Distinguishing between the possibilities and probabilities for desistance from crime: an examination and exploration of employers redeemability beliefs - CANCELLED

• In Event: Convict Criminology Panel #4: Perspectives on Stigma

Abstract

Social psychology literature consistently demonstrates that our beliefs about others governs our behaviour towards and decisions about them. In the context of hiring outcomes for job applicants with a criminal record, this has significant implications where employers subscribe to the “once a criminal, always a criminal” belief. To examine and explain the association between beliefs about job applicants with a criminal record and employers’ willingness to hire, a two-phase mixed-method study was conducted with Australian employers. Phase one (n=367) comprised a vignette study to gauge employers’ willingness to hire a hypothetical job applicant and included the belief in redeemability scale, which measures beliefs about whether offending behaviour is fixed or entirely changeable. A deeper exploration about employers’ redeemability beliefs followed in phase two through semi-structured interviews (n=43). The findings show that higher redeemability beliefs significantly improve employers’ willingness to hire. Employers rating low on the scale of redeemability beliefs expressed pessimism concerning the possibility vs probability for change. These findings support the need to develop strategies, like anti-stigma campaigns, to challenge pessimistic attitudes about the prospect for change and desistance from crime and improve employers’ redeemability beliefs and their associated willingness to hire job applicants with a criminal record.

Author

• Suzanne Reich, University of Southern Queensland