Michael A. Stoll

PERCEIVED CRIMINALITY, CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS, AND THE RACIAL HIRING PRACTICES OF EMPLOYERS*

In this paper, we analyze the effect of employer‐initiated criminal background checks on the likelihood that employers hire African Americans. We find that employers who check criminal backgrounds are more likely to hire African American workers, especially men. This effect is stronger among those employers who report an aversion to hiring those with criminal records than among those who do not. We also find similar effects of employer aversion to ex‐offenders and their tendency to check backgrounds on their willingness to hire other stigmatized workers, such as those with gaps in their employment history. These results suggest that, in the absence of criminal background checks, some employers discriminate statistically against black men and/or those with weak employment records. Such discrimination appears to contribute substantially to observed employment and earnings gaps between white and black young men.

Can Boosting Minority Car-Ownership Rates Narrow Inter-Racial Employment Gaps

In this paper, we assess whether boosting minority car-ownership rates would narrow inter-racial employment rate differentials. We pursue two empirical strategies. First, we explore whether the effect of auto ownership on the probability of being employed is greater for more segregated groups of workers. Exploiting the fact that African-Americans are considerably more segregated from whites than are Latinos, we estimate car-employment effects for blacks, Latinos, and whites and test whether these effects are largest for more segregated groups. Second, we use data at the level of the metropolitan area to test whether the car-employment effect for blacks relative to that for whites increases with the degree of black relative isolation from employment opportunities. We find the strongest car effects for blacks, followed by Latinos, and then whites. Moreover, this ordering is statistically significant. We also find that the relative car-employment effect for blacks is largest in metropolitan areas where the relative isolation of blacks from employment opportunities is the most severe. Our empirical estimates indicate that raising minority car-ownership rates to the white car ownership rate would eliminate 45 percent of the black-white employment rate differential and 17 percent of the comparable Latinbo-white differential.

Within cities and suburbs: Racial residential concentration and the spatial distribution of employment opportunities across sub-metropolitan areas

This article examines and compares the spatial distributions of new jobs and people across sub-metropolitan areas for Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, and Los Angeles. The jobs data come from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality and the data on people come from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The results indicate that less-educated people, public assistance recipients, and especially poor females with children mostly reside in areas heavily populated by minorities where the availability of less-skilled jobs is quite low, while the availability of these jobs relative to less-educated people in suburban areas heavily populated by whites is high. Large fractions of the less-skilled jobs in these metropolitan areas are not accessible by public transit. Furthermore, there is significant variation within both central cities and suburbs in the ethnic composition of residents and in less-skilled job availability. The ability of various minority groups to gain employment in each area depends heavily on the ethnic composition of the particular area.

Black Job Applicants and the Hiring Officer's Race:

Recent studies have consistently found that in the United States, black job applicants are hired at a greater rate by establishments with black hiring agents than by those with white hiring agents. The results of this examination of data from the 1992–94 Multi-City Employer Survey suggest two proximate reasons for this pattern: black hiring agents receive applications from blacks at greater rates than do white hiring agents, and they hire a greater proportion of blacks who apply. The authors suggest that moving more blacks into positions with hiring authority within firms might help to alleviate the persistent unemployment difficulties of African Americans.

Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences

Abstract In this paper, we present an analysis of the spatial job search patterns of black, white, and Latino workers in Los Angeles. We find that blacks and Latinos tend to search in areas where employment growth is low, whereas whites tend to search in areas where it is high. Moreover, over half of the mean racial and ethnic differences in the quality of spatial job search (as measured by mean employment growth in areas searched) is explained by racial residential segregation. In addition, racial segregation is a more important explanation of racial differences in spatial job search quality than systematic differences in social networks and job search methods, though these factors matter. Spatial job search quality has a positive and significant effect on the employment of whites and blacks, but not Latinos, and explains nearly 40 percent of the difference between white and black employment rates. These results are consistent with the existence of spatial mismatch in urban labor markets and imply that racial residential segregation limits the job opportunities of blacks, and to a lesser extent Latinos, in metropolitan areas.

Job Performance and Retention among Welfare Recipients.

Using data from a recent survey of employers, this article analyzes job performance and retention rates of recently hired welfare recipients. The findings suggest that most recipients perform as well as or better than employees in comparable jobs and that their turnover rates appear fairly low. Still, employers frequently note absenteeism and poor attitudes toward work, problems that are strongly linked to turnover and weak job performance. Various characteristics of the workers, employers, and jobs are associated with performance and retention difficulties among working welfare recipients.

Employer Demand for Welfare Recipients by Race

This article examines employer demand for welfare recipients using new employer survey data. The results suggest that demand is high but sensitive to business cycle conditions. Factors including skill needs and industry affect prospective employer demand for recipients, while other characteristics that affect their relative supply to employers (e.g., establishment location) influence whether such demand is realized in actual hiring. The conditional demand for black and Hispanic welfare recipients lags behind their representation in the welfare population and seems affected by employers’ location and indicators of preferences. Thus, many demand‐side factors limit the employment options of welfare recipients, especially minorities.

The Effect of Prison Releases on Regional Crime Rates

lation is the concurrent increase in the number of former inmates and recently released inmates living in noninstitutionalized society. Between 1980 and 2000, the U.S. prison population increased fourfold from 300,000 to more than 1.2 million. During the same period, the number of exoffenders residing in the community increased from 1.8 to 4.3 million. Annually, there are large flows into and out of the state and federal prison systems. For example, in 1999 approximately 550,000 inmates were released from prison, 75 percent being conditionally released into state parole systems. Net of conditional returns to prison, releases in 1999 increased the population of recently released inmates by more than 300,000 people. The growing numbers of former prison inmates generate a host of problems for receiving communities. Prime among the problems of recent prison releases is the potential effects on local crime rates. By most conventional measures, a large share of exoffenders have postrelease run-ins with the legal system. Approximately 70 percent are rearrested within three years of release, and nearly 50 percent are eventually returned to prison. Moreover, roughly 7 percent of those released to

Immigration and Civic Participation in a Multiracial and Multiethnic Context1

This article seeks to understand civic participation among Asians and Latinos in a multiethnic, multiracial context. We investigate the usefulness of an expanded model of civic engagement, one that makes central factors related to migration, such as length of residence, language acquisition, and citizenship, for groups that include a large number of immigrants. The 1992–1994 Los Angeles Survey of Urban Inequality allows us to test a model of civic participation that incorporates variables previously neglected – migration-related factors, but also multiracial contexts and interracial ties – to better explain participation differences among a diverse population.

Assessing the Contribution of the Deinstitutionalization of the Mentally Ill to Growth in the U.S. Incarceration Rate

We assess the degree to which the mentally ill who would have been in mental hospitals in years past have been transinstitutionalized to prisons and jails. We also assess the contribution of deinstitutionalization to growth in the U.S. prison population. We find no evidence of transinstitutionalization for any demographic groups for the period 1950–80. However, for the 20-year period 1980–2000, we find significant transinstitutionalization rates for all men and women, with a relatively large transinstitutionalization rate for men in comparison to women and the largest transinstitutionalization rate observed for white men. Our estimates suggest that 4–7 percent of incarceration growth between 1980 and 2000 is attributable to deinstitutionalization. While this is a relatively small contribution to prison growth overall, the results suggest that a sizable portion of the mentally ill behind bars would not have been incarcerated in years past.