Fear or Familiarity? Neighborhood Effects and Employers’ Perceptions of a Criminal Record

• In Event: 517 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Paper Sessions. Race and Ethnicity in Organizations and Markets

Abstract

This article examines how neighborhood violent crime influences hiring decisions made by local employers. I focus on the labor market outcomes of job seekers with a criminal record, arguing that prior audit studies have overlooked important neighborhood-level factors that could potentially affect employers’ evaluations of a criminal record. I develop a theoretical account that helps to reconcile two conflicting expectations as to how employers will respond to recent violent crime. One perspective suggests that employers in neighborhoods with violent crime will look past criminal records because of legal cynicism and desensitization to crime. An alternative perspective indicates that recent exposure to violent crime will instead amplify employers’ negative responses to the mark of a criminal record because of employers’ heightened fear and risk concerns. Data from an audit study with 368 job applications submitted across 146 neighborhoods in one city provides support for the latter expectation. Findings from this study have important implications for research on labor market inequality, neighborhood effects, and race.

Author

• Sanaz Mobasseri, University of California, Berkeley