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WP-02-39
"Civil
Death” or Civil Rights?
Public Attitudes Towards Felon Disfranchisement in the United
States
Jeff Manza,
Clem Brooks, and Christopher Uggen
Abstract
This paper presents new experimental survey results
about Americans’ attitudes toward the political disfranchisement
of felons and ex-felons. Two long-term trends in public opinion
provide the backdrop for this investigation: strong (though variable)
public support for conservative anti-crime policies, and growing
public support for civil rights and civil liberties for most major
groups. We find evidence that Americans favor providing non-incarcerated
felons (those on probation, parole, and ex-felons who have completed
their sentences) with the right to vote. These results are robust
in the face of alternative question wordings. Those who endorse
other civil liberties and a rehabilitative orientation to punishment
tend to favor extending voting rights to convicted felons, even
when the effects of age, race, sex, region, residency, education,
and ideological identification are statistically controlled. In
the clash between two different imperatives — a desire to
punish and deter crime versus a desire to promote and protect
the civil liberties of even unpopular groups — we find evidence
that the latter has greater public support. The paper concludes
with a discussion of how these results might inform the recently
emerging debate over felon disfranchisement laws.
Jeff Manza, Department of Sociology, Northwestern University
Clem Brooks, Department
of Sociology, Indiana University
Christopher Uggen, Department
of Sociology, University of Minnesota
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