Second Guessing Second Chances: The Relationship Convicted Offense and Sociodemographic Factors Have on Employment Outcomes for the Justice-Impacted

Abstract

A conviction is a ramification that extends beyond the correctional facility. An extensive amount of research has explored the barriers the justice-impacted experience once they are released from prison. One of the most immediate and impactful barriers is their ability to secure employment, due to it being quintessential in reducing their likelihood to recidivate and engage in illegal activity post-release. While much research has specifically focused on former prisoners’ ability to secure employment post-release, very limited researched exists that examines how convicted offense impacts employment. Utilizing the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) multi-site impact evaluation as its secondary dataset, the present study aimed to explore the impact violent offenses (non-sex), sex offenses, white-collar offenses, property offenses, drug offenses, and confounding sociodemographic factors have on securing employment three months post-incarceration. This study hypothesized there is a significant association between employment status and convicted offenses/convicted offense types among the justice-impacted, even when accounting for confounding sociodemographic factors. Through binary logistic regression analysis and multiple imputations, the results from the study reveal statistical significance for the relationship between convicted offenses (assault, car theft, drug dealing, drug possession, and forgery), convicted offense types (drug and white-collar), and confounding sociodemographic factors (age, education, and race) with employment 3 months post-incarceration. It is hoped these results reveal how stifling deficits are to securing employment for the justice-impacted, and the need for further policy and programming application to decrease these challenges

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Last time updated on 28/10/2024

This paper was published in OpenSIUC.

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