Presentation description

This project focuses on the experiences, insights, and motivations of Latinx criminal justice professionals in the intermountain west of the United States. In the United States, 56% of Latinos have reported that they or an immediate family member has had direct contact with the criminal justice system (Livingston, 2009). Latinos are also more than 1.3 times as likely than white people to be incarcerated in the United States (U.S. Criminal Justice Data, 2025). While data readily exists on incarceration and contact rates, there is limited data available on Latinos in criminal justice professions (Ortiz, 2018). Additionally, current literature focuses on the experiences of male officers in the police force, and does not fully capture the role of women, nor the experiences of LGBTQ+ people, nor in other criminal justice professions (Gallardo, 2020b, 2020a; Yudu Li et al., 2023; Dwyer & Colvin, 2022). This poster focuses on the motivations of Latinx criminal justice professionals, as well as highlights the process of creating a digital exhibit to display the oral histories