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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1555227
Felony Disenfranchisement Laws and Racial Inequities in Women's Self-rated Health
Provisionally accepted- 1 Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University Spokane, Spokane, United States
- 2 Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, United States
- 3 University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
- 4 Regenerative Agriculture Alliance, Northfield, MN, United States
Objectives. To determine if more strict state-level felony disenfranchisement laws, which are a form of structural racism, are associated with worse self-rated health, and if this association is stronger for Black women compared to white women. Methods. Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2021, American Community Survey 2017-2021, and State Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in 2020 from the “Locked Out Report” by the Sentencing Project, we fit hierarchical linear models to estimate changes in self-rated health with state felony disenfranchisement laws for 185,833 Black and white women, stratified by race, in 49 states (excluding Florida).ResultsWe found a significant positive association between more restrictive disenfranchisement and worse self-rated health for Black women (b=.08, SE=.03, p<.01), but not white women, in the fully adjusted model. ConclusionsStricter state-level felony disenfranchisement laws were associated with worse self-rated health for Black women but not white women suggesting that policies of disenfranchisement may exacerbate racial inequities in health.
Keywords: felony disenfranchisement, Health Disparities, State Laws, Structural Racism, health equity
Received: 03 Jan 2025; Accepted: 13 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hing, Judson and Candil Escobar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Anna Hing, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University Spokane, Spokane, United States
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