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

By on January 15, 2024 in Articles

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

Sociological Science January 15, 2024
10.15195/v11.a2

Abstract

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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criminal record stigma has effects beyond the initial application stage, as many reported provisional job offers being rescinded following a criminal background check, leading participants to limit the jobs to which they applied.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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Sexual Identity Disclosure among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

By on October 19, 2020 in Articles

Long Doan, Trenton D. Mize

Sociological Science October 19, 2020
10.15195/v7.a21

Abstract
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Most research on sexual prejudice explicitly or implicitly assumes that an individual’s sexual orientation identity is known to observers. However, there has been little large-scale survey evidence examining differential rates of disclosure among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals, and there remains much to be studied as to why and when LGB individuals choose to disclose their sexual identity to others. Using data from a nationally representative sample of LGB Americans (N=1,085), we assess the contexts and conditions under which LGB individuals disclose their sexual identities. Results show that bisexual women and men are significantly less likely to disclose their sexual identity across several important social domains, such as family and the workplace. This disclosure gap is partially explained by measures of identity commitment but surprisingly not by measures of perceived social acceptance. We discuss implications of these findings for sexuality and identity research.
Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Long Doan: Department of Sociology, University of Maryland
E-mail: longdoan@umd.edu

Trenton D. Mize: Department of Sociology and Advanced Methodologies, Purdue University
E-mail: tmize@purdue.edu

Acknowledgments: We thank Brian Powell, Lisa R. Miller, and Brian T. Connor for excellent suggestions on various drafts of this paper. Parts of this paper were presented at the Indiana University Social Psychology, Health, and the Life Course seminar and the 2017 ASA Meetings. We thank audience members in both venues for their valuable comments. We are also grateful to the Pew Research Center for collecting the data used in our analyses. Partial funding for open access was provided by the UMD Libraries’ Open Access Publishing Fund. Opinions, findings, and ‘conclusions presented in this paper are ours and do not necessarily represent the views of any of the organizations or individuals above.

Supplemental Material

  • Citation: Doan, Long, and Trenton D. Mize. 2020. “Sexual Identity Disclosure among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals.” Sociological Science 7: 504-527.
  • Received: August 19, 2020
  • Accepted: September 19, 2020
  • Editors: Jesper Sørensen, Gabriel Rossman
  • DOI: 10.15195/v7.a21


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