My research centers on the role of the carceral state in American democracy. I ask questions around the political participation of justice-impacted people, and the socialization they experience at the hands of the system. I use quantitative methods including causal inference and survey research, and qualitative methods such as interviews and focus groups to study these issues.
Dissertation
Citizens of the System: Criminal Justice Contact, Political Socialization and Citizenship
My dissertation examines the effect of frequent contact with the carceral state on political socialization. I advance a theory of parallel tracks of political socialization, positing that custodial citizens1 primarily receive their understanding of themselves as democratic subjects from their interactions with the carceral state. These interactions not only interfere with and impede traditional processes of political socialization and learning, but also constitute a socialization process of their own. Further, this socialization process has racial implications both through differential exposure and through differential effects. I call this carceral socialization.
A steadily growing number of people in the United States have some kind of contact with the carceral state. As of 2020, 3.6 million people were under some kind of correctional control. Even after this formal control ends, the lives of the formerly incarcerated are shaped by and identified with this life experience through legal, social and financial aftershocks. Further, the families and close relations of those with this lived experience are affected as well, as they witness the system and its aftermath. Entire neighborhoods with high levels of contact with the police and high numbers of returning formerly incarcerated residents are shaped by their proximity to the carceral state. I ask what effect the carceral state has on the political socialization and participation of those who come into contact with it, and how this affects the political power of entire communities. I take a particular interest in the way these democratic repercussions echo differently within different racial groups, compounding and exacerbating existing inequalities in participation and representation.
Most of what we know about political socialization from childhood revolves around parents and school, traveling via education received through high school, college, and consequent embedding in social networks through work and community. We know much less about the alternative trajectory for those who are socialized via the carceral state. Traditional school-centered models are insufficient here.
I argue that we should understand experiences with the criminal justice system as a parallel type of political socialization. This theory has five main components: a) contact starts at a young age, b) this early contact is crucial to the democratic effects we are seeing for this population, c) the carceral state interferes with traditional political socialization mechanisms, d) the carceral state provides an alternative political education for custodial citizens, e) this leads to the exclusion of custodial citizens from politically active networks and mobilization mechanisms. This means that entire communities and neighborhoods with dense populations of custodial citizens are excluded from means of pursuing political power and representation. This is one reason that poor and minority communities are largely politically disadvantaged and disenfranchised.
Working Papers
“A First Time for Everything: Voting as a Habit and the Demobilizing Effect of Carceral Contact”, Under review
“The George Floyd Effect: How Protests and Public Scrutiny Change Police Behavior in Seattle” (with Chris Cassella, Derek Epp, Marcel Roman and Hannah Walker)
“Who Asks? The Mobilization of Custodial Citizens”
Works in Progress
“Pre-trial Intervention and Political Participation: Evidence from Broward County”, In progress