Category: Projects

[Abstract] This article explores how not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) sentiments affect the implementation of new cannabis laws in California cities. Despite increasing legality and growing social tolerance, the actual status of cannabis remains controversial. Large segments of the population and local authorities remain uncomfortable with the use of cannabis and resist allowing cannabis facilities in their communities. I employ statistical analysis to understand why some jurisdictions move toward more permissive cannabis policies and others do not. The results show that, on average, socially and economically prosperous cities express higher support for cannabis legalization, but cannabis businesses are more likely to receive permits in cities that are socially and economically distressed. The disparity between demand (white middle-class communities) and supply (poor Hispanic communities) demonstrates that stereotypes generated by the war on drugs have not disappeared after the passage of new cannabis laws and continue to perpetuate the marginalization of disadvantaged individuals and places.

[Link to Article]

[Abstract] This book explores the limitations of conventional accounts through which belonging is documented, focusing on the experiences of adoptees, deportees, migrants, and other exilic populations. The authors speak to the current historical moment in which the dichotomy between an “above ground” inhabited by dominant groups and an “underground” to which unauthorized immigrants, political exiles, and transnational adoptees are relegated cannot be sustained. This dichotomy was made possible by the illusion that some people do not belong, that some forms of kin are not real, or that certain ways of knowing do not count. To examine accounts that challenge such illusions, the authors focus on the spaces between groups, where difference is constituted and where the potential for new forms of relationship may be realized. By juxtaposing and moving between entangled realities and modes of expression, the book conveys the emotional experience of oscillating between being here and gone, legitimate and treated as counterfeit.

[Link to Book]

[Abstract] Objective: A significant increase in the release of individuals who served life sentences (i.e., lifers) in California has created the opportunity to study aspects of their psychological wellness for the first time. Moral injury may be a particularly relevant factor to consider in this population but has not been previously studied. This study is the first to explore the concept of moral injury within a currently or formerly incarcerated population. Method: Former lifers currently in reentry in California (N = 41) completed a survey that measured their moral injury exposure (MIE), MIE-related guilt, MIE-related shame, MIE-related rumination, religiosity, attempts at making amends, and flourishing. Results: As expected, a high rate of lifetime MIEs was endorsed (97.6%). Events linked to life sentence crimes (75.6%) and time in prison (56.1%) were very common. Lower levels of MIE-related shame (r = −.58, p < .01) and higher levels of religiosity (r = .35, p < .05) were significantly associated with greater flourishing. By contrast, degree of MIE exposure, MIE-related guilt, and MIE-related rumination, and making amends were all weakly associated with flourishing. Conclusion: Our results highlight that MIE is pervasive in this population and extends beyond life sentence crimes. Moreover, our findings suggest that it is lifers’ self-concept following MIEs that appears to affect well-being upon release, rather than the extent and nature of moral injury exposure. Further research exploring moral injury in incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations is needed to improve their well-being and chances of successful reentry

[Link to Article]

[Link to Article]

[Abstract] For the unhoused, the criminalization of their existence amplifies their entanglement with the state. Drawing on interviews and over 200 hours of ethnographic observations in Southern California, US, this paper focuses on everyday interactions between street-level bureaucrats and unhoused residents to examine when and how discretion is exercised and how unhoused residents experience these actions. It elucidates the ‘performative productivity’ employed by street-level bureaucrats to perpetuate ‘the myth’ that housing is available and that the central reason we still have homelessness is that unhoused individuals are service resistant. Performative productivity is a set of practices employed by actors including frontline government workers, non-profit workers, and interfaith and other volunteers as the terms of service. They include setting up meetings, filling out countless forms that require invasive sharing of information, signing up for waitlists that go nowhere, and surrendering rights and often accepting an externally imposed moralistic framework. If a person wants any services at all the terms are non-negotiable, thus compelling the unhoused to participate in the performance or risk loss of eligibility for any housing and non-housing services they have been able to attain, as minuscule or limited as these may be. I contend that this is tantamount to state violence. To make salient this point, I include a series of vignettes that present the street-level presence of the state in the lives of unhoused individuals and places it in a global context to highlight the ways in which the system is arbitrary, unhelpful, and potentially fatal.

[Excerpt] The pandemic has made visible the vulnerabilities that many undocumented immigrants in the U.S. face on a daily basis.

One afternoon in mid-April, I was sitting at the kitchen table working from home on my computer when the phone rang. I jumped to pick it up. My friend Eloise’s* voice came over the line.

“I have some bad news,” she said. “Herminio has been hospitalized because of COVID.”

Eloise had also contracted the virus but had been sent home to recuperate. Her boyfriend of 10 years, Herminio, had to stay in the hospital because of complications with his diabetes.

I struggled to imagine Herminio, with his jovial spirit, stuck in a hospital bed. I knew that his job—driving patients to their doctor’s appointments—put him at risk for contracting COVID-19. But I was still surprised to hear that his case was so serious; despite having diabetes, Herminio was a relatively healthy 52-year-old who didn’t smoke or drink.

When the pandemic hit, like others labeled “essential workers,” Herminio found himself in a precarious position—made even more so because of his undocumented status as an immigrant from Mexico.

[Link to Article]