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Research on Reentry and Employment

On this page find:

• Conviction Status Impacts the Employment Prospects of Young Men
• Potential for Redemption in Employment in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks
• Neighborhoods, Recidivism and Employment Among Returning Prisoners

Conviction Status Impacts the Employment Prospects of Young Men

Finding employment after being incarcerated can be an important step in a former inmate's reintegration into the community. Yet this is frequently one of the most difficult tasks former offenders undertake. Survey results suggest that between 60 and 75 percent of ex-offenders are jobless up to a year after release. [1]

Most employers are reluctant to hire applicants with criminal records. NIJ-funded research has shown that most employers are reluctant to hire applicants with criminal records. In a study conducted in New York City, for example, a criminal record reduced the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50 percent (28 percent for applicants without a criminal record versus 15 percent of applicants with). The negative effect of a criminal record was substantially larger for black applicants. The penalty for having a criminal record suffered by white applicants was approximately half the size of the penalty for black applicants with a criminal record. [2]

Employment prospects improve when applicants interact with the hiring manager. In the New York City study, employment prospects for applicants with criminal records improved when applicants had an opportunity to interact with the hiring manager, particularly when these interactions elicited sympathetic responses from the manager. Although individual characteristics of employers were significant, the researchers concluded that personal interaction between the applicant and prospective employer was in itself a key factor in a successful hiring. [3]

About the Research

NIJ funded Devah Pager to conduct a randomized field experiment in Milwaukee to identify some of the barriers facing ex-offenders seeking employment shortly after their release from prison. NIJ later funded Pager and Bruce Western to repeat the study in New York City. The studies produced similar results.

The researchers sought to determine how employers responded to applicants who were equally qualified but varied by race, ethnicity and criminal record (assigned randomly by the researchers). Matched teams of testers applied for hundreds of entry-level jobs. Testers were matched according to a number of criteria (e.g., verbal skills, physical attractiveness and interaction styles). They were assigned fictitious resumes and passed a common training program to ensure uniform behavior in the interviews.

In 2010, NIJ funded Scott Decker of Arizona State University (award number 2010-MU-MU-0004) to replicate the experiment a third time, with some enhancements, including testing the online application process.

Further Reading

• Report from the original study by Devah Pager in Milwaukee: "The Mark of a Criminal Record" (pdf, 250 pages), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, December 2002, NCJ 198320.
• Report from the study by Devah Pager and Bruce Western in New York: "Investigating Prisoner Reentry: The Impact of Conviction Status on the Employment Prospects of Young Men" (pdf, 136 pages), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, October 2009, NCJ 228584. (The report includes several related articles published in academic journals).

Potential for Redemption in Employment in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks

It can be difficult for someone with a criminal record to find employment. More than 80 percent of U.S. employers perform criminal background checks on prospective employees. [4]

Is there a point at which a former offender should be considered 'redeemed for employment purposes and relieved of the handicap imposed by his or her stale criminal record?

Researchers Al Blumstein and Kiminori Nakamura believe there is and that when that point is reached, a potential employer should no longer consider an ex-offender's record relevant. Why? Because at that point, an ex-offender is no longer more likely to commit a crime than other similar individuals of the same age in the general population. [5]

The concept of redemption or the expungement of a criminal record has important implications beyond employment. A redemption date or expungement of a criminal record may be relevant to other aspects of daily life, such as the ability to get public housing, receive certain public benefits, and obtain admission to and financial aid for college.

About the Research

Blumstein and Nakamura's method for estimating when redemption occurs depends on two factors: the arrestee's age at the time of the first arrest and the type of crime committed. In their study, based on an examination of 80,000 rap sheets for individuals first arrested in 1980 and after in New York, they found that, in general, the younger an offender was when he or she committed the first offense, the longer he or she had to stay "clean" to reach that redemption point.

The actuarial model created by Blumstein and Nakamura provides empirically based guidance for employers and others to help them determine the point at which a former offender poses no greater risk of recidivating than any other demographically similar person. At that point, Blumstein and Nakamura argue, the ex-offender's criminal history is no longer relevant. [6]

Ongoing Follow-Up Research
Blumstein and Nakamura are extending their research on redemption times (funded by NIJ under grant number 2009-IJ-CX-0008 for $247,554). They hope to enhance the robustness of their original results by determining whether their findings are supported by data from other time periods and from other places. To do this they will:

• Compare their original data on arrests in New York to data from arrests in different states.
• Look at first arrest data from years that had considerably different arrest rates than the original sample (the date of first arrest for all offenders in the original study was 1980).
• Account for out-of-state arrests.
• Compare results of people convicted with those merely arrested.

Learn more from:

• The report "Potential of Redemption in Criminal Background Checks" (pdf, 58 pages).
• A video interview in which the researchers discuss criminal background checks and hiring ex-offenders.

Further Reading

• Blumstein, A. and K. Nakamura, "Redemption in the Presence of Widespread Criminal Background Checks," Criminology, 47(2)(May 2009):327-59.
• Blumstein, A. and K. Nakamura, "'Redemption' in an Era of Widespread Criminal Background Checks", NIJ Journal 263 (June 2009): 10-17.
• Ritter, N.,"Employing Ex-Offenders:Researchers Develop Method for Computing 'Redemption' Time" (pdf, 3 pages), Corrections Today (February 2010).

Neighborhoods, Recidivism and Employment Among Returning Prisoners

Researchers from the University of Michigan are examining the association between neighborhood context and the outcomes related to recidivism and employment among a cohort of prisoners released from Michigan state prisons in 2003. This project will be the first to assemble and analyze a rich dataset of administrative records on individual parolees and to link these records with data on neighborhood context. This research is funded by NIJ under grant number 2008-IJ-CX-0018 for $395,601.