I'm Aaron Jacklin, and this is Explaining Crime, an independent newsletter that helps you explain crime to your audience.
Your First Five is a daily series (M-F) that publishes a curated selection of recent research related to crime and justice. Each post is more a tip sheet than an article and contains links to new studies (each related to a single topic) that I hope will enhance your work explaining crime. The publication schedule is in flux for the moment.
These new studies related to criminology and criminal justice were published recently by journals I monitor.
1. Making Ends Meet: An Examination of Legal and Illegal Sources of Financial Support for Individuals Returning from Prison, published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
...individuals who were employed were less likely to be financially supported by their families or receive public benefits, but this had no impact on whether they received earning from illegal activities.
2. The Impact of Formal Education, Specialized Training, and Offense Type on Perceptions of Employability: Can Bias Toward Hiring a Person With a Criminal History Be Mitigated?, published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
Using hypothetical case vignettes of a formerly incarcerated job applicant, this study examined whether hiring decisions were influenced by education and offense type. A between-subjects design with a sample of 223 individuals recruited via MTurk was conducted. Results of this study were largely consistent with prior research suggesting that criminal history presents an obstacle when trying to obtain employment.
3. Mixed Signals: The Effect of Employment Training on Employment Outcomes for Previously Incarcerated Individuals, published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.
This work investigates the effects of pre-employment training on employment outcomes for previously incarcerated individuals using two theories developed in the discipline of economics: human capital theory and signaling theory.
4. When Prison Becomes the Devil’s Workshop: The Association Between Idleness and Post-Release Employment, Recidivism, and Mortality, published in Crime & Delinquency.
The findings suggest that how people spend their time in prison significantly affects their chances of finding a job, their likelihood of recidivism, and how long they live following release from prison. As involvement in work and/or programing increased, the people released from prison were more likely to find employment while also having a reduced risk for recidivism and mortality.
5. Working Through Desistance: Employment in Women’s Identity and Relational Desistance, published in The British Journal of Criminology.
The article explores how women (particularly Indigenous women) face significant barriers to employment, based on multiple sites of inequality. It also explores how employment (and employers) can support women’s identity and relational desistance.
I might cover some of these studies further in Understanding Crime. If one sounds interesting or important, let me know in the comments.
If you’ve seen a few of these posts and are wondering: Yes, I use a template. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, these posts are intended more as tip sheets than articles. “These posts” and the directories (next coming Monday!) are the output of my research discovery system, which I’ve been working on and streamlining. That system is intended to furnish a wide variety of crime research and facilitate choices of what new research to actually report on, both for myself and for the journalists out there. I hope others will find these tip sheets interesting and useful for reasons that I haven’t even thought of.
I'd love to know if and how you've used Your First Five.