484

A Police Stop Is Enough to Make Someone Less Likely to Vote - Research shows how the communities that are most heavily policed are pushed away from politics and from having a say in changing policy. (boltsmag.org)

submitted 1 year ago by gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

58 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This article is a few months old now, but I think it's an incredibly important area of research and something that explains a lot of why America is like it is and how red states stay red.

Excerpt,

A study I co-authored with fellow researcher Kevin Morris, published in December in the American Political Science Review, finds that traffic stops by police stops in Hillsborough County reduced voter turnout in 2014, 2016, and 2018 federal elections.

Our study compared the voter turnout of Hillsborough motorists who were stopped by police shortly before and after each election. Drawing on information about each person’s turnout in past cycles, we found that these stops reduced the likelihood that a stopped individual turned out to vote by 1.8 percentage points on average. The effect held when accounting for characteristics like race, gender, party affiliation, past turnout, and prior traffic stops to improve our comparisons. The discouraging effect of stops was slightly higher in 2014 and 2018.

These results make clear that the collateral consequences of policing—including worsening outcomes for economic security, educational attainment, and health—also extend to political participation. If the communities who are most frequently subjected to policing are also discouraged from voting as a result, it could create a vicious feedback loop of political withdrawal.

Why would traffic stops make people less likely to show up to the polls? Past research has already established that the most disruptive forms of criminal legal contact, like arrest and incarceration, discourage people from voting. Our study shows that low-level police contact matters in the same way. If a traffic stop makes a motorist fear that the government will harm them, it can prompt a withdrawal from civic life that political scientists call “strategic retreat.” Motorists might worry that a routine traffic stop could escalate into police violence, a more common outcome for Black people in particular. Beyond justified fears of violent victimization, voters might also bristle at the perception of being targeted to raise revenue through excessive ticketing. Accordingly, if incarceration ‘teaches’ would-be voters that their government is an alienating and harmful force in their lives, traffic stops could catalyze a similar form of ‘learning.'

Full study is available here, and here's an archived thread from a dumb website where one of the research study authors answered questions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

I think it’s important to point out that liberal != leftist. Also, neoliberal is critically and meaningfully different from both of those.

I am a leftist/socialist at this point. I can play the capitalism game because that’s what I grew up and established my career in, but I try to push it in more positive directions where and when I can. I vote for Democrats in US elections because our electoral system is structured to only allow us to chose between parties that are, at the moment, either neoliberal or theocratic fascist, but I want to make it clear that while I very much do not like the vast majority of the Democratic Party, I outright revile what the GOP has mutated into, and I will never vote for any Republican, in any election, at any level, for the rest of my life, specifically due to what they’ve done as a matter of public policy since I was a child, and more specifically due to how they’ve allowed themselves to be turned from low-key regressive racists to boldly chauvinistic, xenophobic, white supremacist, theocratic authoritarians. Also, fuck Regan and Nixon.

[-] gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Bingo, I'm a democratic socialist who aligns with liberals to thwart conservatives (who I think are wrong about most everything but deserve a seat at the table) and fight fascists (who I do not think deserve a seat at the table because they're inherently violent and dangerous).

I like liberalism's commitment to civil rights and protecting minority populations, but I think it's too individualistic and basically just unwilling/unable to grapple with the consequences of the industrial revolution and urbanization (let alone climate change). I think capitalist markets have their place for certain things (e.g. culture, entertainment, luxury goods, etc.), but vitally important things (i.e. housing, food, clean water, healthcare, education, legal advocacy, and transportation) should be equally available to everyone and provided through democratically accountable taxpayer funded institutions. Also, I think the government should only partner with private businesses in exceptional circumstances and should generally try to do things for itself with a workforce that's like at least five times the size of what we have now. Also, private schools and home schooling should be abolished and billionaires kids and poor people's kids should be socialized and educated together.

I expect I'd struggle to get more than 5% of the vote with those positions in basically any American election, but I'm committed to democracy regardless anyway because a) I think there's always going to be disagreements among people and giving them a venue to fight over those disagreements with words and votes discourages them from utilizing more destructive and destabilizing things, b) it's just really fundamental basic fairness to me, which is kind my whole overriding thing when it comes to political or economic questions (like, one of my principle problems with capitalism (beyond the fact that it's just inherently self destructive) is it's totally undemocratic)).

this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023

484 points (97.8% liked)

politics

19144 readers

4487 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News