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Megan B. Welsh

Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Public Administration, San Diego State University
Chapter Member: San Diego SSN
Areas of Expertise:
  • Criminal Justice
  • Race & Ethnicity
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Inequality
  • Law & Courts

Connect with Megan

About Megan

Welsh's research focuses on the criminalization of homelessness, policing practices, and post-incarceration processes (e.g., parole/probation supervision), with a focus on how individuals with criminal-legal contact experience these processes. Overarching themes in Welsh's writings include gendered and racialized patterns, both in how "clients" experience criminal-legal contacts, and in how workers within the system understand their jobs.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Increasing Access to Public Bathrooms is Critical for San Diegans’ Health

  • Jennifer Kate Felner
  • Jerel Pasion Calzo
Memo,

Why Cities Must End Their Reliance on Police to Manage Homelessness – and How They Can Do It

  • Jennifer Kate Felner
Memo,

In the News

Megan B. Welsh quoted on work done by women on parole and probation to rebuild families by Priscilla A. Ocen, "Awakening to a Mass-Supervision Crisis" The Atlantic, December 26, 2019.

Publications

"Collisions of the Personal and the Professional: How Frontline Welfare Workers Manage Carceral Citizens" (with Kristina Leyva). Affilia 35, no. 1 (February 2020): 17-33.

Finds for criminalized people, particularly those who have been recently incarcerated, applying for and maintaining public assistance—cash aid and/or food assistance—is an immediate and crucial element of survival. Examines how criminalized clients are understood by welfare workers in one large, densely populated California county.

"How Formerly Incarcerated Women Confront the Limits of Caring and the Burdens of Control amid California’s Carceral Realignment" Feminist Criminology 14, no. 1 (January 2019): 89-114.

Examines changes to how community supervision (parole and probation) is administered in California under AB 109 / Public Safety Realignment, and particularly, how these changes have been experienced by women on each form of supervision.

"“You’re an Embarrassment”: Un-Housed People’s Understandings of Policing in Downtown San Diego " (with Mounah Abdel-Samad). Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society 19, no. 3 (2018): 33-49.

Presents findings from an ongoing study of the use of police to manage the issue of street homelessness in downtown San Diego, California. Draws on data collected over the past two years through brief, structured interviews (n=195), focus groups (n=23), and in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n=20) with un-housed people about their experiences with law enforcement. Shows how un-housed people make sense of and attempt to maneuver within a system of policing that attempts to erase homelessness from the urban landscape and that consequently functions to further deepen the marginalization of this already vulnerable population.