Beyond the criminal record: an examination of how and why redeemability beliefs and desistance signals matter for employers' willingness to hire a job applicant with a criminal record

Abstract

For ex-offenders, gaining employment as part of the reintegration process is an important protective factor against reoffending. However, even when ex-offenders present favourably as prospective job candidates, employers remain unwilling to hire on account of an ex-offender’s criminal record. Apart from the usual hiring considerations regarding relevant skills and qualifications, employers report additional concerns relating to a range of offence characteristics, such as the type of crime committed, sentence received, chronicity of offending and time since release from prison or most recent offence. Based on these offence characteristics, as well as ex-offenders’ race, employers’ perceptions of risk and concerns about re-offending motivate their unwillingness to hire a job applicant with a criminal record. Even though most offenders desist from crime at some point, the predominant emphasis in research to date has been centred on the association between ex-offenders’ attributes and hiring outcomes, with little known about what else matters for employers’ willingness to hire. What is lacking in current knowledge is an understanding of what else might influence employers’ hiring decisions when determining their willingness to hire a job applicant with a criminal record.This thesis aims to address this gap by examining the role that employers’ subjectivity plays in influencing how and why employers are willing to hire some ex-offenders and not others. In particular, this thesis examines whether a willingness to hire can be further explained by the beliefs employers hold about ex-offenders as well as their perceptions of ex-offenders. To achieve the aims of this thesis, I begin by adopting the Impression Formation model taken from social psychological literature to assess how and why a criminal record matters to employers and their willingness to hire an ex-offender. The Impression Formation model proposes stereotypical beliefs and individuating information (individual-level attributes) underpins the impressions we form about others. I then adapt this model to examine how and why employers’ subjectivity matters for their willingness to hire an ex-offender. I rename my adaptation of the Impression Formation model as the ‘Willingness to Hire’ model. In my adapted model, I replace stereotypes and individuating information with two alternative concepts. First, ‘belief in redeemability’, regarding beliefs about whether offenders can change and desist from crime; and second, ‘desistance signalling’, regarding the particular ways an ex-offender can tangibly communicate their desistance from crime. Using an Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods research design, this study comprises a two-phase study approach. At phase one, a web-based vignette survey, adjusting only for race (Caucasian Australian or Indigenous Australian), is conducted with employers from Toowoomba, Australia (n=367). At phase two, follow up semi-structured interviews take place with a sub-sample from the Phase One survey (n=43). A range of statistical and interpretive analyses are used including hypothesis testing, Multinomial Logistic regression, Ordinary Least Squares regression, mediation modelling, serial multiple mediation modelling, and thematic analysis.Results from the survey data analyses demonstrate how offence characteristics differentially influenced employers’ willingness to hire. Ex-offenders with multiple offences fared the worst. The analyses also indicate that race matters, which is consistent with previous studies. A belief in redeemability and desistance signalling is found to improve the chances that employers are willing to hire. Further mediation analyses show that belief in redeemability explains the relationship between desistance signals and employers’ willingness to hire, and vice versa where desistance signals explain the relationship between belief in redeemability and willingness to hire. These findings are contextualised through the interview data analysis showing most employers subscribe to the belief that change and desistance from crime is possible. What differentiates employers with low redeemability beliefs from those with high redeemability beliefs is pessimism about the probability of change. Extending this further, employers identify desistance from crime within the context of communication environments where signalling occurs. These findings provide new insights about what else matters for employers’ willingness to hire an ex-offender. The practical implications transpiring from these new insights relate to the use of anti-stigma campaigns to challenge pessimistic attitudes about ex-offenders, as well as the use of strategic desistance signalling designs to communicate desistance in ways that are recognisable by employers.