Use of Criminal Records in Hiring Decisions: What Employers Should Do

Abstract

American employers’ use of criminal records in the hiring process can cause discrimination against minority applicants due to the disproportionate rate of their prison incarceration and ex-offender status in the United States. The law increasingly requires employer assessment of individualized factors and deferred inquiry into criminal records in the hiring process in order to avoid discrimination and provide otherwise qualified ex-offenders with the chance at the best preventative to recidivism: a job. Employers should adopt EEOC best practices whenever criminal records are used in the hiring process and support better employment opportunities for ex-offenders as both a legal and ethical obligation.