Racial Threat, Criminal History, & Employment

• In Event: Explorations of Political Economy

Abstract

The existence of a criminal record is known to have a deleterious effect on ex-offenders’ efforts to obtain employment. When given a choice, employers prefer to hire employees that do not possess criminal records, and this disproportionately impacts African Americans. Social movements that advocate for the removal of criminal history inquiries from employment applications, such as the Ban the Box campaign are increasingly gaining mainstream support and have been voluntarily adopted in 20 states as well as a multitude of counties and cities. However, research has yet to examine whether and how place-level characteristics influence the decision to support such policies. Using data from the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Census as well as the 2010 American Community Survey, I conduct multivariate event history analysis of state, county, and place level data to evaluate hypotheses drawn from Blalock's racial threat theory, analyzing whether racial threat impacts support for Ban the Box initiatives. Findings from this study largely support racial threat theory. Policy implications are discussed.

Author

• Eric G. LaPlant, The Ohio State University