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Author: Smith, Sandra Susan
Resulting in 2 citations.
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Smith, Sandra Susan |
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Searching For Work with a Criminal Record Working Paper, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley, March 2012. Also: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7d56c799 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: University of California - Berkeley Keyword(s): Arrests; Incarceration/Jail; Job Search; Unemployment Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. To date, researchers have been very attentive to how the stigma of criminality informs employers’ hiring decisions, and, in the process, diminishes the employment opportunities afforded to jobseekers so stigmatized. Few researchers, however, have investigated the extent to which criminal records also shape jobseekers’ search strategies in ways that either attenuate or amplify the effects of their negative credentials. We fill this gap in the literature by investigating how arrest, conviction, and incarceration affect the scope of jobseekers’ search efforts as well as the specific methods they deploy. We then examine the extent to which gaps in job search success can be attributed to stigmatized jobseekers’ search strategies. Analysis of the NLSY97 reveals that arrestees and former prisoners (but not ex-convicts) are disadvantaged both by the scope of their search efforts and by the specific methods they use. Arrestees are less likely than non-offenders to find work during the search process because they use fewer search methods, and because they over-invest in ineffective methods while under-investing in more effective methods. Although former prisoners are also disadvantaged by over- and under-investing, we primarily attribute their lower odds of search success to the differential impacts of their search strategies. Even when the scope and nature of their searches mirror those of non-offenders, their searches are less likely to end successfully. By bringing “search” into debates on punishment and inequality, we provide a new and complementary way to understand how a criminal record negatively affects jobseekers’ chances of finding work. |
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Bibliography Citation
Smith, Sandra Susan. "Searching For Work with a Criminal Record." Working Paper, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley, March 2012. |
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Smith, Sandra Susan Broege, Nora C. R. |
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Searching for Work with a Criminal Record Social Problems published online (6 May 2019): DOI: 10.1093/socpro/spz009. Also: https://academic.oup.com/socpro/advance-article/doi/10.1093/socpro/spz009/5486336 Cohort(s): NLSY97 Publisher: Oxford University Press Keyword(s): Arrests; Crime; Criminal Justice System; Incarceration/Jail; Job Search Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. People with a criminal record face substantial demand-side employment barriers that have clear implications for whether or not they search for work and what strategies they use. We know relatively little, however, about whether and how penal contact affects patterns of job search and how search patterns affect search success. Using the 2001-2011 waves of the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97), we find that penal contact and penal dispositions--arrest, conviction, and incarceration--reduce odds of job search, decrease the number of search methods job seekers deploy, and direct job seekers away from search methods that are generally more efficient and effective at yielding offers. Further, altered search patterns contribute significantly to post-contact job seekers' lower odds of search success, especially for blacks. Taken together, our findings suggest that job search engagement is another key mechanism linking penal contact and poorer job search outcomes. |
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Bibliography Citation
Smith, Sandra Susan and Nora C. R. Broege. "Searching for Work with a Criminal Record." Social Problems published online (6 May 2019): DOI: 10.1093/socpro/spz009.
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