Race, Crime and Employment Discrimination
A new study in the American Journal of Sociology investigated the impacts of race, criminal records and exposure to violent crime on employment. By sending out mock job applications to 186 businesses in Oakland, Calif., researchers found that callback rates were 11 percent lower for black applicants than they were for white applicants – and employers with recent exposure to nearby violent crime were 10 percent less likely to call back black applicants. Applicants with a criminal record, regardless of race or ethnicity, were 10 percent less likely to get a callback than those without one.