| Topics and Issues | Background checks (71) Jeff Sedgwick (4) Obsolescence (4) Recidivism (10) |
In 2011, Dr. Jeff Sedgwick, criminologist and former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) at the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote a paper, Overview of Selected Current Research on Employment and Crime and on the Causes of Reoffending. This paper highlights two facts that are often ignored in a policy debate on the value of criminal history for employers and landlords: (1) that the relationship between employment and crime is not causal, simple, or straightforward; and (2) that there is no predominant cause of reoffending. A number of non-employment related factors are as or more determinative of whether a person will transgress a second time as employment.