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Felon Disenfranchisement The Judiciary’S Role In Renegotiating Racial Divisions, Brian Schaefer, Peter Kraska
Felon Disenfranchisement The Judiciary’S Role In Renegotiating Racial Divisions, Brian Schaefer, Peter Kraska
Peter Kraska
Felon disenfranchisement is deeply rooted in U.S. history as a form of punishment and as a tool to inhibit African Americans from voting. Today, there are 5.3 million U.S.
residents politically disenfranchised due to a felony conviction—about 2 million of whom are African Americans. The overrepresentation of African Americans disenfranchised, and the U.S. history of racism, brings forth the question of how these laws continue to exist. The objective of this study is to demonstrate, through a socio–legal approach, the federal court system’s role in perpetuating and maintaining the ethnoracial divisions in society through the validation and rationalization of felon …