In this video sociologist Devah Pager describes her experimental research on race, criminal records, and employment with Dalton Conley. Using matched pairs of black and white students posing as job applicants, she finds, stunningly, that black men without a criminal record are as likely to get a call back for a job as white men with one (see the tables here). Black men with criminal records receive call backs for only about one in 20 completed job applications.
See also our post in which one man explains the “hidden life sentence” he received after a crime 20 years past.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 18
Lynne Skysong — October 15, 2010
And when you combine this with the fact that we're already suffering high unemployment rates you realize just how dire the situation is for some people. Side thought: did they do this study (or did another group by chance) with women? In my experience there seems to be a difference between how ex-cons are perceived based on their gender, though it wouldn't surprise to see the same trend as demonstrated above, if not worse.
contrabalance — October 15, 2010
Yes wow, that really is ‘stunning’--had you been living in a cave for the past oh.. half-millenium or so...
To be fair, at least the sociologist in the video is actually making attempts at research and experimentation and communication; however fraught and poorly designed they be, at least it's not say, a redundant and self-righteously indignant pictureblog, for example.
R — October 15, 2010
As someone who is unemployed right now, receiving a 1-in-20 callback ratio would be AWESOME. Not sure how old this data is, but I (and several of my friends) wish we could get 1-in-100 callbacks.
This is not to make light of the situation, just pointing out that the actual numbers are probably not as reflective of the current economic situation. Although admittedly, I wonder how much income/industry play a part in different ratios.
Jay — October 15, 2010
I thought it was interesting that there were no statistics on the employers - were they all white? I think it would have been more interesting had she moved beyond the blindingly obvious and maybe looked at how the call-back rate differed with employers of different races.
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