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Monetary Sanctions as Chronic and Acute Health Stressors: The Emotional Strain of People Who Owe Court Fines and Fees

  • University of Washington
Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

In this article, we explore the experiences of people who carry monetary sanction (or penal) debt across eight U.S. states. Using 519 interviews with people sentenced to fines and fees, we analyze the mental and emotional aspects of their experiences. Situating our analysis within research on the social determinants of health and the stress universe, we suggest that monetary sanctions create an overwhelmingly palpable sense of fear, frustration, anxiety, and despair. We theorize the ways in which monetary sanctions function as both acute and chronic health stressors for people who are unable to pay off their debts, highlight the mechanisms linking penal debt with mental and emotional burdens, and generalize our findings using national data from the U.S. Federal Reserve. We find that the system of monetary sanctions generates a great deal of stress and strain that becomes an internalized punishment affecting many realms of people’s lives.

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Bibliographic Information

Output type

Research Output:
Contribution to journal
Article
 Peer-review

Original language

American English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 36-56

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

RSF (Volume 8, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 01/2022

Publication status

Published - 01/2022

ISSN

2377-8253

Publication IDs

  • Scopus: 85123164345