State-Mandated Criminal Background Employment Screening: A High Stakes Window into the Desistance Process, New York, 2008-2009 (ICPSR 36414)

Version Date: Feb 27, 2018

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Principal Investigator(s):
Shawn Bushway, University at Albany; Megan Kurlychek, University at Albany

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36414.v1

Version V1

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Summary

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study examines criminal background checks that were carried out by the New York State Department of Health (DOH) for individuals with criminal history records who have been provisionally hired to work as unlicensed direct care employees in the long term care industry. These individuals applied for jobs in this industry for the first time in 2008 and 2009.

This information was then augmented with criminal history information provided by the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS).

The collection contains 1 Stata data file (Criminal_background_check.dta (n=7209; 40 variables)).

Citation

Bushway, Shawn, and Kurlychek, Megan. State-Mandated Criminal Background Employment Screening: A High Stakes Window into the Desistance Process, New York, 2008-2009. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-02-27. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36414.v1

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2012-MU-MU-0048)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Region

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2008 -- 2009

Date of Collection

2013

Data Collection Notes

  1. These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

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Study Purpose

The national discussion on prisoner reentry has led to a new interest in differentiating between active offenders and people who have desisted from crime. Properly identifying desisters has particularly high stakes in the labor market, both because employment could facilitate this process and because minorities are more likely to have criminal records than whites. The predictive validity of the measures of desistance and the impacts of record sealing were tested in an attempt to learn how to better identify individuals who desist from crime.

Study Design

Administrative data on all applicants was provided by the Department of Health, which partners with the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) to conduct a criminal history record check. Data collected during this screening process was augmented with follow-up arrest data from DCJS, rap sheets from the FBI, and employment data from the Department of Labor. DCJS served as the data aggregator for this project.

Researchers identified ex-offenders who posed no more risk than individuals without criminal history records, tested the predictive validity of the crime desistance measures using three years of arrest data post job application, studied desistance separately by gender and race, and used quasi experimental methods for two causal studies of desistance (whether record sealing can increase employment and/or aid in desistance, and whether variation in the denial of employment by DOH can impact rates of desistance).

Sample

The New York State Department of Health's (DOH) Criminal History Record Check Legal Unit conducts lifetime, nationwide criminal history record checks on the approximately 75,000 new applicants each year who are provisionally hired into this industry. Information on the background check decision comes from DOH. The researchers supplemented the DOH file with criminal record information from the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). Over 139,000 individuals were provisionally hired and underwent DOH's criminal background check in 2008 or 2009; of this group, approximately 9% had a criminal record. The data file consists of just those individuals with conviction records, and includes only cases with three years of follow-up data available from the Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Individuals with conviction records who initiated their first state-mandated criminal background check process for direct access care positions in New York State's healthcare industry in 2008 or 2009.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

Criminal_background_check.dta (cases=7209; 40 variables): this file includes data derived from administrative records for individuals with conviction records that applied for jobs in the long term care industry for the first time in 2008 and 2009. Variables include information about individual's felonies and misdemeanor arrests as well as felony and misdemeanor convictions including age at arrest/conviction, number of arrests/convictions, number of years since last arrest/conviction, and type of offense.

Demographic variables include sex and race.

Response Rates

Not applicable

Presence of Common Scales

None

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Original Release Date

2018-02-27

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Notes

  • These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

  • One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.