“Reflections on the Mark of a Criminal Record”

Devah Pager’s article “The Mark of a Criminal Record” was interesting because it analyzed people at the intersection of race, crime, and poverty. These three problematic areas of society seem to be at the root of many other social ills, such as prison overpopulation, social and economic segregation, and education. It seems to me that if any of these other problems are going to be corrected, we must first understand the foundational reasons for why they have come about. I think that Pager’s article goes a long way in explaining how race, crime, and poverty interact with each other through our legal system and marketplace.

Prager’s research attempts to find out if and how badly a male job applicant’s employment prospects are hindered by his racial and criminal background and, if so, whether black applicants with criminal backgrounds are unequally hindered in comparison to white applicants with similar backgrounds. It is important that the study was done in Wisconsin as the state has a law that says an employer may only consider an applicant’s criminal background if that person’s crime has some bearing on the position they are applying for. I assume that, because of this law, people would be less likely to be discriminated against because of their background in Wisconsin than in states that don’t have this law. 

Prager’s findings are disheartening, but what I expected. First, the results show that a male applicant who has a criminal background and has, as is often said, “Paid his debt to society,” is much less likely to be hired than one who has never been in prison. Second, Prager’s research shows that a male applicant’s race is still a very reliable indicator of whether or not a person will find employment. Third, the results show that this indication becomes even more reliable if the applicant has a criminal background. These findings reveal a good deal about the mechanics of race, crime, and poverty in the work environment.

First, it is significant that Prager’s participants applied for entry-level, low-wage positions, as these jobs are easier to obtain. Thus, they are the first and best options for poor people and people who have served time in prison. Since poor people are more likely to be involved in criminal activity than well-off people, and people who have served time in jail are at a high risk of returning to prison in the future, the discrimination found in the hiring process creates a problem. This is because it helps ensure that a group of people who are already likely to return to prison remain unemployed and therefore poor, which in turn raises the likelihood they that will face the criminal justice system. In this way, a criminal record plays the role that branding has historically played; criminals are marked and then permanently suspect and distrusted.

The problem is intensified when race is thrown into the mix. African-American males are already more likely to be poor and more likely to be arrested than whites, and they represent a disproportionate share of prison inmates as it is. According to Pager, even black applicants without criminal records were less likely to be called back after being interviewed than white applicants with criminal records. In other words, while having a criminal record does hurt a white applicant’s chances of landing a job, he is still more likely to find employment than a black applicant with a spotless criminal record.

There are significant social problems at work here, and they all combine to form an even bigger one. It is a problem employers discriminate against black applicants; it is a problem that blacks are more likely to be poor and more likely to serve time in prison than whites; it is a problem that a person with a criminal background is likely to be denied employment on that basis. However, taken together, these things mean that black American men are at a far greater risk of being poor, committing a crime, serving time in prison, being denied employment, and remaining poor and therefore prone to further criminal activity. This means that the perception of race, the criminal justice system, and the marketplace all work together and result in putting black males, already a historically disadvantaged group, into an even more disadvantaged position and therefore putting all other groups into a more advantaged position.

This relates, I think, somewhat to Marx’s idea that laws are made to favor a dominant or privileged class of people. In Marx’s example in “Debates on the Law on the Theft of Wood,” the punishment that the wood thieves experienced was far greater than their crimes; in getting caught, the thief stood to lose more than the property owner lost. For this reason, the laws favored the property owners intentionally. However, the findings of Prager’s study show a more complex and indirect favoritism; it is obvious that the legal system Marx described worked for the benefit of a privileged group, but the bias in the American legal system is fully apparent only when one also takes into account race relations, employment opportunities, and poverty. After this, it is clear that our justice system and marketplace favor white men over black men and that, intentionally or unintentionally, they work together to make sure it remains that way.

I think that, in terms of public policy and the discrimination shown against those with criminal records, a wider conclusion can be drawn from Pager’s article: while laws such as the one in Wisconsin might be a good place start to begin, they are not sufficient to end the social problems outlined here. If this sort of discrimination is going to be addressed, more legislation will be necessary. However, the problem of racial prejudice is deeply rooted in the American criminal justice system and workforce and, though legislation may serve to stifle it, institutional racism can only be solved by a fundamental change of social values and consciousness at large.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl. "Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly.Third Article." 1842: Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 July 2013.

Pager, Devah. "The Mark of a Criminal Record." American Journal of Sociology 108.5 (2003): 937-75. Print.