RACE‐SPECIFIC EMPLOYMENT CONTEXTS AND RECIDIVISM* (original) (raw)
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Justice Quarterly
The dramatic growth in incarceration nationally has increased attention to the factors that influence recidivism among ex-prisoners. Accordingly, scholars have called for research that identifies factors, such as employment opportunities, that may influence reentry experiences. Few studies, however, have examined how changes in labor market conditions affect ex-prisoner offending. Drawing on prior scholarship, this study examines the effect of such changes on the recidivism of ex-prisoners and, in particular, how the recidivism among blacks and whites may be differentially affected by changes in labor market conditions in the areas to which they return. The analyses indicate that, among black male ex-prisoners, labor market declines increase violent recidivism. They also indicate that, among white male ex-prisoners, the effects are more tenuous, influence only property recidivism, and are moderated by prior labor market conditions and criminal history. Implications of the study are ...
Race and the Geography of Opportunity in the Post-Prison Labor Market
Social Problems, 2020
Research on racial disparities in post-prison employment has primarily focused on the differential effects of stigma on blacks and whites, but we otherwise know little about racial differences. This paper examines racial differences in post-prison employment by industry and geography. We find that the formerly incarcerated are most likely to find work in a small number of “felon-friendly” industries with formerly incarcerated whites having higher employment rates than blacks. Whites are more likely to be employed in felon-friendly industries associated with the primary labor market, particularly construction and manufacturing, which have higher wages and more job stability. To explain these racial differences, we investigate the degree to which employment among the formerly incarcerated is related to where felon-friendly employers are located and where individuals who work in felon-friendly industries live. We find that post-prison employment is associated more with proximity to wor...
SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND RECIDIVISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR PRISONER REENTRY
Criminology, 2008
Despite the marked increase in incarceration over the past 30 years and the fact that roughly two thirds of released offenders are rearrested within 3 years of release, we know little about how the social ecology of the areas to which offenders return may influence their recidivism or whether it disproportionately affects some groups more than others. Drawing on recent scholarship on prisoner reentry and macrolevel predictors of crime, this study examines a large sample of prisoners released to Florida communities to investigate how two dimensions of social ecology-resource deprivation and racial segregation-may independently, and in interaction with specific populations, influence recidivism. The findings suggest that ecology indeed is consequential for recidivism, and it differentially influences some groups more than others. We discuss these findings and their implications for theory, research, and policy.
International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 2010
This article explores the association between employment and recidivism for parolees released from Texas prisons. Along with determining whether obtaining employment on release from prison is associated with decreased odds of reincarceration, this article analyzes whether obtaining employment is associated with increased time to reincarceration. Proportional hazard models were used to examine the effect of employment on reincarceration over time. This analysis allowed a unique view of desistance from crime as a process of behavioral change with multiple stages. Results generally support this perspective, finding that although obtaining employment is not associated with a significant decrease in likelihood of reincarceration, it is associated with significantly greater time to reincarceration. Thus, among parolees who are reincarcerated, those who obtain employment spend more time crime-free in the community before returning to prison. This article argues that increased time crime-fr...
Final Technical Report: Neighborhoods, Recidivism, and Employment Among Returning Prisoners
The rising number of individuals being released from prison has prompted renewed interest among researchers, policy makers, and practitioners in reintegrating former prisoners. Yet relatively little is known about the communities into which former prisoners return and how they affect the likelihood that former prisoners will secure stable employment or return to prison. This research fills an important gap in the literature on prisoner reentry by focusing on the role that community context plays in the labor market outcomes and recidivism of former prisoners. A rich set of longitudinal administrative records were assembled on individuals paroled in Michigan during 2003, including records from corrections, police, and unemployment insurance databases. This report describes the data collected and presents results indicating that neighborhood context predicted both the recidivism and labor market outcomes of former prisoners. The analysis considered the association between baseline neighborhood characteristics (first post-prison neighborhood) and cumulative exposure to neighborhood conditions during one’s time on parole. The analysis of baseline neighborhood characteristics was based on the full population of 11,064 people released on parole in Michigan in 2003, whereas the analysis of time-varying neighborhood characteristics was based on a 1/6 sample (n=1,848). Returning to a more disadvantaged baseline neighborhood was associated with higher risks of absconding and returning to prison for a technical violation, a lower risk of being arrested, and more adverse labor market outcomes, including less employment and lower wages. Cumulative exposure to disadvantaged neighborhoods was associated with lower employment and wages but not related to recidivism. Returning to a more affluent baseline neighborhood was associated with a lower risk of being arrested, absconding, and returning to prison on a technical violation, and more positive labor market outcomes, including greater employment and wages. However, cumulative exposure to affluent neighborhoods was not significantly related to any of the recidivism or labor market outcomes when the full set of controls were added to models. Returning to a more residentially stable baseline neighborhood was associated with a lower risk of absconding and returning to prison for a new conviction, but not with any labor market outcomes; nor was cumulative exposure to residentially stable neighborhoods associated with any recidivism or labor market outcomes. Returning to a baseline neighborhood with a younger age structure was negatively related to the odds of returning to prison on a technical violation, but when measured as cumulative exposure it was associated with an increased risk of being arrested, absconding, and being returned to prison for either a new commitment or technical violation. Being employed substantially reduced the risk of all recidivism outcomes, but there was no evidence that employment mediated the association between neighborhoods and recidivism. Together, these results suggest that the neighborhoods parolees experience during parole were strong predictors of recidivism and labor market outcomes, but there is not a simple answer to the question of what neighborhood characteristics constitute “risky” environments for parolees. Neighborhood socioeconomic composition was a strong predictor of labor market outcomes, as parolees residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods had difficulty securing employment and escaping poverty. For recidivism, the protective effect of living in a residentially stabile neighborhood and the risks posed by spending more time in neighborhoods with higher densities of young people were the most robust predictors. From a policy perspective, these findings suggest that parole outcomes might be improved through more careful evaluation of a parolee’s neighborhood context when approving new residences, placement of institutional housing for former prisoners in more advantaged neighborhoods, inclusion of neighborhood context in risk assessments to better target services to former prisoners in high risk neighborhoods, and place-based parole strategies involving geographically based agent caseloads.
The Effect of Racial Inequality on Black Male Recidivism
Justice Quarterly, 2007
Macrostructural opportunity theorists posit that the unequal distribution of economic resources across racial groups promotes animosities among disadvantaged minorities, disrupts community integration, and fosters criminal activity. Guided by this framework, we hypothesize that Black ex-prisoners who reenter communities with high levels of racial inequality are more likely to commit new crimes. Support for this argument is found for a large group of males (N = 34,868) released from state prisons to 62 counties in Florida over a 2-year period. We also find evidence that racial inequality amplifies the adverse effects of personlevel risk factors on recidivism for Black ex-inmates. In comparison, the effect of inequality on White male recidivism is far less meaningful. These findings underscore the need for researchers to consider social context when studying recidivism among Black males, and also support the efforts of correctional reformers who advocate for state resources to assist prisoner reentry.
The impact of the spatial mismatch between parolee and employment locations on recidivism
Prior research has shown that employed parolees are less likely to recidivate. Yet, these studies often ignore the underlying employment context of the neighborhoods to which parolees return. Given that parolees often reside in disadvantaged neighborhoods, it is likely that few potential employment opportunities exist nearby, and those opportunities that do exist are of relatively poor quality. This study examines the influence of geographic access to employment opportunities on the likelihood of recidivism. We use a unique data set of parolees and jobs in Ohio to determine whether parolees living closer to a greater number of potential employers or higher-paying jobs are less likely to recidivate. Further, we examine if these relationships are conditioned by parolee race. More job opportunities and higher paying jobs closer to the parolees' homes increase recidivism, and the likelihood of recidivating is highest within smaller geographic distances. Because many parolees reside in the inner city, jobs located within close proximity of parolees are likely white-collar, reflecting the increased competition for low-skill jobs close to where the parolee lives. Our findings indicate that this may be particularly true for black parolees. This suggests policy changes that reduce competition for low-skill positions and facilitate parolees' ability to secure employment are needed.
Carceral Chicago: Making the Ex-offender Employability Crisis
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2008
This article explores the urban labor market consequences of large-scale incarceration, a policy with massively detrimental implications for communities of color. Case study evidence from Chicago suggests that the prison system has come to assume the role of a significant (urban) labor market institution, the regulatory outcomes of which are revealed in the social production of systemic unemployability across a criminalized class of African-American males, the hypertrophied economic and social decline of those 'receiving communities' to which thousands of ex-convicts return, and the remorseless rise of recidivism rates. Notwithstanding the significant social costs, the churning of the prison population through the lower reaches of the labor market is associated with the further degradation of contingent and informal-economy jobs, the hardening of patterns of radical segregation, and the long-term erosion of employment prospects within the growing ex-offender population, for whom social stigma, institutional marginalization and economic disenfranchisement assume the status of an extended form of incarceration.
In this study we explore the impact of neighborhoods on criminals and of criminals on neighborhoods with respect to a current pressing problem-prisoner reentry. First, we review the key issues surrounding prisoner reentry in a "get tough on crime" era and describe the multiple challenges ex-offenders face upon release. We pay particular attention to the group affected most by these challenges-young Black males. Second, we examine trends in reoffending and link rising recidivism rates to current criminal justice policies and practices. Third, we determine how recidivism may be linked to the neighborhoods where prisoners return. Using data on a sample of ex-offenders in Multnomah County, Oregon in conjunction with Census data, we show how one critical community characteristic-neighborhood socioeconomic status-accounts for variation in the reoffending behavior of exprisoners that is not explained by their individual-level characteristics. Fourth, we consider whether the linkage between residence and recidivism may be conditioned by race. And finally, we discuss the policy implications by stressing the need to focus on communities as one part of a larger plan for reducing recidivism.