Criminal Justice Contact and Indebtedness in Young Adulthood: Investigating the Potential Role of State-level Hidden Sentences

Abstract

Contact with the American criminal justice system is associated with socioeconomic disadvantage and financial insecurity, but little research has explored the link between criminal justice contact and indebtedness. In this study, we ask whether contact in young adulthood is associated with access to credit and unsecured debt burdens. We also focus on state-level policies that operate alongside official punishments and restrict citizenship and societal participation among the justice-involved (termed hidden sentences), and ask whether such policies moderate the association between criminal justice contact and indebtedness. We find that criminal justice contact, especially incarceration, is associated with reduced access to unsecured credit and greater absolute and relative debt burdens. These associations are strongest for individuals residing in states with more onerous hidden sentence regimes. We argue that indebtedness is a key socioeconomic consequence of criminal justice contact and that hidden sentences may exacerbate these consequences.