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.