An exception to the rule: Belief in redeemability, desistance signals, and the employer’s decision to hire a job applicant with a criminal record

an article by Suzanne E. Reich (University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia) published in Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume 56 Issue 2 (February-March 2017)

Abstract

This article examines whether employment outcomes for ex-offenders are associated with employers’ subjective belief in redeemability, mediated through ex-offenders’ objective desistance signals. An online factorial vignette survey was completed by 367 employers, which examined their hiring decisions in the context of ex-offender job applicants.

OLS regression and serial multiple mediation analyses revealed that both belief in redeemability and desistance signals positively and significantly predicted employers’ hiring decisions.

As well, ex-offenders’ objective desistance signals mediated the association between belief in redeemability and employment outcomes. These findings highlight the importance for ex-offenders to effectively communicate their desistance from crime to employers in their endeavours to obtain employment.

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Perceptions of work as a route away from crime

an article by Sam King (Based in the Department of Criminology, University of Leicester, UK) published in Safer Communities Volume 12 Issue 3 (2013)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of work as a means of desisting from crime among a group of male probationers.

Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with male probationers to ascertain their views on desistance from crime and the factors which would enable or constrain them in their endeavours.

Findings
The research found that individuals regard employment as a key conduit to maintaining desistance from crime, but that several barriers exist to achieving this. Crucially, the research found that individuals identified various difficulties associated with external agencies to whom they had been referred for assistance in obtaining employment. This poses questions of the current government’s approach towards expanding public-private partnerships in probation.

Research limitations/implications
The research is based on a small sample of 20 male probationers. However, the findings suggest that further research should be conducted in this area.

Social implications
The research raises questions about recent government policy in this area, and about the effectiveness of some approaches designed to reduce reoffending.

Originality/value
The research examines an area of desistance which has previously received little attention. The findings are of concern for academics and practitioners concerned with desistance and recidivism.

Hazel’s comment:
And also of concern, I would have thought, for practitioners trying to help ex-offenders find and retain suitable employment.

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Risk Aversion and Anxiety in Scottish Criminal Justice Social Work: Can Desistance and Human Rights Agendas Have an Impact?

an article by Jane Fenton (University of Dundee) published in The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume 52 Issue 1 (February 2013)

Abstract

This article explores the difficulty that criminal justice social work (CJSW) might have in implementing a desistance approach to work with offenders.

Supporting desistance requires responsive, autonomous social workers and this article questions whether criminal justice agencies, characterised by risk aversion and managerialism, would be able to tolerate the anxiety this would inevitably, and properly, generate.

Suggestions are made regarding the place of desistance work within a positive human rights framework, which might provide a force against the corrosive progression of popular punitivism – a major factor in the persistence of risk averse, managerial practice.

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