In a previous article, I wrote about research from Harvard outlining the sheer scale of the so-called “untapped” workforce in the United States. This pool of around 27 million workers are frequently overlooked in the labor market, and consists of military veterans, people with mental health problems and physical disabilities, and, of course, those with a criminal record.
Recent research from the RAND Corporation highlights the scale of the problem. It suggests that by the age of 35, 64% of unemployed men have been arrested already, with 46% having received a conviction.
An untapped workforce
“Employers need to understand that one big reason they cannot find the workers they need is too often, they exclude those who have had involvement with the criminal justice system,” the researchers explain. “Employers need to reconsider their protocols about how to respond when applicants have some type of criminal history.”
The researchers build on the extensive body of evidence highlighting the impact a criminal record has on one’s employment chances and estimate the incidence of criminal records among unemployed American men.
The criminal system in the United States is notorious, with around one in three adults believed to have been arrested at some point in their life. Men are more likely than women to have a record, which significantly harms their employment prospects. What’s more, Black people are more likely to have a criminal record than their white peers.
Criminal histories
The researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate the number of men with criminal records. The survey tracks a group of Americans over the course of their life.
The results show that for men aged between 30 and 38, there was a strong link between their unemployment and their involvement with the criminal justice system, with the majority having been arrested at least once and 40% convicted at least once.
The results highlight the need for employment services to do far more to help those with a criminal record, while also emphasizing the importance of not stigmatizing those with a criminal record among employers too.
“Most government programs focus on providing the unemployed with new skills in order to get them into the workforce,” the researchers say. “But if you only focus on skills development, you are missing a big part of the problem. The unemployment system almost never looks at the role that criminal history plays in keeping people out of the workforce.”
A fair chance
For instance, the researchers cite efforts, such as the so-called “Ban-the-Box” laws, to prevent employers from asking about the criminal histories of applicants are unlikely to help as employers can simply search commercial databases to find out about those things anyway.
Indeed, a criminal record check is often a fundamental part of the background checks employers do before hiring a new employee, so it will come up even if it doesn’t do so during the application itself.
Therefore the more pertinent question is what risk does an employee with a criminal record actually pose? Could better models to help us understand the risk of recidivism give employers a more realistic perspective on the prospects of a candidate?
“Most employers believe that most people with criminal histories will commit offenses again,” the researchers conclude. “But that is not the case. And the risk of reoffending drops dramatically as people spend more time free in the community without a new conviction. Employers need to adopt a more nuanced approach to the issue.”
