RT Article
T1 Citizenship, legal status, and misdemeanor justice
JF Criminology
VO 62
IS 4
SP 655
OP 703
A1 Light, Michael T.
A2 Robey, Jason P.
A2 Kim, Jungmyung
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/191448116X
AB Although minor forms of criminal justice contact are increasingly used to identify immigration violators, little research has been conducted at the intersection of immigration and misdemeanor justice. As a result, citizenship remains undertheorized in punishment research and fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this article, we introduce the "crimmigrant" punishment framework to conceptualize the unique case processing consequences for non-U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants. We then draw on rich case data from all misdemeanor arrests in Texas and California between 2006 and 2018 to establish four notable findings. (1) Misdemeanors are common and consequential. We observe more than 1.4 million misdemeanor arrests involving non-U.S. citizens, the overwhelming majority of which resulted in criminal charges and formal punishments. (2) The offenses that funnel noncitizens into the misdemeanor system are similar to those of U.S. citizens; however, we do observe an appreciable number of arrests linked to noncitizens’ legal status (e.g., giving false information). (3) Once in the misdemeanor system, noncitizens, and especially undocumented immigrants, are significantly more likely to be convicted and incarcerated compared with similarly situated U.S. citizens. (4) These disparities are more severe in Texas than in California.
K1 Citizenship
K1 Inequality
K1 misdemeanors
K1 Punishment
DO 10.1111/1745-9125.12387