Essays on the U.S. Criminal Legal System and Black-White Inequality

Abstract

A hallmark of the current time is both the pervasiveness of the criminal record and the wide accessibility of this information to employers, landlords, and even ordinary citizens. However, the mass use of this information beyond criminal legal system purposes is a relatively recent phenomenon in United States history. The goal of this dissertation is threefold: First, it charts the evolution of access to criminal record information. Second, it investigates the impact of the availability of this information to employers on labor market outcomes. Third, it explores the relationship between incarceration history and household wealth and income.

The first dissertation chapter documents employers' and landlords' initial access to statewide criminal background checking via state central repositories. Then, it explores two hypotheses of states' motives for making criminal record information available.

The second dissertation chapter uses variation in the timing and geography of employers' inaugural access to criminal record information via state central repositories to estimate the effect on labor force participation and employment for various race-gender-education groups. I find that employer access to criminal record information led to decreases in labor force participation and employment of non-college educated black men. However, these declines were offset by increases for whites, chiefly white women.

The third dissertation chapter, co-authored with Jorge Zumaeta, William A. Darity, Jr., and Aaron Colston, investigates income and wealth gaps by household incarceration history within and across racial groups. It uses data from the 2017 Baltimore National Asset Scorecard for Communities of Color (NASCC) survey and the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method to estimate and explain these income and wealth gaps.