Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This experiment addresses competing hypotheses within racial literature: (a) conservatives rely on their principles in making policy decision, regardless of race, or (b) conservatives abandon their principles when policies benefit minorities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Disenfranchisement strips the right to vote in public elections from a citizen or a class of citizens. Felon disenfranchisement laws revoke the voting rights of felons and often ex-felons. The degree of severity of felon disenfranchisement laws varies considerably between U.S. states, and the percentage of black voters disenfranchised in all disenfranchising states is consistently higher than the percentage of all other populations disenfranchised. I employ social control theory to assess the link between the severity of felon disenfranchisement laws and the percentage of black voters disenfranchised and the relative risk of disenfranchisement. I find that the severity of felon disenfranchisement laws has a significant impact on the percentage of black voters disenfranchised in the states and on the relative risk of black disenfranchisement. I also discuss the implications of these findings with respect to the future of minority participation in the democratic process and democratic ideals and social investments.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Misha S. Lars
CUNY Graduate Center /John Jay College of Criminal Justice
899 Tenth Avenue
New York, New York 10019
mlars@gc.cuny.edu

Kideste M. Wilder
CUNY Graduate Center/John Jay College of Criminal Justice
899 Tenth Avenue
New York, New York 10019
kwilder@jjay.cuny.edu


References to concepts such as ‘culture of control’ and ‘punitive turn’ are often used to describe the dramatic shift in the manner in which criminal justice policies and practices evolved during the 1960s. The intense and tumultuous political and racial climate of this era was followed by an increasing reliance on ‘color-blind’ punitiveness as a response to the heightened awareness of the “consequences” associated with the great migration and the demand for civil rights, which inevitably situated issues of race, inequality, and social control at the forefront of the nation’s consciousness.

Analogous to the criminal justice system, the child welfare system experienced a similarly punitive turn with the creation of the child protection system (CPS) and the resultant federal legislation. The present analysis provides a critical examination of the CPS as a coercive, punitive mechanism which disproportionately removes children from families in need, moving to terminate parental rights, thus freeing them to be adopted by more “suitable families”. Examining the intersection between these two systems, the authors argue that these increasingly punitive mechanisms have led to a disproportionate rate of incarceration and foster care placement, which have had a disparate impact on African American children, families, and communities.