The Multiplicities of Punishment

• In Event: Beyond the Debt: Qualitative Insights into Legal Financial Burdens and the Ongoing Quest for Reform

Abstract

The concept of “double punishment” has been observed in previous research exploring the impacts of legal financial obligations, manifesting as the combined punishment of incarceration/probation supervision and LFOs (Pattillo & Kirk, 2020; Pleggenkuhle et al., 2021). While research on the experience of punishment tends to focus on components of punishment in isolation (i.e. monetary sanctions, probation, or incarceration) the current study argues that for those in the criminal legal system, punishment is often experienced as a “package” (Larson, 2025). Drawing on interviews with 210 people who owe criminal legal debt across Georgia, Minnesota, and Missouri, our analysis reveals that while individuals typically use the language “double” when discussing their experiences with LFOs, they are often, in actuality, describing triple or quadruple forms of punishment, with traditional punishments like prison, probation, and parole simultaneously combined with collateral consequences and additional financial sanctions from both public and private third-party stakeholders.

Authors

• Veronica L. Horowitz, University at Buffalo, SUNY

• Brittany Martin, University of Rhode Island

• Andrea Giuffre, California State University, San Bernardino

• Ryan P. Larson, Hamline University

• Robert Stewart, University of Maryland

• Christopher Uggen, University of Minnesota