Employment discrimination against persons with

criminal record A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

s varies from country to country. Many countries prohibit the official disclosure of certain convictions that happened long ago and allow ex-offenders to legally conceal their criminal past. Ex-offenders often face employment discrimination by default when they search for work after completing their punishment. This discrimination is often enacted upon completion of employment applications that require responses about past criminal history. Many richer countries, such as Australia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, have passed legislation prohibiting discrimination based on criminal record. However, the availability and extent of protection against discrimination for ex-offenders differs across jurisdictions. Employers might be unwilling to hire those with criminal records for many reasons – such as the risk of legal liability if a previous offender harms a customer or coworker, the risk of financial liability if the offender engages in theft, fears of personal

violence Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...

, and the negative signals that a period of incarceration sends about their general skills or trustworthiness. Public policies to assist offenders from obtaining employment therefore focus on allowing them to conceal convictions, although they accept that for a few professions such as

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

s, it is necessary for the employer to know about the convictions. According to the document on Title VII Challenges to Employment Discrimination, between 25% and 40% of ex-offenders are

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...

and job prospects for criminal offenders are only expected to worsen as employers continue to gain easier and cheaper access to criminal records.

References

''Criminal Records, Collateral Consequences, and Employment: FCRA and Title VII in Discrimination againstPersons with Criminal Records'' ''Carlin M, Frick ESsrn Electron J2012 '' Employment discrimination Criminal records Recruitment {{job-stub

See also

References