IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v90y2009i3p722-743.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Collateral Consequences of a Collateral Penalty: The Negative Effect of Felon Disenfranchisement Laws on the Political Participation of Nonfelons

Author

Listed:
  • Melanie Bowers
  • Robert R. Preuhs

Abstract

Objective. Felon disenfranchisement (FD) policies are said to not only prohibit (ex)felons from voting, but also reduce the political influence of particular groups that are most affected by FD laws. This study tests several hypotheses regarding the role of socialization on individual‐level political participation to examine the claims that nonfelons' probability of voting is reduced by strict FD laws. Methods. The study uses multilevel modeling and two separate individual‐level data sets of those registered to vote to examine the effect of FD laws on the probability of voting. Results. The findings demonstrate that strict FD laws reduce the probability of voting for blacks, but not whites, while the results are mixed for several other demographic groups. Conclusions. Beyond the direct removal of ex‐felons from the voter pool, FD policy can undermine the mechanism of political socialization, leading to potentially greater biases in the electoral arena than previously thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Melanie Bowers & Robert R. Preuhs, 2009. "Collateral Consequences of a Collateral Penalty: The Negative Effect of Felon Disenfranchisement Laws on the Political Participation of Nonfelons," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(3), pages 722-743, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:722-743
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00640.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00640.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00640.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert R. Preuhs, 2001. "State Felon Disenfranchisement Policy," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 82(4), pages 733-748, December.
    2. Strate, John M. & Parrish, Charles J. & Elder, Charles D. & Ford, Coit, 1989. "Life Span Civic Development and Voting Participation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 83(2), pages 443-464, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Leo Owens, 2014. "Ex-Felons’ Organization-Based Political Work for Carceral Reforms," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 256-265, January.
    2. Hedwig Lee & Lauren C. Porter & Megan Comfort, 2014. "Consequences of Family Member Incarceration," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 44-73, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Swamy, Anand & Knack, Stephen & Lee, Young & Azfar, Omar, 2001. "Gender and corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 25-55, February.
    2. Kim Quaile Hill & Tetsuya Matsubayashi, 2008. "Church Engagement, Religious Values, and Mass‐Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in Local Communities," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 570-584, July.
    3. Joseph McMurray, 2008. "Information and Voting: the Wisdom of the Experts versus the Wisdom of the Masses," Wallis Working Papers WP59, University of Rochester - Wallis Institute of Political Economy.
    4. Kevin Denny & Orla Doyle, 2009. "Does Voting History Matter? Analysing Persistence in Turnout," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(1), pages 17-35, January.
    5. Andersen, Jørgen Juel & Fiva, Jon H. & Natvik, Gisle James, 2014. "Voting when the stakes are high," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 157-166.
    6. Natasha V. Christie, 2014. "Racial Neutrality by Any Other Name: An Examination of Collateral Consequence Policies in the United States," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 95(2), pages 541-562, June.
    7. Petrova, Velina P., 2007. "Civil Society in Post-Communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia: A Cross-National Analysis of Micro- and Macro-Factors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1277-1305, July.
    8. Tommy Peto, 2018. "Why the voting age should be lowered to 16," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 17(3), pages 277-297, August.
    9. Joseph McMurray, 2015. "The paradox of information and voter turnout," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 13-23, October.
    10. Anja Neundorf & Kaat Smets & Gema M. García-Albacete, 2014. "Homemade Citizens: The Development of Political Interest during Adolescence and Young Adulthood," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 693, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    11. >Wilfred Muntengwa & Brendah Namadula & Viola Hamainza & Racheal Simwatachela & Fabian Kakana & Francis Simui & >Gistered Muleya, 2020. "Unearthing Disablers in the Cultivation of Civic Skills among Learners in Selected Secondary Schools in Lusaka District, Zambia," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(9), pages 228-238, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:722-743. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.