Monetary Sanctions and Housing Instability

The relationship between criminal legal involvement and housing is complex because the causal arrow goes both ways. Research documents a homelessness-incarceration nexus whereby homelessness criminalized, incarceration leads to homelessness. In this article, we broaden scope of outcomes by considering instability more generally shift focus financial obligations (LFOs) as specific kind sanction, apart from or effects record. Our data consist surveys qualitative interviews with people paying LFOs (N = 519), court actors 443), than 1,900 hours courtroom ethnography in eight states, plus nationally representative survey data. We find substantial evidence instability-LFO nexus, caustic churn population identifiable hardships saddled punishment that deepens strain thus weakens stability.