The effect of labour market absence on finding employment: A comparison between ex-prisoners and unemployed future prisoners
| Author | Johan van Wilsem,Anke Ramakers,Robert Apel |
| Published date | 01 July 2012 |
| Date | 01 July 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370812448278 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Criminology
9(4) 442 –461
© The Author(s) 2012
Reprints and permission:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1477370812448278
euc.sagepub.com
The effect of labour
market absence on finding
employment: A comparison
between ex-prisoners and
unemployed future prisoners
Anke Ramakers and Johan van Wilsem
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Robert Apel
Rutgers University, USA
Abstract
A period of labour market absence reduces one’s chances of getting a job. The labour market
position of both imprisoned and unemployed individuals tends to worsen after their time out
of the labour market. This study considers whether imprisonment has ‘scarring’ effects on job
acquisition over and above unemployment. Using a unique quasi-experimental design with a high-
risk sample, we conduct event history analyses in order to estimate the time to employment for
a group of ex-prisoners (n = 1159) and a group of unemployed future prisoners (n = 271). The
results show that ex-prisoners find employment more quickly and more often than unemployed
future prisoners. This suggests that job assistance and deterrence may have positive effects on
the job chances of released prisoners.
Keywords
imprisonment, quasi-experimental design, time to employment, unemployment
Introduction
Labour market reintegration for ex-prisoners is a social and public policy challenge
(Bushway et al., 2007). Previous studies have shown that ex-prisoners’ employment
Corresponding author:
Anke Ramakers, Department of Criminal Law & Criminology, Leiden University, Steenschuur 25, 2300 RA
Leiden, The Netherlands.
Email: a.a.t.ramakers@law.leidenuniv.nl
448278EUC9410.1177/1477370812448278Ramakers et al.European Journal of Criminology
2012
Article
Ramakers et al. 443
chances are considerably diminished because of their imprisonment (Apel and Sweeten,
2010; Buikhuisen and Dijksterhuis, 1971; Kling, 2006; Pager, 2003; Waldfogel, 1994;
Western and Pettit, 2000), as is their earnings potential (Holzer, 2007; Waldfogel, 1994;
Western, 2002). The importance of offender reintegration stems from the fact that finding
and holding down a job is an important feature of the re-entry process (Farrington et al.,
1986; Sampson and Laub, 1993; Staff and Uggen, 2003; Visher and Travis, 2003).
Unfortunately, it is problematic to ascertain the causal effect of imprisonment on
employment. First, it is unclear to what extent the relatively worsened labour market
prospects of ex-prisoners are an artefact of their proneness to experience labour market
difficulty even in the absence of prison. Prisoners tend to be drawn from marginalized
segments of the population with diminished prospects in the labour market. Yet existing
research is plagued by the use of comparison samples that are not truly at risk of
imprisonment, giving rise to a pernicious selection problem that empirical analysts must
confront as rigorously as possible. Second, to the extent that there is indeed a causal effect
of imprisonment, the mechanisms that underlie the effect are poorly understood. For
instance, previous studies have not clarified whether it is imprisonment per se or labour
market absence that accounts for an ex-prisoner’s worsened labour market prospects.
Descriptive studies that compare the labour market outcomes of prisoners before and
after imprisonment are unable to resolve these questions. Although these studies can
measure change in employment chances, it remains unclear whether this change can be
attributed to the prison spell. Other studies compare the employment chances of
ex-prisoners with those of other disadvantaged groups (Graffam et al., 2007; Holzer,
1996; Holzer et al., 2004) or with samples of non-imprisoned subjects (Bushway, 1998;
Freeman, 1992; Waldfogel, 1994; Western, 2002). Comparability between ex-prisoners
and these other groups is often in doubt, however. Ex-prisoners as a group possess,
arguably more than other disadvantaged groups, characteristics that severely limit their
employment chances. When the comparability of groups is not warranted, we can expect
to find a negative effect of imprisonment whereas in fact this effect is owing to other
differences between the groups (such as criminal propensity). Some recent studies in
which the comparability of groups was better warranted (comparisons of groups with
different confinement lengths) did not find a negative effect but instead found that
imprisonment can increase employment chances in the short term (Kling, 2006; LaLonde
and Cho, 2008; Pettit and Lyons, 2007; Sabol, 2007). However, these studies are unable
to clarify whether this effect is the result of imprisonment or of labour market absence.
In this study we have advanced previous research in several ways. First, we employed
a quasi-experimental design with comparable groups. Both groups will experience a
prison spell either at the beginning or the end of our two-year observation window. Both
groups are also shown to have relatively poor work prospects. The research design is
unique for estimating the effect of imprisonment and is inspired by Grogger’s (1995)
study of the impact of arrest on wages. We estimated the time to employment for a group
of 1159 persons who entered prison in the first half of 2005 and a group of 271 future
prisoners who have a comparable criminal history, were unemployed for some time
during the first half of 2005 and entered prison in the second half of 2006. Second, we
have gained insight into the effect of two kinds of labour market absence by contrasting
the employment chances of a group of ex-prisoners with a group of unemployed future
To continue reading
Request your trial