Obligatory Criminalization: A Convergent Mixed Methods Study of of Criminalization Under Florida's Statewide Law

• In Event: Crime, Law and Deviance Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 5: Disenfranchisement & Post-Incarceration Outcomes

Abstract

In 2024, following the Supreme Court's decision in Grants Pass v. Oregon, Florida became one of only a handful of states to criminalize homelessness statewide. This law, House Bill 1365, includes a mechanism requiring local governments to respond to citizen complaints about homelessness under threat of lawsuit, usually implicating a police response; this mechanism of criminalization of homelessness represents a novel technique of governance of urban space. This community-engaged convergent mixed methods study surveyed 576 people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, conducted qualitative interviews with 51 respondents, and analyzed administrative data to understand interactions with police and service providers in the context of the statewide shift towards obligatory criminalization. We describe the prevalence of arrest, citation, destruction of belongings, and other metrics of criminalization while centering the perspectives of those on the street. Using the theoretical frameworks of procedural justice and pervasive penalty, this study examines how criminalization erodes trust in both police and service providers, and how diminished trust in turn reduces willingness to seek shelter and other services. Premised on the idea that increased police enforcement, driven by citizen complaints, would force people experiencing homelessness into shelter services, we find instead that formal criminal legal sanctions of arrest and citation are associated with reduced trust in social service providers, pushing individuals away from the social safety net. Informal police actions of forced movement and destroyed belongings also showed a negative dose-dependent relationship with both police and provider procedural justice. We use qualitative interviews to explain and contextualize these associations, showing how obligatory policing at the state level may perpetuate the very homelessness it seeks to resolve.

Author

• Trey Santorine, University of Miami