Debtors’ Blocks: How Monetary Sanctions Make Between-neighborhood Racial and Economic Inequalities Worse

November 2021

By Kate K. O’Neill, PhD, Ian Kennedy, PhD, and Alexes Harris, PhD

This study examines how “LFO burden” (average amounts sentenced per neighborhood resident) is related to neighborhood poverty and the structural consequences of legal financial obligations (LFOs). LFOs include fines, fees, costs, and restitution. The study links data from the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts and the American Community Survey and finds that LFOs are more burdensome in high-poverty communities and communities of color. The study also finds that rates of LFOs sentenced per person are associated with increased future poverty rates across all neighborhoods. Because of these results, the authors argue that the system of monetary sanctions increases within-neighborhood poverty and exacerbates existing racial inequalities across neighborhoods.

Key findings include:

• LFO burden is concentrated in poorer, less-White neighborhoods across the state.
• LFO burden (re)produces poverty and inequality over time. Neighborhoods with higher levels of LFO burden in a particular year tend to have higher poverty over time, and this association is stronger in less-White neighborhoods.