Spatial Burdens of State Institutions: The Case of Criminal Courthouses

• In Event: Inequality, Race, and Punishment

Abstract

This paper theorizes how spatial features shape physical access to state institutions, and with what consequences. Drawing on 87 interviews and over 400 hours of ethnographic observations in relation to two courthouses within the same county, the authors identify four spatial features that differentially shape physical access: functional distance, neighborhood social life, exterior built forms, and interior built forms. When they constrain access, these features constitute spatial burdens, which appear to disadvantage marginalized groups and can result in distinct institutional and collateral costs. The authors theorize how these costs likely reproduce systemic patterns of inequality by extending people’s burdensome interactions with the state institution they seek to access and compelling them to interact with other state institutions that further the state’s power over their lives. The concept of spatial burdens has implications for theories of poverty governance and institutional inequality.

Authors

• Matthew Clair, Stanford University

• Jesus Orozco, Arizona State University

• Iris Zhang, Stanford University