Professional and Personal Restoration Study by Dr. Erin Frey, Yale School of Management
Involvement in the justice system often brings with it many professional and personal challenges.
Individuals who are indicted and/or convicted of white collar crime often lose their employment and are ostracized from their professional networks. Some have their professional licenses revoked or are legally barred from their occupation. When they attempt to find work again, many potential employers run background checks or conduct internet searches on potential applicants.
These checks and searches alert potential employers to the justice-involved individuals’ criminal records, leading them to reject applications or rescind tentative job offers. As a result, justice-involved individuals face substantial barriers to employment.
Yet “white collar” justice-involved individuals are frequently highly educated and highly skilled – they therefore could potentially contribute a great deal to the labor market.
In addition, employment is strongly related to desisting from crime; justice-involved individuals who hold stable employment are much less likely to reoffend.
Employment also brings people a sense of meaning and purpose, which is linked to successful reentry into society.
If we want justice-involved individuals to be productive, contributing citizens, then we need to understand how justice involved-individuals can overcome the barriers to employment that they face.
Our Professional and Personal Restoration Initiative is working with Dr. Erin Frey, a professor at Yale School of Management, to study how justice-involved individuals navigate professional and personal barriers to employment.