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This paper aims to explore how incarcerated women prepare to manage the stigma of a criminal history as they look to re-enter the workforce after release from incarceration.

This paper uses a qualitative, case study research design including interviews and observations to explore the experiences and self-perceptions of incarcerated women within the context of employment.

Five themes that emerged and influenced the perception of stigma as these incarcerated women prepared for release into the labor market were career self-efficacy, the intersection of identity (women and criminal history), self-perceptions of prison identity, stigma disclosure and social support for employment.

As the management literature expands to include more diverse and marginalized populations, current understanding of theories and concepts, such as multiple identities and stigma disclosure, may operate differently as compared to traditional management samples.

Organizations can collaborate with correctional facilities to ensure that individuals with a criminal history are trained and prepared to re-enter the workplace upon release.

As employment is one of the biggest determinants of recidivism (i.e. return to incarceration) for individuals with a criminal history, organizations have the unique ability to assist in substantially decreasing the incarcerated population.

This study explores criminal history and highlights some of the nuances to consider when exploring an understudied and marginalized population, such as women with a criminal history.

Many employers express concern over consumer response to employees with criminal histories. However, consumers' responses may be less negative than employers assume. The authors examine consumers' response to organizations that hire employees with criminal histories.

The authors surveyed participants randomly assigned to one of two conditions: purchasing services from an employer that hires individuals with criminal histories or from an employer whose inclination to hire individuals with criminal histories is unknown. The authors considered four service providers, among which the length of customers' time and involvement with employees varies: a grocery store, restaurant, auto-repair shop, and hotel.

Participants were no more or less likely to patronize the restaurant, the repair shop, or the grocery store that hired individuals with criminal histories, and no more or less likely to alter their willingness to pay for these services. Consumers were less likely to stay at a hotel that hired employees with criminal histories, but this difference was mitigated when customers were provided with an explanation of the benefits of hiring individuals with criminal histories.

This study highlights the need for further research on perceptions that limit hiring of individuals with criminal histories and other similarly marginalized populations.

This research addresses a common justification – consumer concern – for not hiring individuals with criminal histories.

Increased employment improves individual outcomes, such as access to stable housing and food, as well as larger outcomes, such as public safety.

This paper highlights a population often marginalized in the hiring process. The findings challenge a common justification for not hiring individuals with criminal histories.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social stigmatization of the formerly incarcerated identity and how this affects employment post-release. The authors consider the characteristics of this identity and the identity management strategies that individuals draw from as they navigate employment.

The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 men at various stages of release from federal institutions in Canada. Participants were actively searching for employment, intending to or would consider searching for employment, or had searched for employment in the past post-incarceration. Participant data were simultaneously collected, coded and analyzed using an inductive approach (Gioia et al., 2012).

Formerly incarcerated individuals have a unique awareness of the social stigmatization associated with their criminal record and incarceration history. They are tasked with an intentional choice to disclose or conceal that identity throughout the employment process. Six identity management strategies emerged from their accounts: conditional disclosure, deflection, identity substitution, defying expectations, withdrawal and avoidance strategies. More specifically, distinct implications of criminal record and incarceration history on disclosure decisions were evident. Based on participants’ accounts of their reintegration experiences, four aspects that may inform disclosure decisions include: opportune timing, interpersonal dynamics, criminal history and work ethic.

The authors explore the formerly incarcerated identity as a socially stigmatized identity and consider how individuals manage this identity within the employment context. The authors identify incarceration history and criminal record as having distinct impacts on experiences of stigma and identity management strategic choice, thus representing the experience of a “double stigma”.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how offenses co-occur in the backgrounds of homicide offenders and if identified groups of offenses reflect an underlying theoretical construct or theme; and to determine if offenders specialize in thematically similar offenses.

The previous convictions of 122 single-victim homicide offenders were examined using smallest space analysis to identify groups of co-occurring offenses across offenders’ criminal histories.

The results showed a thematic distinction between violent vs instrumental offenses and 84 percent of offenders specialized in offenses within a single dominant theme, suggesting that the framework can differentiate the majority of offenders’ criminal backgrounds. Possible sub-themes were identified that could suggest further demarcation of the themes and provide a more refined framework that may be of even greater utility in differentiating offenders.

This study utilized data from a single American city that may affect generalizability of the findings. The exclusion of a timeline for prior offending precludes consideration of offending escalation.

The current study uses an alternative approach to conceptualize specialization according to how offenses co-occur in the backgrounds of homicide offenders. This approach is less restrictive than considering the offenses in isolation to one another and may be of greater utility in empirically derived offender profiling models. The thematic framework developed herein can act as a foundation for future studies.

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic review of research conducted over the past ten years (2008–2018) that examines the relationship between criminal record and work in the USA. Furthermore, a research agenda is presented that may help to better inform future investigations of the relationships shared between these variables.

The authors review 58 peer-reviewed research articles identified in four electronic article databases: Business Source Premier, PsycINFO, ProQuest Sociology Collection and ProQuest Criminology Collection.

Of the 58 articles fitting the final inclusion criteria, 37 evaluated employee specific related outcomes, whereas 24 took the perspective of the employer (including some overlap). Studies employed a variety of methodologies and techniques, with qualitative interviews, archival data and audit methods as the most prevalent. Few studies examined the relationships between criminal record and work in ways that demonstrated improved employment outcomes for both employer and the employed together.

This is one of the first papers to synthesize interdisciplinary literature related to criminal record and employment, including an assessment of the varying methodological treatments and perspectives used in research studies to assess this relationship. The authors believe the findings from this research effort will provide much needed research direction for investigators seeking to make contributions to improving employment outcomes.

Collateral consequences (CCs) of criminal convictions such as disenfranchisement, occupational restrictions, exclusions from public housing, and loss of welfare benefits represent one of the salient yet hidden features of the contemporary American penal state. This chapter explores, from a comparative and historical perspective, the rise of the many indirect “regulatory” sanctions flowing from a conviction and discusses some of the unique challenges they pose for legal and policy reform. US jurisprudence and policies are contrasted with the more stringent approach adopted by European legal systems and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in safeguarding the often blurred line between criminal punishments and formally civil sanctions. The aim of this chapter is twofold: (1) to contribute to a better understanding of the overreliance of the US criminal justice systems on CCs as a device of social exclusion and control, and (2) to put forward constructive and viable reform proposals aimed at reinventing the role and operation of collateral restrictions flowing from criminal convictions.

Introduction. This study examined the association between self-rated physical and oral health, cigarette smoking, and history of criminal justice contact (i.e., never arrested; arrested, but never incarcerated; or incarcerated in reform school, detention, jail, or prison) among African American men and women. Methods. We conducted descriptive statistical, linear regression, and multinomial regression analyses of the African American subsample (n = 3,570) from the National Survey of American Life (2001–2003). Results. Overall, African American women reported lower arrest rates and histories of incarceration than African American men. Additionally, we found that criminal justice contact was associated with lower self-rated physical health and oral health and higher levels of smoking for both men and women. African American women who had been arrested and detained in facilities other than jail had more chronic health problems than their male counterparts. Furthermore, having been arrested or spent time in a reform school, detention center, jail, or prison significantly increased the odds of African American men being a current smoker. Lastly, among African American women, those who had any level of criminal justice contact were likely to be current smokers and former smokers compared to those without a history of criminal justice contact. Conclusion. Addressing the health of African Americans with criminal justice contact is a critical step in reducing health disparities and improving the overall health and well-being of African American men and women. Furthermore, attention to differences by gender and specific types of criminal justice contact are important for a more precise understanding of these relationships.