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Author: Schwam, Daniel
Resulting in 2 citations.
1. Bushway, Shawn D.
Cabreros, Irineo
Paige, Jessica Welburn
Schwam, Daniel
Wenger, Jeffrey B.
Barred from Employment: More Than Half of Unemployed Men in their 30s Had a Criminal History of Arrest
Science Advances 8,7 (18 February 2022): DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj6992.
Also: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj6992
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Science
Keyword(s): Arrests; Incarceration/Jail; Unemployment

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We investigate what portion of the pool of unemployed men in the United States have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated by age 35. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997, we estimate 64% of unemployed men have been arrested, and 46% have been convicted. Unexpectedly, these rates vary only slightly by race and ethnicity. Further investigation of other outcomes such as marriage, education, household net worth, and earnings shows large differences between unemployed men who have a criminal history record and those who do not. One major implication of these findings is that employment services should focus more on the special challenges facing unemployed men with criminal history records. A second implication is that statistical discrimination against unemployed members of racial minority groups, to avoid hiring those with criminal histories, is both illegal and ineffective.
Bibliography Citation
Bushway, Shawn D., Irineo Cabreros, Jessica Welburn Paige, Daniel Schwam and Jeffrey B. Wenger. "Barred from Employment: More Than Half of Unemployed Men in their 30s Had a Criminal History of Arrest." Science Advances 8,7 (18 February 2022): DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj6992.
2. Schwam, Daniel
Bushway, Shawn D.
Wenger, Jeffrey B.
The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workers with a Criminal History
Monthly Labor Review (January 2023): .
Also: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2023/article/the-impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-workers-with-a-criminal-history.htm
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: U.S. Department of Labor
Keyword(s): COVID-19/Coronavirus Pandemic; Criminal Justice System; Industrial Sector; Unemployment Duration

Few researchers have focused on the labor market problems that U.S. workers with a criminal history record (CHR) experienced during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this article, we use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) COVID-19 Supplement to examine the extent to which workers with a CHR had employment disruptions--gaps in employment or reductions in hours and earnings--during the early months of the pandemic. We find that survey respondents with a CHR were more likely than those without a CHR to have had at least one employment disruption in the 12 months prior to the survey. Even workers with a CHR who were stably employed during the 2- to 3-year period before the pandemic were more likely than their non-CHR counterparts to have had a pandemic-related employment disruption. We argue that these disparities occur mostly because people with a CHR are more likely to work in industries that were more negatively affected by the pandemic. Within broad industry groups, the differences in disruptions for those with and without a CHR are not statistically significant, implying that hiring patterns by industry--rather than differential treatment--explain most of the observed differences in employment outcomes by CHR status.
Bibliography Citation
Schwam, Daniel, Shawn D. Bushway and Jeffrey B. Wenger. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workers with a Criminal History." Monthly Labor Review (January 2023): .