Collateral Consequences Research Articles

Me? A criminal? Relationships with offenders and implicit criminal associations

The collateral consequences of criminal justice involvement on friends and families of offenders is well documented in criminological literature. One less-understood consequence is the impact of these relationships and experiences on the cognitions of friends and family members of offenders. This study examines implicit, unconscious, and explicit, or conscious cognitions of non-criminal individuals who have personal relationships with offenders versus those who do not. Moreover, the effects of reminders of past experiences, nature of the relationship, and closeness with the offender were examined. The Implicit and Explicit Criminal-Self Association Tests were used to measure implicit and explicit criminal-self associations. Results showed that those who were close with an offender and were reminded of a past experience with an offender exhibited stronger implicit associations with the group criminal in comparison to those who were not close with an offender. This research has implications for understanding the effects of relationships with offenders for non-criminal individuals.

Who Benefits from Mass Incarceration? A Stratification Economics Approach to the “Collateral Consequences” of Punishment

A rich empirical literature documents the consequences of mass incarceration for the wealth, health, and safety of Black Americans. Yet it often frames such consequences as a regrettable artifact of racially disproportionate criminal legal system contact, rather than situating the impetus and functioning of the criminal legal system in the wider context of White political and economic domination. Revisiting a quarter century of mass incarceration research through a stratification economics lens, we highlight how mass incarceration shapes Black–White competition for education, employment, and financial resources and contributes to Black–White disparities in well-being. Highlighting persistent research gaps, we propose a research agenda to better understand how mass incarceration contributes to systematic White advantage. To address mass incarceration's consequences and transform the conditions of White political and economic domination under which it arose, we call for legislative and judicial intervention to remedy White hyper-enfranchisement and reparations to eliminate the Black–White wealth gap.

"Losing access to outdoor spaces was the biggest challenge for children to be healthy": pandemic restrictions and community supports for children's movement in Nova Scotia.

Health-focused communities can promote physical activity for children by providing them with safe and supportive environments to move. Across the COVID-19 pandemic many community spaces and services were closed due to public health restrictions. During the pandemic, Atlantic Canada uniquely implemented an agreement between four provinces to restrict travel and reduce the spread of the virus. The "Atlantic bubble" led to fewer cases of COVID-19 and restrictions to community spaces and services. With restrictions now removed, community spaces and services likely play a critical role in facilitating the recalibration of children's movement. Perspectives from families who experienced the "Atlantic bubble" may offer valuable insights to the use of these spaces during and after the removal of restrictions. This study explored the role of community spaces and services on their child's physical activity across the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspectives of Nova Scotia caregivers. We employed a qualitative description approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 caregivers of children aged 5-11 years who lived in Nova Scotia, Canada. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were generated: (1) Public health restrictions limited community movement behaviors and social connections, (2) Spaces, locations, and environments influenced how families experienced physical activity during public health restrictions, (3) Virtual realities: screens supported a new sense of community for children throughout the pandemic, and (4) "Facilitated" and "forced adaptability": public health restrictions changed family dynamics, routines, and movement behaviors. Despite living in the "Atlantic bubble," Nova Scotian caregivers shared that COVID-19 related public health restrictions shifted their family's dynamics, routines, and ability to engage in physical activity within their communities. Community spaces and services can be leveraged to recalibrate children's movement as pandemic-related restrictions are reduced. In future public health crises, community spaces and services should remain in place to whatever extent possible to reduce the collateral consequences of public health restrictions on children's health.

How Should a Medical-Legal Partnership Address Unique Needs of People With Criminal Legal System Involvement?

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) are well suited to address health-harming legal needs associated with the collateral consequences of mass incarceration in the United States, such as those that limit access to food, housing, employment, and family reunification postrelease. MLP innovations seek to expand the current model to address patients' criminal, as well as postrelease, civil legal needs by including community health workers and some patients as legal partners and creating coalitions to promote local and state policy change. Overall, this article explains how these MLP innovations can support rights of people returning to communities after incarceration and can be leveraged to mitigate criminal legal system involvement.

Pulling Back the Curtain on the California Gang Database: Evidence of Racial, Ethnic and Gender Disparities Among 222 Law Enforcement Agencies

Abstract The California Gang Database (CalGang) is the first, largest and arguably most controversial shared gang database in the United States. This study examined its demographic composition and disparities in 103,840 records input by 222 unique law enforcement agencies between 2017 and 2022; the database was 94 per cent male, 66 per cent Hispanic, 23 per cent Black, 51 per cent 18 to 30 years old and 38 per cent 31–45 years old. About one-quarter of 1 per cent of Californians are listed in CalGang. Age-standardized estimates indicated that males were overrepresented relative to females by a factor of 17 and that Black and Hispanic males were overrepresented relative to White males by factors of 33 and 11, respectively, while Asian males were underrepresented. These demographic disparities generalized across nearly all law enforcement agencies. Gang databases will remain highly controversial owing to significant racial/ethnic disparities, but also concerns about civil liberties, due process, privacy rights and collateral consequences. The generative questions that remain are whether the observed disparities can be explained by legal factors and whether any public safety value can be achieved while protecting individual rights.

Caught in the spider’s web: The collateral consequences of the criminal record on higher education, professional registration, and employment opportunities

Abstract Although significant research has already been conducted on the intricacies of the criminal record in South Africa and internationally, literature points to a disjuncture between research and policy, especially around topics relating to access to higher education (HE) and admission to professional registration councils by formerly incarcerated students (FIS) with a criminal record. This qualitative case study incorporated a discourse analysis approach to determine the tone of 23 policy documents. In addition, twelve participants were purposefully sampled to share their lived experiences regarding the regulation and reintegration of FIS when applying for admission to HE and professional registration councils and potential employment upon completion of their studies. The findings indicate that the construction of legal documents and application forms allows higher education institutions and professional registration councils to access students' personal data, such as their criminal records. This leads to implementing measures that exclude certain individuals, which in turn obstructs the effective social reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals into the workforce. The study recommends the implementation of a South African research-based HE policy aimed at addressing the systemic injustices that regulate the simultaneous admission and rejection of FIS when applying to access HE and admission to professional registration councils. Keywords: higher education, professional registration councils, criminal record checks, offender reintegration, South Africa.

Project Impact: A Public Community College Campus–Based Support and Reentry Program for Justice-Impacted Students in New York City

Background: Between 70 million and 100 million Americans have a record of interaction with the criminal legal system, a group facing stigma and discrimination in civic participation, housing, employment, and education. Justice-impacted people face collateral consequences in the community, making reentry programs essential to success at reintegration. Focus of Study: Project Impact (PI) at the Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York (BMCC/CUNY) supports students impacted by the criminal legal system. PI provides direct services to justice-impacted students through an extensive peer mentoring program and a high school equivalency program, and by offering college credit–bearing courses to students presently incarcerated in partnership with John Jay College’s Prison-to-College Pipeline. PI defines “justice impacted” expansively as students who have been formerly incarcerated, have family who have been incarcerated or arrested, have had issues in family court, or in any other way have been significantly affected by the criminal legal system. Research Design/Conclusions: This evaluation provides unequivocal evidence of the strong, positive impact that PI is making, serving as a rare campus-based reentry program within a community college in New York City.

Collateral Consequences: The Effects of Justice Processing for Violations of Drug Laws in New York City

Collateral Consequences: The Effects of Justice Processing for Violations of Drug Laws in New York City

General Practice or Evidence-Based? Exploring Drug Testing for People without a Substance Use Disorder

The criminal justice system is enthralled with drug testing. It is a billion dollar industry fueled by drug courts, swift certain, and fair strategies, and the idea that probation is a privilege. It has become so pervasive that even people without an identified drug problem are often tested on a regular basis. While the field has accepted drug testing as a key component, this paper suggests that the data, while limited, is not as pervasive as the practice itself. This paper will explore the current research on drug testing, how effective it is for people without an identified substance use issue, and what are some of the collateral consequences to testing that may offset any perceived or real benefit to the practice.

Marked by a Criminal Record? Socioeconomic Differences in the Relationship Between Early Criminal Justice Contacts and Adult Life Outcomes

AbstractThis paper combines life course theory and empirical research on the collateral consequences of punishment as a backdrop to exploring the relationship between both the presence of and seriousness of a criminal record measured in early adulthood (age 25) and later life outcomes (ages 41-49), both in total and by socioeconomic status. The analysis relies on a combination of longitudinal survey data and administrative register data for 2,022 individuals who were between 12 and 20 years old when the data collection started. Results show that the criminal record is linked to both labor market and social exclusion later in life, but most systematically to (worse) labor market outcomes. Somewhat surprisingly, low SES seems to “buffer” against some of the unwanted outcomes linked to having a more serious criminal record, while high SES seems to “boost” others. Implications for future research on both deviance and stratification are discussed.

Locking in Human Rights: An Exploration of the Barriers to echr Withdrawal

Abstract The possibility of the United Kingdom being able to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (echr or Convention) by way of a denunciation under Article 58(1) of the Convention is complicated by a number of domestic constitutional factors and other international legal obligations. This paper explains how, collectively, these constitute a form of ‘lock in’ to the echr. This makes any future UK withdrawal from the echr highly difficult and liable to cause a range of collateral consequences on the international and domestic legal planes.

Criminal background check laws and labor market inequality in the United States

AbstractResearch summaryA growing literature documents the effect of criminal justice contact on inequalities in the labor market. While ample evidence indicates that a criminal record itself imposes considerable disadvantage, the formal legal mechanisms that may contribute to criminal record‐based exclusion have received less empirical attention. The present study examines how one such mechanism—legal requirements for employers and license boards to perform criminal background checks—shapes labor market outcomes among formerly incarcerated people. The study draws from novel longitudinal data on the extensiveness of background check requirements at the state level, as well as individual‐level data on incarceration, wages, and unemployment from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Results show that while the extensiveness of state‐level background check requirements does not significantly affect the likelihood of unemployment, formerly incarcerated people residing in states where background check requirements are extensive are estimated to earn significantly lower wages than their counterparts in states with few screening mandates.Policy implicationsCriminal background check requirements stand as significant policy barriers that diminish the earning potential of formerly incarcerated people. Policy makers seeking to mitigate the collateral consequences of criminal convictions should narrow the scope of these laws to target specific, highly sensitive occupations, as opposed to broader workplace contexts. Reforms should also address persistent data quality issues in state criminal history record systems and shift the burdens imposed by incomplete or erroneous rap sheets. To minimize adverse self‐selection, background check procedures should clarify for applicants the role that a criminal history record may play in clearance decisions. Finally, future research should assess the marginal benefit of criminal background checks compared with other methods of screening prospective hires and licensees.

AI Originality Revisited: Can We Prompt Copyright over AI-Generated Pictures?

Abstract With the advent of large language models (LLMs) that can generate qualified content, such as images based on text prompts, the threat posed by AI creativity has become imminent. Courts and institutions in the US and China have provided different answers with regard to the copyrightability of prompt-based images. This article argues that the judicial recognition of text-to-image copyrightability at the current stage is dangerous. Not only is the practice not in accordance with our traditional understanding of originality and the author-work relationship; it also fails to consider the collateral consequences of such a finding. Perfectly regulating AI-generated content (AIGC) may be beyond the judiciary’s capacity, as the solutions are provided within an ill-suited framework. It would be preferable for legislators to engage in thorough discussions with stakeholders to develop a considered regulatory plan first, which does not necessarily have to revolve around copyright.

Legitimacy of parole as a consequence of policy shock: The lived experiences of incarcerated persons during the parole moratorium in Pennsylvania, U.S.

AbstractThis study examines the consequences of a policy shock to the criminal legal system through the prisms of the lived experiences of incarcerated persons. The study draws on a qualitative analysis of 159 unsolicited letters from incarcerated individuals in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections written during the 2008–2009 Moratorium on prison releases. The results indicate that the moratorium eroded their trust and exacerbated an already existing crisis in procedural justice and legitimacy for discretionary parole, underscoring both direct and collateral consequences of this policy shock on the lived experiences of those most directly affected. Several policy implications emerge that can help improve or restore procedural justice and legitimacy of discretionary parole and corrections, more generally.

College Admissions and Criminal Records: The Social Construction of Risk in the University Setting

Research indicates that a criminal history significantly reduces a prospective student’s chance of being accepted into a higher education institution, yet little evidence addresses how universities make these decisions. Given the number of people with the mark of a criminal record and the collateral consequences that it carries, this analysis describes decision-making on criminal and disciplinary records. It utilizes a relational theory of risk to understand the social construction of risk in the context where universities hold stated goals of public safety and equitable access to education. Through interviews with seventeen university admissions administrators, we find that arbitrariness in the evaluation of “red flag” students remains although this university system has established formal requirements around background information. Along with formal requirements, decision-makers rely on their own subjective perceptions and experiences to evaluate risk among applicants. Findings contribute to our understanding of the construction of risk in organizations and policy around assessing criminal records in higher education.

Collateral Legal Consequences and the Power to Punish

ABSTRACTCollateral legal consequences attached to criminal convictions (CLCs) are often criticised because they expose criminal offenders to various forms of harmful and/or wrongful treatment. In this article, we argue that CLCs are problematic because they undermine the power to punish, a distinct normative power that allows the relevant powerholders to directly change the offender's normative situation. The article identifies important features of the power to punish construed as the normative ability that judges should hold in liberal polities. In particular, we examine how CLCs undermine two of the features – viz., robustness and attributability – that are central to the non‐deficient functioning of the normative power to punish. Acknowledging the implausibility of a forthcoming demise of CLCs, we conclude with an outline of non‐ideal proposals that would marginally mitigate the unwarranted effects that CLCs have on the exercise of the normative power to punish.

Neck‐restraint bans, law enforcement officer unions, and police killings

AbstractResearch SummaryFollowing high‐profile police killings, many U.S. cities banned officers from using chokeholds and other neck restraints. The evidence for such bans, however, is limited. To test whether use‐of‐force policies prohibiting neck restraints are related to fewer police killings, we use three modeling approaches to analyze 2183 U.S. cities between 2009 and 2021. Police killings were lower in places that adopted neck‐restraint bans and the bans were associated with less crime and fewer assaults on officers, net of controls. Because officer labor unions can affect use‐of‐force policies and the frequency of police killings, we also analyzed them, finding unionization increased the likelihood a city had a neck‐restraint ban and had a null or negative association with police killings.Policy ImplicationsAdopting a neck‐restraint ban is likely an effective way to reduce deaths due to police use of force with minimal collateral consequences. The bans operate through a diffuse discouragement of many types of lethal force or as a part of an array of use‐of‐force policies. Their direct relationship to asphyxiation deaths remains unclear. Officer unionization is unlikely to change the frequency of police killings, except through its association with stricter use‐of‐force policies.

The long-term collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement for females.

Females are the fastest growing justice involved population in the United States, yet there is relatively little empirical research on the collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement specifically for females. A growing body of empirical research underscores linkages between juvenile justice involvement and negative health and psychosocial outcomes, both in the short and long term. The current study describes the long-term collateral consequences of juvenile justice involvement for females previously involved in the juvenile justice system, drawing from a longitudinal dataset of 166 women who were initially recruited in adolescence due to chronic and severe justice system involvement. Participants were 15 years-old on average at study enrollment and 35 years-old on average at the current assessment. This paper describes the adolescent and adult experiences of the sample, therefore depicting the developmental trajectories of risk and protective factors for females involved with juvenile justice. As adults, 73% of the sample experienced arrest and 36% experienced incarceration. High rates of mental and physical health problems were reported, including that 50% of the sample met diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. Over 400 children were born to the sample, with high rates of documented intergenerational child welfare involvement. Study findings are discussed in the context of best practices for supporting adolescent girls involved with the juvenile justice system.

Beyond Empathy: Familial Incarceration, Stress Proliferation, and Depressive Symptoms Among African Americans

Abstract Women tend to be more vulnerable to the adverse psychological effects of “network events” (stressors that occur to loved ones). The cost-of-caring hypothesis is regarded as the primary mechanism for this vulnerability and posits that women’s relatively high level of emotional involvement in the lives of network members causes women to experience greater empathetic reactions when loved ones encounter stressors. Drawing on the stress process model, gender theory, and research on the collateral consequences of incarceration, we theorize stress proliferation, the process by which an initial stressor induces secondary stressors, as an additional mechanism and empirically test our theoretical propositions using the case of African Americans with an incarcerated family member. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, we ask: are African American women more vulnerable to the depressive effects of familial incarceration compared to African American men? If so, to what extent might African American women’s heightened vulnerability be explained by their greater susceptibility to stress proliferation? Results suggest that familial incarceration is associated with greater chronic strains, financial strain, and family conflict only among African American women. Further, the magnitude of the association between familial incarceration and depressive symptoms is significantly larger among African American women; however, after adjusting for stress proliferation variables, the gender difference in vulnerability attenuates and becomes statistically nonsignificant. We conclude that the emotional cost of caring may be compounded by social and economic costs of caregiving, heightening women’s vulnerability to depression following disruptive network events.

积极刑法观视野下犯罪附随后果的规范性研究

积极刑法观视野下犯罪附随后果的规范性研究