Contact with the American criminal justice system is associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and financial insecurity, but little research has explored the link between criminal justice contact and indebtedness. In this study, we ask whether contact in young adulthood is associated with access to credit and unsecured debt burdens. We also focus on state-level policies that operate alongside official punishments and restrict citizenship and societal participation among the justice-involved (termed hidden sentences), and ask whether such policies moderate the association between criminal justice contact and indebtedness. We find that criminal justice contact, especially incarceration, is associated with reduced access to unsecured credit and greater absolute and relative debt burdens. These associations are strongest for individuals residing in states with more onerous hidden sentence regimes. We argue that indebtedness is a key socioeconomic consequence of criminal justice contact and that hidden sentences may exacerbate these consequences.
AlexanderMichelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.
2.
American Bar Association. 2013. National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association.
3.
ApelRobertSweetenGary. 2010. “The Impact of Incarceration on Employment during the Transition to Adulthood.” Social Problems57(3):448–79.
4.
BeckettKatherineHerbertSteve. 2010. Banished: The New Social Control in Urban America. New York: Oxford University Press.
5.
BeckettKatherineWesternBruce. 2001. “Governing Social Marginality: Welfare, Incarceration, and the Transformation of State Policy.” Punishment & Society3(1):43–59.
6.
BrayneSarah. 2014. “Surveillance and System Avoidance: Criminal Justice Contact and Institutional Attachment.” American Sociological Review79(3):367–91.
7.
BreenRichardKarlsonKristian BerntHolmAnders. 2018. “Interpreting and Understanding Logits, Probits, and Other Nonlinear Probability Models.” Annual Review of Sociology44(1):39–54.
8.
CampbellJohn L.2010. “Neoliberalism in Crisis: Regulatory Roots of the U.S. Financial Meltdown.” Pp. 65–101 in Markets on Trial: The Economic Sociology of the U.S. Financial Crisis: Part B. Vol. 30 Part B: Research in the Sociology of Organizations, edited by LounsburyM.HirschP. M.Bingley, England: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
del RíoAnaYoungGarry. 2008. “The Impact of Unsecured Debt on Financial Pressure among British Households.” Applied Financial Economics18(15):1209–20.
11.
DiPreteThomas A.EirichGregory M.2006. “Cumulative Advantage as a Mechanism for Inequality: A Review of Theoretical and Empirical Developments.” Annual Review of Sociology32:271–97.
12.
DrenteaPatricia. 2000. “Age, Debt and Anxiety.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior41(4): 437–50.
13.
DwyerRachel E.2018. “Credit, Debt, and Inequality.” Annual Review of Sociology44(1):237–61.
14.
DwyerRachel E.DeMarcoLauraHaynieDana L.2019. “Criminal Justice Contact, Financial Debt, and Social Exclusion in Credit and Consumer Markets.” Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Working Paper.
15.
DwyerRachel E.LauraMcCloudRandyHodson. 2011. “Youth Debt, Mastery, and SelfEsteem: Class-Stratified Effects of Indebtedness on Self-Concept.”Social Science Research40(3):727–41.
16.
FaberJacob William. 2019. “Segregation and the Cost of Money: Race, Poverty, and the Prevalence of Alternative Financial Institutions.” Social Forces98:819–48.
17.
FriedlineTerriKeppleNancy. 2017. “Does Community Access to Alternative Financial Services Relate to Individuals’ Use of These Services? Beyond Individual Explanations.” Journal of Consumer Policy40(1):51–79.
18.
FurstenbergFrank F.2008. “The Intersections of Social Class and the Transition to Adulthood.” New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development2008(119):1–10.
19.
GoffmanAlice. 2009. “On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto.” American Sociological Review74(3):339–57.
20.
HaganJohnFosterHollyMurphyChantrey J.2020. “A Tale Half Told: State Exclusionary and Inclusionary Regimes, Incarceration of Fathers, and the Educational Attainment of Children.” Social Science Research88–89:102428.
21.
HardingDavid J.MorenoffJeffrey D.NguyenAnh P.BushwayShawn D.2018. “Imprisonment and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Natural Experiment.” American Journal of Sociology124(1):49–110.
22.
HarrisAlexesEvansHeatherBeckettKatherine. 2010. “Drawing Blood from Stones: Legal Debt and Social Inequality in the Contemporary United States.” American Journal of Sociology115(6):1753–99.
23.
HerdPamelaMoynihanDonald P.2019. Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
24.
HouleJason N.2014a. “A Generation Indebted: Young Adult Debt across Three Cohorts.” Social Problems61(3):448–65.
25.
HouleJason N.2014b. “Disparities in Debt: Parents’ Socioeconomic Resources and Young Adult Student Loan Debt.” Sociology of Education87(1):53–69.
26.
HouleJason N.BergerLawrence. 2017. “Children with Disabilities and Trajectories of Parents’ Unsecured Debt across the Life Course.” Social Science Research64:184–96.
27.
HouleJason N.BruchSarahBergerLonnie. 2019. Borrowing in Troubled Times: Welfare Retrenchment and Inequalities in Unsecured Debt across the Life Course. New Haven, CT: Center for Empirical Research on Social Inequality, Yale University.
28.
HouleJason N.WarnerCody. 2017. “Into the Red and Back to the Nest? Student Debt, College Completion, and Returning to the Parental Home among Young Adults.” Sociology of Education90(1):89–108.
29.
KaiserJoshua. 2016. “Revealing the Hidden Sentence: How to Add Transparency, Legitimacy, and Purpose to ‘Collateral’ Punishment Policy.” Harvard Law & Policy Review10:123–84.
KillewaldAlexandraPfefferFabian T.SchachnerJared N.2017. “Wealth Inequality and Accumulation.” Annual Review of Sociology43(1):379–404.
32.
KirkDavid S.SampsonRobert J.2013. “Juvenile Arrest and Collateral Educational Damage in the Transition to Adulthood.” Sociology of Education86(1):36–62.
33.
KirkDavid S.WakefieldSara. 2018. “Collateral Consequences of Punishment: A Critical Review and Path Forward.” Annual Review of Criminology1:171–94.
34.
Kohler-HausmannIssa. 2013. “Misdemeanor Justice: Control without Conviction.” American Journal of Sociology119(2):351–93.
LeichtKevin T.FitzgeraldScott T.2013. Middle Class Meltdown in America : Causes, Consequences, and Remedies. New York: Routledge.
37.
MarotoMichelle Lee. 2015. “The Absorbing Status of Incarceration and Its Relationship with Wealth Accumulation.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology31(2):207–36.
38.
MarotoMichelle LeeSykesBryan L.2020. “The Varying Effects of Incarceration, Conviction, and Arrest on Wealth Outcomes among Young Adults.” Social Problems67:698–718.
39.
MartinKarin D.SykesBryan L.ShannonSarahEdwardsFrankHarrisAlexes. 2018. “Monetary Sanctions: Legal Financial Obligations in US Systems of Justice.” Annual Review of Criminology1(1):471–95.
40.
MassogliaMichaelFirebaughGlennWarnerCody. 2013. “Racial Variation in the Effect of Incarceration on Neighborhood Attainment.” American Sociological Review78(1):142–65.
41.
MauerMarcChesney-LindMeda. 2002. “Introduction.” Pp. 1–12 in Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment, edited by MauerM.Chesney-LindM.New York: New Press.
42.
MizeTrenton D.2019. “Best Practices for Estimating, Interpreting, and Presenting Nonlinear Interaction Effects.” Sociological Science6:81–117.
43.
MontezJennifer KarasHaywardMark D.ZajacovaAnna. 2019. “Educational Disparities in Adult Health: U.S. States as Institutional Actors on the Association.” Socius 5:1–14. doi:10.1177/2378023119835345.
44.
MoodCarina. 2010. “Logistic Regression: Why We Cannot Do What We Think We Can Do, and What We Can Do about It.” European Sociological Review26(1):67–82.
45.
PagerDevah. 2007. Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
46.
PetersiliaJoan. 2003. When Prisoners Come Home: Parole and Prisoner Reentry. New York: Oxford University Press.
47.
Pew Research Center. 2012. Payday Lending in America: Who Borrows, Where They Borrow, and Why. Washington, DC: Pew Charitable Trusts.
48.
PlassmeyerMarkSlivaShannon. 2018. “Social Exclusion as a State-level Predictor of Changes in Collateral Sanctions.” Criminal Justice Review43(2):236–51.
49.
PrasadMonica. 2012. The Land of Too Much: American Abundance and the Paradox of Poverty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
RemsterBriannaKramerRory. 2018. “Race, Space, and Surveillance: Understanding the Relationship between Criminal Justice Contact and Institutional Involvement.” Socius 4:1–16. doi:10.1177/2378023118761434.
52.
SampsonRobert J.LaubJohn H.1990. “Crime and Deviance over the Life Course: The Salience of Adult Social Bonds.” American Sociological Review55(5):609–27.
53.
SampsonRobert J.LaubJohn H.1997. “A Life-course Theory of Cumulative Disadvantage and the Stability of Delinquency.” Pp. 133–61 in Advances in Criminological Theory: Developmental Theories of Crime and Delinquency, edited by ThornberryT. P.New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
54.
SchneiderDanielTurneyKristin. 2015. “Incarceration and Black–White Inequality in Homeownership: A State-level Analysis.” Social Science Research53:403–14.
55.
StewartRobertUggenChristopher. 2020. “Criminal Records and College Admissions: A Modified Experimental Audit.” Criminology58(1):156–88.
56.
SugieNaomi F.TurneyKristin. 2017. “Beyond Incarceration: Criminal Justice Contact and Mental Health.” American Sociological Review82(4):719–43.
57.
SunAmy RuiningHouleJason N.2020. “Trajectories of Unsecured Debt across the Life Course and Mental Health at Midlife.” Society and Mental Health10(1):61–79.
58.
SykesBryan L.MarotoMichelle. 2016. “A Wealth of Inequalities: Mass Incarceration, Employment, and Racial Disparities in U.S. Household Wealth, 1996 to 2011.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences2(6):129–52.
59.
TachLaura M.GreeneSara Sternberg. 2014. “‘Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’: Economic and Cultural Explanations for How Lower-income Families Manage Debt.” Social Problems61(1):1–21.
60.
TravisJeremy. 2002. “Invisible Punishment: An Instrument of Social Exclusion.” Pp. 15–36 in Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment, edited by MauerM.Chesney-LindM.New York: New Press.
61.
TurneyKristinSchneiderDaniel. 2016. “Incarceration and Household Asset Ownership.” Demography53(6):2075–103.
62.
UggenChristopherVuoloMikeLagesonSarahRuhlandEbonyWhithamHilary K.2014. “The Edge of Stigma: An Experimental Audit of the Effects of Low-level Criminal Records on Employment.” Criminology52(4):627–54.
63.
University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research (UKCPR). 2019. “UKCPR National Welfare Data, 1980–2017.” Lexington, Ky. Accessed October 7, 2019. http://ukcpr.org/resources/national-welfare-data.
64.
WacquantLoïc. 2009. Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
65.
WakefieldSaraApelRobert. 2016. “Criminal Justice and the Life Course.” Pp. 301–19 in Handbook of the Life Course. Vol. II. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, edited by ShanahanM. J.MortimerJ. T.JohnsonM. Kirkpatrick. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
66.
WakefieldSaraUggenChristopher. 2010. “Incarceration and Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology36(1):387–406.
67.
WarnerCodyKaiserJoshuaHouleJason N.2020. “Locked out of the Labor Market? State-level Hidden Sentences and the Labor Market Outcomes of Recently Incarcerated Young Adults.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences6(1):132–51.
68.
WesternBruce. 2002. “The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and Inequality.” American Sociological Review67(4):526–46.
69.
WesternBruce. 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
70.
YilmazerTanselDevaneySharon A.2005. “Household Debt over the Life Cycle.” Financial Services Review14:285–304.
71.
ZawKhaingHamiltonDarrickDarityWilliam. 2016. “Race, Wealth and Incarceration: Results from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.” Race and Social Problems8(1):103–15.
