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Am J Crim Just (2015) 40:336352
DOI 10.1007/s12103-014-9251-9
Stewart J. DAlessio & Lisa Stolzenberg &
Jamie L. Flexon
Received: 4 March 2014 /Accepted: 23 May 2014 /
Published online: 24 June 2014# Southern Criminal Justice Association 2014
Abstract The social stigma accompanying an official criminal record hinders the ability of an individual to acquire quality and stable employment, which is problematic because of the often reported nexus between unemployment and criminal behavior. Ban the box laws that limit an employers use of criminal background checks during the hiring process are being established across the country to help integrate ex-offenders into the labor force. The current study investigates whether Hawaiis 1998 ban the box law reduced repeat offending in Honolulu County. Logistic regression results show that a criminal defendant prosecuted in Honolulu for a felony crime was 57 % less likely to have a prior criminal conviction after the implementation of Hawaiis ban the box law. By mollifying the social stigma attached to a criminal record during the hiring process, Hawaiis ban the box law proved to be extremely successful in attenuating repeat felony offending.
Keywords Ban the box laws . Criminal record . Social stigma . Labeling theory
The Stigma of a Criminal Record and Labor Force Participation
Over 14 million arrests are made every year in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2010). Criminal record histories often result from these arrests, with about two-thirds of all felony arrests resulting in a criminal conviction (Cohen & Kyckelhahn, 2010). It is estimated that more than one in four Americans currently has a criminal record (Rodriguez & Emsellem, 2011) and a large percentage of these individuals are black reflecting their much higher arrest rate as compared to whites. These criminal records can be readily accessed for a nominal fee by the general public, including employers, landlords and insurance companies among others via computer databases (Connerley, Arvey, & Bernardy, 2001). Millions of criminal background checks are conducted each year in the U.S. (SEARCH, 2006). About 92 % of employers inquire about the criminal
S. J. DAlessio (*) : L. Stolzenberg : J. L. Flexon
Department of Criminal Justice, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street - PCA 263B, Miami, FL 33199, USAe-mail: [email protected]
The Effect of Hawaiis Ban...