Identifying Change: Valuable Signals of Desistance for Employers Considering a Job Applicant with a Criminal Record

• In Event: Negotiating the Challenges of Reentry

Abstract

When deciding whether or not to hire a job applicant with a criminal record, one of a number of common concerns reported by employers relates to the potential for reoffending. Perceptions about the risk of reoffending are generally associated with features of the ex-offender’s criminal history as well as their socio-demographic characteristics. Whether or not the ex-offender applicant poses this risk forms part of the employer’s subjective assessment of the applicant’s likely desistance from crime and suitability for employment. To examine how employers determine whether or not an ex-offender job applicant is a likely desistor or not, this study aimed to assess what particular signals of desistance are most valuable to employers. In addition, how employers recognise these signals as it relates to the way by which ex-offenders effectively demonstrate their own desistance from crime. A two-phase mixed methods design was applied to this study, consisting of an online quantitative survey (n=367) and follow up face-to-face interviews (n=45) with employers from Toowoomba, Australia. This paper encompasses some of the integrated results from this study and highlights some of the broader implications emerging from this research.

Author

• Suzanne Reich, University of Southern Queensland