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Cited by 538Criminal Justice and Corrections AnalysisCriminal Justice and PenologyCrime Patterns and Interventions

Surveillance and System Avoidance: Criminal Justice Contact and Institutional Attachment

Brayne, Sarah·2014·American Sociological Review
DOI 10.1177/0003122414530398
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Abstract

The degree and scope of criminal justice surveillance increased dramatically in the United States over the past four decades. Recent qualitative research suggests the rise in surveillance may be met with a concomitant increase in efforts to evade it. To date, however, there has been no quantitative empirical test of this theory. In this article, I introduce the concept of “system avoidance,” whereby individuals who have had contact with the criminal justice system avoid surveilling institutions that keep formal records. Using data from Add Health ( n = 15,170) and the NLSY97 ( n = 8,894), I find that individuals who have been stopped by police, arrested, convicted, or incarcerated are less likely to interact with surveilling institutions, including medical, financial, labor market, and educational institutions, than their counterparts who have not had criminal justice contact. By contrast, individuals with criminal justice contact are no less likely to participate in civic or religious institutions. Because criminal justice contact is disproportionately distributed, this study suggests system avoidance is a potential mechanism through which the criminal justice system contributes to social stratification: it severs an already marginalized subpopulation from institutions that are pivotal to desistance from crime and their own integration into broader society.

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  • Contact with the criminal legal system diminishes engagement with many institutions.

    “contact with the criminal legal system diminishes engagement with many institutions (Brayne 2014)”

    From The Rise of the Carceral State: Foundations and Contours of a Rapidly Changing Criminal Legal System (2025) · cites this paper as Brayne 2014

  • Individuals who have had any type of contact with the carceral system, even those who have only been stopped but not charged for a crime, avoid surveilling institutions such as schools, banks, places of employment, and hospitals, even in cases where they require medical attention.

    “For example, individuals who have had any type of contact with the carceral system, even those who have only been stopped but not charged for a crime, avoid surveilling institutions such as schools, banks, places of employment, and hospitals, even in cases where they require medical attention (Brayne 2014).”

    From Catching Our Breath: Critical Race STS and the Carceral Imagination (2016) · cites this paper as Brayne 2014

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Authors
Brayne, S.
Affiliations
Princeton University (US)
Corresponding author
Brayne, Sarah
Venue
American Sociological Review
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2014-04-04
Volume
79
Issue
3
Pages
367-391
ISSN
  • 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-8271
DOI
10.1177/0003122414530398
OpenAlex
W2129673993
Cited by
538
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 47 · 2025: 52 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 54 · 2020: 59 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 31 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 2
FWCI
79.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
Keywords
criminal justice system contact, social stratification, desistance from crime, social integration, police stops, incarceration, arrests, citizen participation, religious participation, Add Health, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997

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