We've spent the past week debating policing. I spent that time pouring over a body of political science research that focuses on the criminal justice system's effect on democracy.
What I found was troubling. https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman
What I found was troubling. https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman
The groundbreaking research here comes from @VeslaWeaver and @amyelerman. Their book Arresting Citizenship finds that exposure to the criminal justice system collapses faith in government wholesale
Lerman and Weaver's quantitative analysis found that people who have been arrested or jailed are less likely to vote. Subsequent research has expanded their work, showing significant harms to democratic participation https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman
In effect, overpolicing Black neighborhoods makes our crisis of democracy worse — exacerbating the problem of representation that's currently undermining the foundations of American democracy https://www.vox.com/2021/4/23/22394495/police-democracy-weaver-lerman