Abstract
The emergence of a culture of control has led to a rapid growth in the use of criminal-record screening in most Western-European societies over the last two decades. In the Netherlands, the number of screenings performed each year skyrocketed to almost one million. It is, therefore, salient that qualitative empirical
... read more
evidence on the effects of criminal record-based employment restrictions is still largely absent. In the Netherlands, there is no comprehensive vision on how this preventive instrument should function, no evidence on how it actually functions and no account of its impact on the lived realities of those bearing the stigma of a criminal record. This studyaims to fill this gap: it is designed to provide a subjective perspective of how having a criminal record impacts the process of re-entry into society, particularly into the labour market, for young adults. It is based on the lived experiences of 31 young adults having a criminal record, aged between 16 and 30, who were followed during their process of reintegration into the labour market for average periods of six to eighteen months. In addition, interviews with professionals and parents involved in their re-entry process offer in-depth insight in this process. This study thus intends to provide an empirically valid and individualised account of the impact of having a criminal record on the lives – particularly on the labour market position – of young adult offenders and ex-offenders. Although this study’s focus is on how individuals deal with having a criminal record, it also utilises a multilevel approach to create a comprehensive understanding of how criminal records influence ex-offenders’ position in society. The macro-level deals with structures and cultures of society at large, which shape preventive policies such as criminal record screening. The meso-level addresses the decisions and interactions of institutions and professionals involved in ex-offenders’ reintegration process.The micro-level describes individuals’ lived experiences of dealing with the stigma of a criminal record. This provides a thorough understanding of how crime, employment and reintegration are related. By offering vivid, real-life stories of young adults’ strategies of dealing with the stigma of a criminal record, and how this subsequently influences their position in the labour market, this study will make makes it impossible to ignore the adverse effects of increasingly widespread criminal-record screening.
show less
