CRIMINAL JUSTICE CONTACT, POLITICAL ALIENATION & POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: THE EFFECTS OF PUNITIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE CONTACT ON VOTING
Open Access
- Author:
- Kaufman, Ezekiel John
- Graduate Program:
- Criminology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- September 06, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Jeffrey Todd Ulmer, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Darrell J Steffensmeier, Committee Member
Wayne Osgood, Committee Member - Keywords:
- political alienation
political powerlessness
political meaninglessness
political cynicism
symbolic interactionism
societal reaction theory
Edwin Lemert
Melvin Seeman
Ada Finifter
Voting
Punitive Criminal Justice Contact - Abstract:
- Over the past fifty years, punitive criminal justice contact has become pervasive. This type of contact is one of the most consequential types of interactions citizens can have with the government. They can result in social stigmas and in the loss of many rights associated with citizenship. However, little is known about the ways in which punitive criminal justice contact influences people’s political behaviors. Even less is known about the mechanisms through which punitive criminal justice contact shapes political behaviors. My study addressed these two issues. Using the 2012 cross-sectional panel of the General Social Survey, I computed logistic regression models analyzing the effects having any form, as well as multiple forms, of punitive criminal justice contact on people’s decision to vote in the 2008 presidential election. Additionally, I used structural equation methods to construct three dimensions of a concept called political alienation, and then I tested the ability of these dimensions to mediate the relationship between punitive criminal justice contact and voter turnout. I drew from the political alienation and symbolic interactionism perspectives to develop hypotheses about the ways in which punitive criminal justice contact shapes people’s feelings of political alienation and voter turnout. I found a direct, negative relationship between punitive criminal justice contact and voter turnout. My mediation analysis was inconclusive. I ended my study with a discussion about why I think my analysis produce inconclusive results and the direction that future research can take.