Lifetime Felony Disenfranchisement in Florida, Texas, and Iowa: Symbolic and Instrumental Law

Part of a special issue on immigration rights and national insecurity. The writers discuss lifetime felony disenfranchisement (LFD) laws, which are well known to have much of their origins in American racism and the Civil War. They demonstrate how the instrumental use of LFD law has continued unabat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sennott, Christie (Author)
Contributors: Galliher, John F.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2006
In: Social justice
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Keywords:
African Americans > Southern States
African American suffrage
American law
Federal laws
History
History of crime
History of criminals
History of race relations in the United States
Human Behavior
Parole
Political Science
Prisoners > Suffrage
Prison reform
Race discrimination
Description
Summary:Part of a special issue on immigration rights and national insecurity. The writers discuss lifetime felony disenfranchisement (LFD) laws, which are well known to have much of their origins in American racism and the Civil War. They demonstrate how the instrumental use of LFD law has continued unabated in Florida and how the distinction between instrumental law and symbolic law—the former intended to control behavior and the latter more concerned with using law to make a public statement—can be used to explain the repeal of LFD legislation in Texas and its retention in Iowa. They show how state institutions organize and enforce racial politics through policies that were once explicitly and are now implicitly racial.