Criminal Records and College Admissions
2020-07
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Criminal Records and College Admissions
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2020-07
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The systems of criminal justice and higher education are two major institutions that have profound effects on American social life. Since their inception, both institutions have served as powerful socioeconomic sorting mechanisms. As both institutions have expanded, they have played increasingly important roles in social mobility, socioeconomic status, and life opportunities. Criminal records are a pervasive, acutely restrictive feature of American social life, perpetuating cycles of crime, inequality, and lost opportunity, especially for low-income people and people of color. Higher education has long been considered a key to unlocking social mobility and developing social cohesion in American society, and a potentially compelling mechanism for facilitating desistance. College attendance and completion are associated with lower rates of unemployment and higher relative earnings. Through college, students can access valued opportunities, develop human capital, and foster civic membership. Yet, most colleges require applicants to disclose detailed criminal history information as part of the application process, and some evidence suggests that applicants are being rejected on the basis of their records. Thus, the benefits of higher education may not accrue for students with criminal records. The increasing scrutiny of criminal records in college admissions is especially consequential for groups most subject to the criminal legal system, particularly young Black males. Considering the historic underrepresentation of Black Americans in higher education and overrepresentation in justice-involved populations, criminal history disclosure requirements could raise additional barriers to racial progress, student learning, and citizenship. Drawing on original data sources, including a national audit of college admissions, I find that criminal record screening in college admissions raises substantial hurdles and barriers on the path to college for students with criminal records, demonstrating how records overwhelms potential life course opportunities, hardens inequality, and redefines social membership.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.July 2020. Major: Sociology. Advisor: Christopher Uggen. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 171 pages.
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Stewart, Robert. (2020). Criminal Records and College Admissions. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/216823.
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