{"id":8130,"date":"2015-03-18T12:22:47","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T12:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/&p=8130"},"modified":"2015-11-03T19:26:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T19:26:00","slug":"misdemeanorjustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2015\/03\/18\/misdemeanorjustice\/","title":{"rendered":"Misdemeanors as a Form of Social Control"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Issa Kohler-Hausmann, <\/span>“Misdemeanor Justice: Control without Conviction,” American Journal of Sociology<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2013<\/span><\/div>\n
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Matthew G\/\/Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot of ink has been spilled investigating \u201cmass incarceration,\u201d the massive expansion in the\u00a0scope of punishment and its subsequent social consequences. However, the largest arrest categories are\u00a0for crimes below a felony level, which do not elicit a prison sentence. These \u201clower-level\u201d criminal\u00a0justice encounters involve misdemeanors or infractions of noncriminal codes. Issa Kohler-Hausmann,\u00a0using over 2 years of field work in a New York City criminal court, investigates how \u201cmisdemeanor\u00a0justice\u201d – the criminal justice processing of lower level offenses – represents a form of social\u00a0control, even though the majority of these sub-felony cases do not result in either a finding of guilt or a\u00a0formal punishment.<\/p>\n

Kohler-Hausmann argues that the criminal justice system extends its net of control through misdemeanor level cases through three techniques: marking, procedural hassle, and\u00a0performance. The first procedure, marking, is an official mark on the defendant, most often in the form\u00a0of a temporary rap sheet (which can be dismissed after a period of time). The mark allows the\u00a0authorities to keep temporary \u201ctabs\u201d on the defendant, and restricts the defendant\u2019s travel and immigration. Further, all open criminal matters in New York are\u00a0accessible to the public through an online database. This can increase the stigmatizing reach of the\u00a0criminal mark, as employers and landlords can access this data.<\/p>\n

The second form of misdemeanor control, procedural hassle, involves the institutional \u201churdles\u201d\u00a0necessary to obtain the dismissal of the mark. Defendants have to conform to the institutional demands\u00a0of the court, for example, a mandatory court appearance (or a number of them) is accompanied by\u00a0stress, lost work, child care costs, and often the neglect of other opportunities in order to comply with\u00a0court dates. Additionally, the time from arrest to dismissal is defined by numerous encounters\u00a0with state\u00a0authority, which demand a level conformity and obedience.<\/p>\n

The final penal technique offered by Kohler-Hausmann is performance. The threat of a lasting criminal mark and the demands of criminal justice procedures require the defendants to comply with the demands placed on them. For example, the performance of\u00a0community service is a common prerequisite for a case dismissal. Overall, these techniques allow the criminal justice system to track and discipline alleged low-level offenders without the formal punishment of parole, prison, or jail, widening the system’s net of control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Issa Kohler-Hausmann, “Misdemeanor Justice: Control without Conviction,” American Journal of Sociology, 2013 A lot of ink has been spilled investigating \u201cmass incarceration,\u201d the massive expansion in the\u00a0scope of punishment and its subsequent social consequences. However, the largest arrest categories are\u00a0for crimes below a felony level, which do not elicit a prison sentence. These \u201clower-level\u201d criminal\u00a0justice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2001,"featured_media":8383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,13,14],"tags":[37337,4407,37332,27077,33644,16452,33643],"class_list":["post-8130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-inequality","category-race","tag-crime","tag-criminal-justice","tag-inequality","tag-informal-social-control","tag-kohler-hausmann","tag-mass-incarceration","tag-misdemeanor-justice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/files\/2015\/03\/20118120723_9fba72e5c4_z.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2001"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8385,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8130\/revisions\/8385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}