Voter Registration and Jail-Incarcerated Women : Are Justice-Involved Women Civically Engaged?

Civic engagement, like the broader phenomenon of social engagement, seems out of keeping with the alienating ethos of incarceration. We sought to learn which demographic and contextual factors predicted one form of civic engagement, voter registration, in a jail-incarcerated female population. A 158...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Women & criminal justice. - 1992. - 30(2020), 3 vom: 01., Seite 172-187
1. Verfasser: Emerson, Amanda (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Allison, Molly, Ramaswamy, Megha
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2020
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Women & criminal justice
Schlagworte:Journal Article African Americans civic engagement health care access housing prisoner populations women
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Civic engagement, like the broader phenomenon of social engagement, seems out of keeping with the alienating ethos of incarceration. We sought to learn which demographic and contextual factors predicted one form of civic engagement, voter registration, in a jail-incarcerated female population. A 158-item survey was administered to 261 adult women incarcerated in three Midwestern jails, September 2014 to March 2016, as part of a parent intervention study for cervical cancer prevention. Chi-square comparisons between a voter registered and a non-registered group yielded significant differences in five demographic and social context indicators, and a model for voter registration was estimated using multiple logistic regression. Total time incarcerated, having personal health insurance, being stably housed, and identifying as a Black woman contributed significantly to voter registration. We suggest that in a justice-involved group the community's facilitation of access to basic resources may trigger a reciprocal engagement in civic life, and we speculate that Black women may find belonging and motivation for engagement in resilient, long-standing sources outside official institutions. Our findings support the notion that meeting the basic needs of individuals post-incarceration can create healthier, more engaged communities
Beschreibung:Date Revised 05.08.2020
published: Print-Electronic
Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE
ISSN:0897-4454
DOI:10.1080/08974454.2019.1586620