How the Punishment of Black Women Affects Their Political Participation

• In Event: Toward Pluralism in REP/Elections Research: Black Women in Electoral Politics

Abstract

Established research has revealed the superlative political participation of Black women. Yet, Black women also represent a disproportionate percentage of the prison system. Still, there is very little work on the impacts of punitive experiences on their political behavior. Using nationally representative data that over-samples Black women, this paper finds that punitive experiences weaken the participation of Black women in voting, but increase their non-voting participation at a rate higher than any other group. These findings provide a serious contribution to this important, but often overlooked, group in American Democracy, and has serious normative questions on the added civic burdens that already marginalized groups take on following experiences with the justice system.

Authors

• Sally Nuamah, Northwestern University

• Irene Kwon, Northwestern