No Justice, No Peace? Protest Participation for People with Criminal Legal Contact

Abstract

Previous research shows that people who have criminal legal (CL) contact are less likely to vote, but there is little information about whether or not CL contact influences protest participation. While people with CL contact may be more likely to engage in critiques of the state, they are also more vulnerable to the risks associated with protesting. Because the CL system is highly racialized in the United States, race is central to an analysis of CL contact. In this article, I analyze the relationship between protest participation, CL contact, and race in Illinois. With survey data from the 2014 Chicago Area Study, I show how race and CL contact interact to increase the likelihood of protesting for Black respondents with CL contact, suggesting that one’s experience of a personal perceived injustice is a driving factor in deciding to protest. I also find that non-Black respondents with CL contact are equally as likely to participate in protests as their counterparts without CL contact. This article contributes to literature on political participation and criminology, showing how race and CL contact interact in a way that is associated with participation rates for protest.

Protesting During a Pandemic: Narratives on Risk Taking and Motivation to Participating in the 2020 March on Washington

“…Scholars have also suggested that one’s social position and culture can be driving factors for participation in protests (Armstrong & Bernstein, 2008; Van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). For example, in her investigation of the relationship between criminal legal contact and protest participation, Eife (2020) discovered that among those who had criminal legal contact perceived injustice influenced their participation in protests, especially for Black individuals. Black people who had contact with the criminal legal system were more likely to participate in protests over both non-Blacks who had criminal legal contact and Blacks without criminal legal contact.…”

“…Black people who had contact with the criminal legal system were more likely to participate in protests over both non-Blacks who had criminal legal contact and Blacks without criminal legal contact. These elements combined with formal and informal network ties, media consumption, moral conflict, level of motivation, and organizational participation assist in the recruitment and mobilization processes of social action (Eife, 2020; McAdam & Paulsen, 1993; Passy & Guingi, 2001; Van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). Level of commitment to the cause also is an important factor for protest engagement.…”

Criminalized Subjectivity

“…Second sight also constitutes behaviors-not just attitudes-that may be unique. For instance, Erin Eife (2020) shows that Black people with criminal legal system contact are more likely to report participating in protests than both Black people without such contact as well as non-Black people with contact, suggesting that perceived racism may impact second sight among the criminalized (see also Cobbina 2019). Criminalized people's experiences could contribute novel visions about how the system and broader society could be changed to better incorporate, forgive, and heal the criminalized.…”