disenfranchisement on rearrest for a violent offense are lower for violent offenders.

Author

• Dale Aaron O. Dan-Irabor, University of Missouri-St. Louis