Vocabulary Flashcards for Special Populations and Policing

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to special populations and policing, with a focus on homelessness and systemic issues.

Darryl Watkins

A veteran black man who became homeless after losing his job and moved to Skid Row.

Housing instability

A broad term for experiences that lead to an unstable living environment.

Homelessness

Living without a primary nighttime residence.

Sheltered homelessness

Living without stable housing in emergency shelters or transitional housing.

Unsheltered homelessness

Staying in places not designated for living, like streets or vehicles.

Chronic homelessness

Shelters used similarly to long-term housing, often by older individuals with disabilities.

Transitional homelessness

Shelters used for a short time, typically by younger individuals experiencing a catastrophic event.

Episodic homelessness

Frequent use of shelters, often by younger individuals struggling with employment and mental health.

Neoliberalism

An economic approach prioritizing free markets and reduced government intervention.

What is the current legal and policy situation regarding homelessness in California (2024–2025)?

• 2024: Supreme Court allows cities in the western U.S. to criminalize unhoused people sleeping outside, even if they lack shelter.

• Aug 2025: Norwalk, LA County, temporarily bans emergency shelters, supportive housing, and SRO hotels. City Council considers extending the moratorium 10.5 months.

• Sept 2025: California Legislature passes a bill protecting residents who provide food or support to unhoused people from legal consequences.

Factors that often contribute to life instability?

Childhood Trauma, Homelessness, and Mental Health

Tranq

A slang term for tranquilizers, often referring to substances like xylazine used illicitly to enhance the effects of opioids.

Key U.S. trends in homelessness according to the 2025 National Alliance to End Homelessness report?

• Homelessness reached a record high

• Policies disproportionately impact vulnerable groups, worsening homelessness

• Homelessness affects some groups more than others

10 Causes of homelessness

• Addiction

• Domestic Violence

• Mental illness

• Jobless and underemployment

• Foreclosure

• PTSD

• Teens

• Relational Brokenness

• Grief

• Despair

What are the main causes of homelessness?

A mixture of many factors

What is the nickname “The Nickel” referring to?

Skid Row in Los Angeles

What is “The Nickel”

• Known as the homeless capital of America

• Home to ~13,000 residents living in extreme poverty

• ⅓ of Skid Row residents live on the streets, in shelters, or in temporary housing

Poverty governance

Regulation and integration of impoverished populations into society and markets.

(e.g., Big brother is always watching)

Penal welfarism

A criminal justice approach combining social work with offender management.

where policies embrace social work with offenders and their families, indeterminate sentences with early police and parole, and social inquiry/psychiatric evaluations.

Safer Cities Initiative

An intense policing campaign in Skid Row costing $6 million, adding 80 officers to 0.85 square miles—the densest concentration of standing police forces in the U.S.

What is neoliberalism and its impact on social welfare?

Began in the 1960s; promotes free markets, less government intervention, and individual problem-solving. Led to reorganization and reprioritization of social welfare policies.

How does the criminal justice system respond in a neoliberal state?

• Zero tolerance and broken windows policing

• Increased resources to police/ penal state

• Punishing minor public behaviors deemed offensive

• Criminalizing poverty

• Neoliberal poverty governance aims to "improve poor people.”

  1. Social problems are seen as the result of personal choices rather than the result of structural inadequacies

How does criminalization push people further into homelessness?

• Criminalization: Trespassing charges, fines, bench warrants

• Arrested: Can't pay bail, pre-trial detention increases risk of rearrest, may accept guilty plea → criminal record

• Convicted: No probation without address, can't pay court fees

• More Penalties: Incarceration, job loss, loss of voting rights/benefits, criminal record blocks housing

What does it mean to criminalize poverty?

• Using laws, policies, and policing to punish behaviors that result from being poor or unhoused

• Includes acts of survival in public: sleeping, sitting/lying on sidewalks, panhandling, urinating, living in a vehicle

• These are not moral failings, but acts driven by necessity

How is poverty criminalized?

• Laws and policies punish people for conditions of being poor

• Examples: unpaid fines, inability to pay bail, survival behaviors

• Focuses on individual punishment instead of addressing structural causes of poverty

Housing as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Ugly Laws banned visibly sick or disabled people from public spaces.

• Now: Anti-encampment sweeps forcibly move homeless people, treating survival spaces as “sanitary problems.”

Implications of criminalizing poverty through housing policies

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because homeless people are punished for simply existing in public spaces.

Mental Illness as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Vagrancy arrests targeted the homeless based on status, not actions.

• Now: Police often arrest people with untreated mental illness due to lack of training, sometimes causing harm (e.g., Misty Castillo’s son).

Implications of criminalizing poverty through mental illness

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because people with untreated mental illness are arrested instead of being treated.

Representation/Due Process as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Gideon v. Wainwright guaranteed the right to a lawyer.

• Now: Public defenders are overworked, so quality of representation often depends on money.

Implications of criminalizing poverty through Representation/Due Process

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because poor people receive lower-quality legal representation, affecting their outcomes.

Forced Labor as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Convict leasing after the Civil War forced (and cheated) recently freed Black people into labor.

• Now: Jail/prison labor provides cheap or free labor to governments and companies, with little pay.

Implications of criminalizing poverty through Forced Labor

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because the justice system exploits incarcerated people for labor, often targeting the poor or marginalized.

School Discipline as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Corporal punishment and exclusion were common, disproportionately affecting Black students and students with disabilities.

• Now: School Resource Officers (SROs) enforce rules and make arrests in schools.

Implications of criminalizing poverty through School Discipline

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because poor and minority students face harsher punishment and policing in schools.

Segregated Education as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: Pre-Brown v. Board, schools were segregated and underfunded for minorities.

• Now: School funding depends on local property taxes, so where you live affects educational quality.

Implications of criminalizing poverty through Segregated Education

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because unequal resources tied to wealth continue to limit opportunities for the poor.

Fines and Jails as Criminalization of Poverty

• Then: People could be jailed for not paying fines (Tate v. Short, Bearden v. Georgia).

• Now: Cash bail and court fees still tie freedom to money, even if courts technically cannot jail someone solely for poverty.

Implications of criminalizing poverty through Fines and Jails

Even though these examples are decades apart, poverty is criminalized in similar ways because financial inability leads to legal penalties, keeping poverty tied to the criminal system.