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Criminal Record Stigma in the Labor Market for College Graduates: A Mixed Methods Study

Michael Cerda-Jara, David J. Harding, The Underground Scholars Research Cohort

Sociological Science January 15, 2024
10.15195/v11.a2


One of the primary ways in which contact with the criminal legal system creates and maintains inequality is through the stigma of a criminal record. Although the negative effects of the stigma of a criminal record are well-documented, existing research is limited to the low-wage labor market. Through a job application audit design, this study examines the role of criminal record stigma in the labor market for recent college graduates across Black, Latino, and white men. We find that criminal record stigma has a large effect among white college-educated men but not among Black or Latino men and find no evidence that earning a college degree after the record mitigates criminal record stigma. In-depth interviews with college-educated men with a criminal record show that the criminal record stigma has effects beyond the initial application stage, as many reported provisional job offers being rescinded following a criminal background check, leading participants to limit the jobs to which they applied.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Michael Cerda-Jara: Department of Sociology, Stanford University
E-mail: mcerda@stanford.edu

David J. Harding: Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
E-mail: dharding@berkeley.edu

The Underground Scholars Research Cohort: University of California, Berkeley

Acknowledgements:We thank the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley for research funding. The Underground Scholars Research Cohort includes Mac Hoang, Juan Flores, Apollo Rosas Hernandez, Maura Barry, Luis Lopez-Ortiz, Sammie Gilmore, Tonatiuh Beltran, and Joshua Mason. We also thank Arturo Calvario-Diaz, Da Eun Jung, Fernanda Ochoa, Tanaell Villanueva Reyes, and Leslie Sandoval for excellent research assistance.

Supplemental Material

Reproducibility Package: Reproducibility package can be found at https://osf.io/q83ka/

  • Citation: Cerda-Jara, Michael, David J. Harding, and The Underground Scholars Research Cohort. 2024. “Criminal Record Stigma in the Labor Market for College Graduates: A Mixed Methods Study.” Sociological Science 11: 42-66.
  • Received: August 10, 2023
  • Accepted: September 18, 2023
  • Editors: Arnout van de Rijt, Maria Abascal
  • DOI: 10.15195/v11.a2


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