Race, Employment and a Criminal Record: Devah Pager

00:06:02
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUZqvsF_Wt0

摘要

TLDRThe video explores the severe challenges that ex-offenders face when trying to re-enter the workforce, focusing on the role of racial discrimination and the impact of a criminal record. With over 700,000 individuals released from prison each year in the U.S., the study investigated the employment prospects for black and white applicants with and without criminal records. It found that racial discrimination significantly impacted job callbacks, with black applicants without criminal records receiving fewer callbacks than white applicants with felony convictions. The study suggests that the criminal justice and employment systems are key contributors to racial inequality. It proposes the 'ban the box' initiative to remove the criminal record question from job applications, allowing ex-offenders to present their qualifications first. The findings underline the importance of employment in preventing re-incarceration and highlight the need for systemic reforms to address racial and criminal record-related employment barriers.

心得

  • 📈 The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate globally, with over 2 million imprisoned.
  • 🚪 Over 700,000 ex-prisoners struggle yearly to find employment and reintegrate into society.
  • 🔍 An experimental audit study was conducted to explore how race and criminal records affect job prospects.
  • 📉 Ex-offenders face about a 50% reduction in callbacks, highlighting severe employment challenges.
  • ⚖️ Racial disparities are evident, with black applicants receiving fewer callbacks than similarly situated whites.
  • 🔄 The study reveals that a black applicant is treated similarly to a white felon in employment outcomes.
  • 📊 12% of young black men are incarcerated compared to less than 2% of young white men.
  • 🗳️ 'Ban the box' initiative could help ex-offenders by removing criminal record questions from job applications.
  • 👥 Personal interactions before revealing a criminal record improve job outcomes.
  • 🔗 Employment is crucial in reducing re-incarceration and aiding societal reintegration.

时间轴

  • 00:00:00 - 00:06:02

    The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, leading to problems with prisoner re-entry as over 700,000 individuals are released each year. These ex-offenders struggle to find work due to a criminal record and associated issues such as low education, sporadic work history, and health problems. A study was conducted to discern how criminal records affect job prospects, highlighting racial disparities. White applicants with no record received 34% job callbacks versus 17% with a record. Black applicants faced harsher outcomes: 14% callbacks with no record versus 5% with a record. Remarkably, whites with a felony were preferred over blacks without, underscoring racial discrimination. The study suggests removing the felony question from applications could help ex-offenders get jobs by allowing them to personally impress employers before revealing their records.

思维导图

Mind Map

常见问题

  • What is the main problem highlighted in the video?

    The main problem highlighted is the difficulty ex-offenders face in finding employment, compounded by racial discrimination.

  • How does the video propose to help ex-offenders find jobs?

    The video suggests removing the criminal record question from job applications to allow candidates to make an impression based on their qualifications.

  • What experimental method was used in the study?

    An experimental audit study was used, sending matched pairs of applicants to apply for jobs with manipulated criminal records and racial characteristics.

  • What were the findings regarding racial discrimination in job callbacks?

    Black applicants with no criminal record received callbacks at about the same rate as white applicants with a felony conviction.

  • How does a criminal record affect employment opportunities, according to the study?

    A criminal record reduces the likelihood of receiving a job callback or offer by about 50%.

  • What are the incarceration statistics mentioned for young black men?

    12% of young black men are incarcerated at any given time, and about one in three will spend time in prison during their life.

  • What is the 'ban the box' initiative?

    'Ban the box' involves removing the criminal record question from job applications to help ex-offenders be judged on their qualifications.

  • Why is employment important for former prisoners?

    Employment is a key predictor of whether former prisoners reoffend and return to prison.

  • What are the implications of racial disparities in the justice system?

    There are significant racial disparities in incarceration rates, contributing to inequality and affecting employment prospects for black men.

  • How do personal interactions with employers impact job prospects for ex-offenders?

    When ex-offenders have a chance to interact with employers before disclosing their criminal record, their employment outcomes improve.

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  • 00:00:00
  • 00:00:00
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
  • 00:00:08
    There are currently more than 2 million people
  • 00:00:10
    incarcerated in this country.
  • 00:00:12
    And the United States now has the highest rate
  • 00:00:14
    of incarceration in the world.
  • 00:00:16
    The problem of mass incarceration
  • 00:00:17
    directly translates into a problem of prisoner re-entry.
  • 00:00:21
    With over 700,000 individuals being released from prison
  • 00:00:24
    each year, we've got a huge population
  • 00:00:27
    that is struggling to find work and to reintegrate
  • 00:00:29
    into society.
  • 00:00:30
    What I wanted to do was to find out
  • 00:00:32
    how the effect of a criminal record
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    might influence people's chances of finding a job,
  • 00:00:37
    and how that process may differ depending
  • 00:00:40
    on the race of the job applicant.
  • 00:00:42
    We know that ex-offenders have on average poor employment outcomes
  • 00:00:45
    But we know very little about why.
  • 00:00:48
    Ex-offenders have low levels of schooling.
  • 00:00:50
    They have little or spotty work experience.
  • 00:00:53
    On average, ex-offenders are more
  • 00:00:55
    likely to have problems with substance
  • 00:00:57
    abuse and mental illness.
  • 00:00:59
    All of these things can contribute
  • 00:01:00
    to having trouble finding and keeping a steady job.
  • 00:01:04
    And so in order to isolate the effect of a criminal record
  • 00:01:06
    from all of these other associated characteristics,
  • 00:01:09
    I turned to an experiment.
  • 00:01:11
    So specifically I'm using what's called an experimental audit study.
  • 00:01:15
    And the basic design of an audit involves
  • 00:01:18
    sending matched pairs of job applicants, who are also
  • 00:01:22
    referred to as testers, to apply for real job openings
  • 00:01:25
    in order to see how employers respond to otherwise equally
  • 00:01:29
    qualified applicants who differ only
  • 00:01:31
    according to their selected characteristics.
  • 00:01:34
    In this case, according to their race or criminal background.
  • 00:01:37
    I hired a pair of young white men
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    and a pair of young black men.
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    And for each pair, I randomly assigned one individual
  • 00:01:44
    in the pair a criminal record.
  • 00:01:46
    What this means is none of the young men in the study who
  • 00:01:48
    were posing as job applicants actually
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    had criminal records in real life,
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    but for the purposes of these applications,
  • 00:01:55
    they communicated to employers that they
  • 00:01:57
    had a felony conviction.
  • 00:01:59
    Most job applications have a question
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    on the application form that asks:
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    Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
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    So the testers, when applying for these jobs, check the box
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    "Yes, I have been convicted of a felony,"
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    and explained their conviction, that they'd
  • 00:02:10
    spent 18 months in prison and that they'd just been
  • 00:02:13
    released in the previous month.
  • 00:02:14
    Then, each week the applicant pair
  • 00:02:16
    alternated who presented himself as having the criminal record.
  • 00:02:19
    And this is important that we were able to randomly assign
  • 00:02:22
    the criminal record to testers.
  • 00:02:23
    Because if there's anything about the individual testers
  • 00:02:27
    that might have made them more or less appealing from one
  • 00:02:30
    another, we didn't want that to be confounding the effect
  • 00:02:33
    of the criminal record.
  • 00:02:34
    So we tried to match the testers on every dimension possible
  • 00:02:37
    that we could think of, but if there was something
  • 00:02:39
    that we didn't notice or that we left out,
  • 00:02:42
    this ability to randomly assign the criminal record meant
  • 00:02:45
    that each tester served in a criminal record condition
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    for an equal number of cases.
  • 00:02:50
    So looking first at the outcomes for white testers,
  • 00:02:52
    we see that about 34% of whites with no criminal record
  • 00:02:56
    received a callback or job offer, compared to just 17%
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    of whites with a criminal record.
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    So we see that a criminal record reduces employment
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    opportunities by about 50%.
  • 00:03:06
    In the case of black testers, 14%
  • 00:03:08
    of those with no criminal background
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    received a call back or job offer, relative to just 5%
  • 00:03:13
    of blacks with a criminal record.
  • 00:03:16
    When we compare the outcomes of black and white testers side-by-side,
  • 00:03:20
    what's most striking is the direct effect
  • 00:03:22
    of race on the outcomes of these young men.
  • 00:03:24
    A black applicant with no criminal background
  • 00:03:27
    received callbacks or job offers at about half the rate
  • 00:03:30
    as an equally qualified white applicant.
  • 00:03:32
    But the most surprising finding was really
  • 00:03:35
    related to blacks with no criminal background
  • 00:03:37
    relative to whites with a felony conviction.
  • 00:03:40
    We find that a white applicant with a felony conviction
  • 00:03:43
    fared just as well, if not better,
  • 00:03:45
    relative to a black applicant with a clean record.
  • 00:03:48
    This suggests the being black in America
  • 00:03:50
    today is essentially like having a felony
  • 00:03:53
    conviction in terms of one's chances of finding employment.
  • 00:03:56
    The massive expansion in the criminal justice system
  • 00:03:58
    has not affected all groups equally.
  • 00:04:00
    Today's system of incarceration is characterized
  • 00:04:02
    by large racial disparities.
  • 00:04:04
    About 12% of young black men are incarcerated at any given time,
  • 00:04:08
    compared to less than 2% of young white men.
  • 00:04:11
    About one in three young black men will spend time in prison
  • 00:04:14
    at some point during his lifetime.
  • 00:04:17
    And for young black male high school dropouts,
  • 00:04:19
    that figure is close to 60%.
  • 00:04:21
    So incarceration is becoming an increasingly common event
  • 00:04:24
    in the life course trajectory of young, disadvantaged men.
  • 00:04:28
    These results point to the incredibly large and lingering
  • 00:04:32
    effects of direct racial discrimination in this country.
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    And in fact, point to the criminal justice system
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    as an important mechanism of stratification
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    among young black men today.
  • 00:04:43
    The United States has engaged in this grand experiment
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    with the buildup of mass incarceration,
  • 00:04:48
    but very little thought went into what happens
  • 00:04:50
    when these people come out.
  • 00:04:51
    We know that finding quality, steady employment
  • 00:04:54
    is the number one predictor of whether
  • 00:04:56
    or not an individual returns to prison
  • 00:04:58
    after having been released.
  • 00:04:59
    So if we want to keep these individuals crime free,
  • 00:05:02
    if we want to keep them from returning to prison,
  • 00:05:05
    helping ex-offenders find employment is the number one
  • 00:05:08
    priority.
  • 00:05:09
    One thing we could do is to ban the box.
  • 00:05:11
    That essentially means removing the question
  • 00:05:13
    from application forms that asks applicants
  • 00:05:16
    about their criminal record.
  • 00:05:18
    What this does is to allow job applicants
  • 00:05:20
    to make a personal impression on employers
  • 00:05:23
    before being judged on the basis of their criminal record.
  • 00:05:26
    In my study, the testers who actually had a chance
  • 00:05:28
    to talk to employers and get to know them
  • 00:05:31
    before revealing their criminal record
  • 00:05:33
    had much better employment outcomes.
  • 00:05:35
    Employers had a chance to get to know them
  • 00:05:38
    based on their actual qualifications
  • 00:05:40
    before ruling them out on the basis
  • 00:05:42
    of that single characteristic.
  • 00:05:44
    If we care about poverty and racial inequality,
  • 00:05:46
    we need to think about the criminal justice
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    system and the large numbers of young men being
  • 00:05:50
    released into communities bearing
  • 00:05:52
    the mark of a criminal record.
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    We need to find these young men jobs.
  • 00:05:56
    [MUSIC PLAYING]
标签
  • mass incarceration
  • ex-offender employment
  • racial disparities
  • criminal record
  • ban the box
  • employment discrimination
  • criminal justice system
  • racial inequality
  • prisoner re-entry
  • systemic racism