Ban the Box

Ban the Box is the name of an international campaign by civil rights groups and advocates for ex-offenders, aimed at persuading employers to remove from their hiring applications the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record. Its purpose is to enable ex-offenders to display their qualifications in the hiring process before being asked about their criminal records. The premise of the campaign is that anything that makes it harder for ex-offenders to find a job makes it likelier that they will re-offend, which is bad for society.

History

The campaign began in Hawaii in the late 1990s, and has gained strength in other U.S. states following the 2007–2009 recession. Its advocates say it is necessary because a growing number of Americans have criminal records due to tougher sentencing laws particularly for drug crimes,[1] and are having difficulty finding work because of high unemployment and a rise in background checks that followed the September 11 terror attacks on the United States.[2]

As of July 2015, 52 U.S. municipalities and 18 states had in place legislation that "banned the box" for government job applications and also in some cases those of their private contractors.[3] Many such ordinances exempt applications for "sensitive" positions, such as those involving work with children.[1] Target Corporation "banned the box" in October 2013.[4]

In the United Kingdom, corporate social responsibility advocacy charity Business in the Community launched a "ban the box" campaign in October 2013.[5]

The campaign has been criticized by U.S. industry group the National Retail Federation for exposing companies, their customers and employees to potential crime,[1] and by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, which says it could expose employers to lawsuits from unsuccessful applicants.[2] Ban the box can put businesses in a difficult position where they can face a lawsuit for not hiring a former prisoner, but also might face a negligent hiring lawsuit if they hire an ex-prisoner who goes on to reoffend at the job. [6]In addition, some businesses, especially smaller ones, feel that ban the box forces them to waste time and money interviewing candidates they will not hire. If a company ends up not hiring a person after doing a background check late in the process, they may have already lost qualified applicants without criminal records, who have lost interest in the job or have found another job. Some people have even argued that ban the box laws cause former criminals to waste their own time interviewing for jobs they will never get, rather than applying for jobs that are more likely to hire ex-cons. [7][8]

In June 2016, a large experimental study was published by Amanda Agan and Sonja Starr on the racial gap in callback rates of employers to job applicants of different racial backgrounds in New Jersey and New York City before and after Ban the Box laws went into effect. Agan and Starr sent out 15,000 fictitious online job applications to companies in those areas with racially stereotypical names on the job applications. Prior to the implementation of Ban the Box laws in New Jersey and New York City, the gap in the callback rate between the job applications with stereotypically black names and stereotypically white names was 7 percent. After the implementation of Ban the Box laws, the racial gap in the callback rate increased to 45 percent.[9][10][11][12][13] A July 2016 study by Jennifer L. Doleac and Benjamin Hansen found that in jurisdictions where Ban the Box laws have been implemented, the probabilities of young, non-college educated, black and Hispanic males being employed have declined.[14][12][15][16][17] An October 2006 study with a similar finding published by Harry J. Holzer, Steven Raphael, Michael A. Stoll found that employers who made routine criminal background checks for all job applicants, regardless of their racial backgrounds, hired black applicants (especially black males) at a higher rate than those employers that did not make routine criminal background checks for all applicants.[18][19]

A 2017 study reported by The Quarterly Journal of Economics (the following year) found that before the Ban The Box (BTB) was implemented, whites received 7% more employer callbacks than blacks. After the BTB was implemented, the gap rose to 43%, concluding that blacks were negatively affected by the BTB.[20]

Fair Chance

In 2014, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Fair Chance Ordinance, authored by Supervisors Jane Kim and Malia Cohen.[21] October 27, 2015, NYC enacted the Fair Chance Law.[22]

In March 2018, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed the Washington Fair Chance Act into law.[23]

Implementation

United States

As of 2018, 11 US states have mandated the removal of conviction history questions from job applications for private employers.[24]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Harless, William (3 August 2013). "'Ban the Box' Laws Make Criminal Pasts Off-Limits". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  2. 1 2 Marois, Michael B. (11 October 2013). "California Gives Break to Growing Workforce With Criminal Past". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Even the smallest record can be a life sentence of poverty". Deseret News. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  4. ↑ Staples, Brent (29 October 2013). "Target Bans the Box". New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Howard, Stephen (17 October 2013). "'Ban the Box' campaign asks employers to give ex-offenders a chance". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  6. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/decadeslong-arrest-wave-vexes-employers-1418438092
  7. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/business/small-business-criminal-record.html
  8. ↑ http://jenniferdoleac.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Doleac_testimony_BTB.pdf
  9. ↑ Agan, Amanda Y.; Starr, Sonja B. (June 14, 2016). "Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Statistical Discrimination: A Field Experiment". University of Michigan Law & Economics Working Papers. 16-012. SSRN 2795795.
  10. ↑ Vedantam, Shankar (July 19, 2016). "'Ban The Box' Laws,' Do They Help Job Applicants With Criminal Histories?" (Interview). Interviewed by Steve Inskeep. NPR. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  11. ↑ "'Ban the Box' leads to increase in employer racial discrimination". Michigan News. University of Michigan. June 15, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
  12. 1 2 Semuels, Alana (August 4, 2016). "The Unforeseen Consequences of Banning the Box". The Atlantic. Atlantic Media. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  13. ↑ Massey, Wyatt (July 30, 2016). "Ban the Box increases racial discrimination, study says". The Baltimore Sun. tronc. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  14. ↑ Doleac, Jennifer L.; Hansen, Benjamin (July 2016). Does "Ban the Box" Help or Hurt Low-Skilled Workers? Statistical Discrimination and Employment Outcomes When Criminal Histories are Hidden (Report). NBER Working Papers. 22469. National Bureau of Economic Research. doi:10.3386/w22469.
  15. ↑ "How 'ban the box' backfires for minority job-seekers". Phys.org. August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  16. ↑ "UVA Researchers: Ban the Box Policy Leading to More Discrimination". WVIR-TV. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  17. ↑ Cappelli, Peter (August 8, 2016). "Is 'Ban the Box' a Pandora's Box?". Human Resource Executive Online. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  18. ↑ Holzer, Harry J.; Raphael, Steven; Stoll, Michael A. (October 2006). "Perceived Criminality, Criminal Background Checks, and the Racial Hiring Practices of Employers". The Journal of Law and Economics. University of Chicago Press. 49 (2): 451–480. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.382.6355. doi:10.1086/501089. (Registration required (help)).
  19. ↑ Sowell, Thomas (2011), Economic Facts and Fallacies (2nd ed.), New York: Basic Books, p. 191, A study of those employers who routinely check for prison records among all people who apply for employment found that these particular employers hired black males more often than other employers did.
  20. ↑ Agan, Amanda; Starr, Sonja (1 February 2018). "Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial Discrimination: A Field Experiment". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. pp. 191–235. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  21. ↑ Lagos, Marisa (February 4, 2014). "San Francisco supervisors pass "ban the box" law". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  22. ↑ "Fair Chance NYC". Fair Chance NYC. Retrieved 2015-11-05.
  23. ↑ Ordway, Denise-Marie (19 March 2018). "Ban the Box laws: When employers can't ask about criminal history". Shorenstein Center. Journalist’s Resource. Harvard Kennedy School. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  24. ↑ Avery, Beth; Hernandez, Phil (8 February 2018). "BAN THE BOX: U.S. CITIES, COUNTIES, AND STATES ADOPT FAIR HIRING POLICIES". NELP: National Employment Law Project. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
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