The Transferal of Criminal Record Stigma in the Employment Context

• In Event: What’s After Release? Employment Prospects, Community Support, and Ways for Progress

Abstract

Objective: A commonly reported employer aversion to hiring individuals with convictions is the stigma associated with the criminal record and potential for negative consumer reactions. We provide two novel tests of courtesy stigma, or the idea of transferring negative traits from one entity to another, through a nationwide survey.

Data/Methods: Using a conjoint experiment, we first establish whether the general public is less likely to select a restaurant if the business has a hiring initiative for people with conviction records relative to a generic hiring initiative. We then focus on a restaurant setting where an employee that has direct contact with customers is known to have a criminal conviction record. Using a vignette experiment, we test whether business hiring message frames influence courtesy stigma.

Results: We find support for criminal conviction courtesy stigma in the conjoint experiment. However, the quality of service influenced restaurant recommendations rather than characteristics of the criminal record or server in the vignette.

Conclusions/Implications: The results shed light on the concept of courtesy stigma in the context of employment and criminal records.

Authors

• Luzi Shi, University of Rhode Island

• Megan Denver, Northeastern University