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Race, Criminal Records and Employment

Legal and employment issues in the use of criminal records for hiring decisions will be discussed at "The Richard Netter Conference on Race, Criminal Records and Employment: Legal Practice and Social Science Research" Oct. 9 in New York City.

It is sponsored by ILR's Labor and Employment Law Program in collaboration with the Cornell Law School.

The conference brings together national experts from law and social science with community activists and policymakers to confront an emerging legal issue -- workplace discrimination resulting from criminal convictions, said Esta Bigler and Pamela Tolbert, conference organizers.

Bigler ILR '70 is director of the Labor and Employment Law Program at ILR.  Tolbert is chair of ILR’s Department of Organizational Behavior.

The conference tackles the intersection of high unemployment rates for people with criminal records, high incarceration rates of minority men and practical concerns of employers, Bigler said.

Participants representing all sides of the issue will discuss employment law, social science research and contemporary human resource practices in the context of:



  • research on recidivism and ex-offender risk assessment
  • employment barriers and race discrimination
  • background check availability and use
  • military experience with ex-offenders
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines
  • employer liability

The role of criminal records in employment is a clouded legal area, Bigler and Tolbert said.  Laws vary state to state and can affect whether a person with a criminal record can get a driver’s license or a license to practice a particular trade, making it hard to get a job.

Conviction for a crime at age 17 or 18 can, in reality, be a life sentence of unemployment, Bigler said.

Adam Klein '87, a speaker at the conference, said "I am pleased that Cornell ILR is at the forefront of addressing this serious national problem."

Research by conference speaker Devah Pager, a Princeton University sociology professor who will be speaking at the conference, has shown that employers are more likely to hire whites with criminal records than African-Americans without a record; race adds another layer of complexity to this issue, conference organizers said.

Funding for the conference was provided by Richard Netter, a 1939 graduate of Cornell's Arts and Sciences College and a 1941 graduate of Cornell Law School.

Netter, who died this year, had a long-standing interest in human rights and provided support for several ILR conferences on civil rights issues.  The conference is named in Netter's honor.

The conference flyer, agenda and registration form are available at www.ilr.cornell.edu/law/events.

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