Graduation Semester and Year
2019
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Public and Urban Administration
Department
Public Administration
First Advisor
Unknown
Abstract
In developing an understanding of political participation among historically underrepre-sented groups, a disproportionate number of African Americans receiving punishment (prison sentences) is an issue that warrants consideration when calculating voter turnout. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects the voting rights of people regardless of race or ethnicity. The in-creasing incarceration rate of African American men, popularly known as mass incarceration, is a criminal justice phenomenon ongoing since the 1980’s. This research focuses primarily on the relationship between voter turnout, general and more specifically African Americans, and mass incarceration. The study examines twelve General (Presidential) Elections since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 through the 2012 election. In addition to incarceration rates of Af-rican Americans, other factors were also examined because it was not to be assumed that mass incarceration was the sole factor in people’s voting behavior. For each state, household incomes, college educated habitants, the percentage of the pop-ulation that is African American, and the percentage of the population that is impoverished were some of the variables considered, resulting in 600 observations. The goal was to determine if there is a correlation between voter turnout and incarceration rates among African Americans. In other words, during the years of high incarceration rates were there significant drops in voter turnout. Quantitative methods were used to examine a possible correlation. The findings suggest, however, that there is no significant correlation in overall voter turnout and mass incarceration of African Americans, but there is a statistical relationship between African American voter turnout and mass incarceration of African Americans.
Keywords
Mass incarceration, Voter turnout
Disciplines
Public Affairs | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Wilson-Musgrove, Martha, "Mass Incarceration and Voter Turnout Among African Americans in the United States (Is there a correlation between the two?)" (2019). Public Affairs Dissertations. 198.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/publicaffairs_dissertations/198
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington