Working around the Law: Navigating Legal Barriers to Employment during Reentry

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (03) ◽  
pp. 726-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dallas Augustine
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Double Bind ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Barriers To Employment ◽  
The Law ◽  
Legal Barriers

Employment has been cited as one of the most effective protections against recidivism for formerly incarcerated people; however, job seekers with criminal records face barriers to employment after prison. They find themselves in a legal double bind where they are simultaneously compelled to obey the law (by finding “legit” work) but also legally barred from doing so. To navigate this conflictual legal positioning, job seekers with felony records develop strategies of working around the law to find employment. Through thirty qualitative interviews with people with felony records, I examine this alternative form of legal consciousness and detail the ways in which individuals navigate the legal barriers to acquiring “good” work. Ultimately, job seekers’ often extralegal strategies of law abidance blur the line between compliance with and defiance of the law.

On the edges of the law: sex workers’ legal consciousness in England

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 327-343
Author(s):  
Eva Klambauer
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
State Involvement ◽  
The Law ◽  
Indoor And Outdoor

AbstractIn England, sex workers are placed at the edges of the law. How the social and legal status of sex workers impacts on their perception of and interaction with the law in a semi-legal setting has not yet been explored. Drawing on fifty-two qualitative interviews with indoor and outdoor sex workers in England, this study investigates their disposition to the law, legality and the state. The commonalities and discrepancies between the experiences of indoor and outdoor sex workers reveal the influence of the combination of legal framework and social status on sex workers’ legal consciousness. This study finds that, even in a setting of semi-legality, sex workers attempt to avoid contact with state authorities. However, this aversion to the current law does not prevent them from making claims for legal change. Surprisingly, indoor and outdoor sex workers hold opposing views on the appropriate level of regulation and state involvement in the sex industry. Remarkably, although outdoor sex workers have more negative experiences with arbitrators of the law, they desire the law's protection. In contrast, indoor sex workers’ main grievance is for sex work to be a legitimate industry that can operate with only minimal state control. These differences in outdoor and indoor workers’ legal claims are explicable by sharp cleavages in social status, vulnerability and degree of criminalisation. These findings demonstrate that intra-group differences in the legal consciousness of marginalised groups are key to understanding the role of social and legal status in shaping legal claims.

Educational Downgrading: Adult Education and Downward Mobility

2021 ◽  
pp. 003804072098289
Author(s):  
Corey Moss-Pech ◽  
Steven H. Lopez ◽  
Laurie Michaels
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Educational Aspirations ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The United States ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Downward Mobility ◽  
Precarious Labor ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Returning To School

Scholarship on adult education throughout the life course focuses on the relationship between education and upward mobility. Scholars rarely examine how adults’ educational aspirations or trajectories are affected by downward mobility or an increasingly precarious labor market. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 job seekers in the post–Great Recession labor market in the United States, this article advances the concept of educational downgrading: returning to school in pursuit of a credential lower than the highest level of education one previously sought or attained. We explore three pathways to downgrading connected to downward mobility: occupational dead ends, career reversals, and educational inflation. In the process, we highlight how individuals adjust their practical educational aspirations as they navigate a contemporary economy in which careers are unstable and credentials are needed for many kinds of jobs across the occupational hierarchy.

scholarly journals Review of the Political Direction of National Legal Development Law

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Achmad Irwan Hamzani ◽  
Kanti Rahayu ◽  
Tani Haryadi ◽  
Nur Khasanah ◽  
Havis Aravik
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
The Political ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Legal Development ◽  
National Legal System ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Law Making ◽  
The Ideal

The political direction of the law in Indonesia in the development of national law simplifies legislation. The scope of national legal development is not only through legislation. There is the functionalization of the law that lives in society. The purpose of the research describes the political urgency of law in the development of national law and reviews the political direction of national law development law. This research uses a philosophical approach, namely to examine the law from the ideal side in the form of an idea of the direction of national law politics in the future. The results of this study show that the politics of law is necessary to provide direction in the development of national law. Each country has a legal political direction whose role as the basic policy of state organizers to determine the direction, shape, and content of the law to be established. Legal politics as a strategy of the formation process, as well as the implementation of laws based on the national legal system to achieve the goals and ideals of the state. The political direction of the law in Indonesia in the development of national law simplifies legislation. The scope of the development of the national legal system can be through legislation and functionalization of the living law. The political direction of the law in Indonesia in the development of national law simplifies the process of legislation. The impact will only be a successful legal state in law-making, but weak in law in action. The implication of this study is to expand the political direction of national law which includes the functionalization of the living law. By functionalizing "the living law", the resulting law is rooted in the legal consciousness of society.

scholarly journals Stigma, housing and identity after prison

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 799-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danya E. Keene ◽  
Amy B. Smoyer ◽  
Kim M. Blankenship
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
The State ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Symbolic Resource

Existing research suggests that individuals who are released from prison face considerable challenges in obtaining access to safe, stable, and affordable places to live and call home. This article draws on repeated qualitative interviews (conducted every 6 months over a period of 3 years) with 44 formerly incarcerated individuals, to understand how these individuals experience the search for a home after their prison release. The interviews show that the quest for a home is central to participants’ reintegration projects as they seek to establish themselves as ‘decent’ and economically self-sufficient citizens, and shed stigmatized identities associated with incarceration, poverty, homelessness, and place. Interviews also suggest that their quest for a home is an arduous one as they encounter numerous barriers to housing arising from both structural and interpersonal forms of incarceration stigma. Somewhat paradoxically, the challenges that they face in accessing housing seem to hinder their ability to shed the stigmatized identities associated with their incarceration. Ultimately, the narratives presented here show how stigma can restrict access to a valuable material and symbolic resource (housing), resulting in ongoing stigmatization, and contributing to the enduring and discrediting mark of incarceration. In this way, the study illustrates how stigma that is enacted by both individuals and the state, that is embodied in place, and that is internalized and managed by stigmatized individuals themselves, can work to reproduce power and serve as justification for inequality.

Practical significance of law constitutional principles

2020 ◽  
pp. 435-441
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Paramonov
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Direct Role ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Russian Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Basic Ideas

We consider the constitutional principles of Russian law in the framework of positivist legal consciousness. We note the highest value of the law constitutional principles, as the basic ideas that underlie individual branches of law and all legal regulation. We focus on the practical significance of the constitutional principles of Russian law. We point out that in order to overcome defects in the legal consciousness of the population, it is advisable to duplicate the law principles that enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and in sectoral legislation. We emphasize that the practical significance of the law constitutional principles is manifested not only in their direct role in the legal regulation of public relations, but also in the fact that in judicial practice they can be used in the case of applying the analogy of law and the analogy of legislation. We indicate that this legal and technical tool is used to fill gaps in legal regulation. It is used in many branches of Russian law: civil, civil procedural, arbitration procedural, ad-ministrative procedural, family and others. Thus, the study shows the positive role of law constitutional principles in decision-making by a law enforcer in the absence of sectoral legal norms applicable in a particular situation.

How Has the Legal Consciousness of Chinese Enterprise Managers Transformed since 1949? A Study of Chinese Enterprises under Socialism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Alvin Hoi-Chun Hung
Keyword(s):  
Legal Framework ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Legal Consciousness ◽  
Chinese Enterprises ◽  
The Past ◽  
Chinese Enterprise ◽  
Communist System ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Law

Abstract This paper analyses how the legal consciousness of Chinese enterprise managers has transformed in the face of drastic changes brought along by major events in socialist China. During the past 70 years, there have been in place a series of radical and pervasive changes in the legal framework constituted by a communist system frequented by mass political campaigns, trailed by a massive liberalized move towards a market economy. By building upon the thesis of legal-consciousness narratives suggested by Ewick and Silbey, this paper discusses how Chinese managers have evolved through various states of “With the Law,” “Against the Law,” and “Under the Law” legal consciousness. It is suggested that, in the coming era of globalization under socialist China, Chinese enterprise managers may start to embrace a new narrative of legal consciousness—“In the Law”—by participating more actively in the socialist system with Chinese characteristics.

Criminal history and the workplace: a pathway forward

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 494-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole C. Jones Young ◽  
Ann Marie Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Employee Selection ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relevant Topic ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Specific Barriers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to summarize some of the key gaps in knowledge regarding the use of criminal records in employee selection and post-hire challenges that those with a criminal record may continue to face. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a general review and introduction to the special issue on criminal history and employment. Findings The authors suggest that understanding the “what,” “how,” “why” and “who” may provide researchers with increased clarity regarding the relevance and use of criminal records within the employee selection process. Research limitations/implications The authors encourage researchers to explore the management constructs and theories to understand how they may operate and affect this population upon entry into the workplace. Additionally, the authors discuss some of the methodological challenges and considerations related to conducting research on this population. Originality/value While researchers continue to seek and better understand the experiences of job seekers with criminal records and specific barriers to fulfilling work, there are many aspects of the pre- and post-employment experience that are not yet well examined. This paper provides a pathway forward for management researchers within the area of criminal history and employment, an understudied yet relevant topic.

scholarly journals “CHANGE” FRAMES AND THE MOBILIZATION OF SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR FORMERLY INCARCERATED JOB SEEKERS

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 387-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Susan Smith
Keyword(s):  
Job Seekers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Job Matching ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Job Information ◽  
Four Frames ◽  
Former Prisoners ◽  
Second Chance ◽  
Sector Employer

AbstractWhen deciding whether to provide job-matching assistance to formerly incarcerated job seekers, which factors do individuals with job information and influence privilege? Drawing from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 126 ethnoracially diverse jobholders at one large, public sector employer, I show that jobholders’ assistance relied on the cultural frames for action they deployed. Two frames dominated discussion—the second chance frame and the signaling change frame. Through the former, jobholders argued that all individuals were capable of change and entitled to more chances to prove themselves. These jobholders were strongly inclined to help. Through the latter, jobholders either referenced the nature of offenses for which job seekers were punished, a proxy for their ability to change, or they referenced evidence that job seekers had changed, a proxy for former prisoners’ commitment to do better. These jobholders tended to be noncommittal. Two frames were mentioned significantly less often—the rigid structures and the opportunities to assist frames. Neither implicated the former prisoners’ essential attributes but instead identified factors outside of job seekers’ control. A significant minority of jobholders also offered some combination of these four frames. Importantly, ethnoracial background, which informed the extent, nature and quality of jobholders’ experiences with the formerly incarcerated, also shaped which frame or set of frames jobholders deployed.

Second chances in the second city: Public housing and prisoner reentry in Chicago

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-606
Author(s):  
Madeleine Hamlin
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
Criminal Records ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Chicago Housing Authority ◽  
The Status ◽  
Historical Role ◽  
Number Of Individuals

In November 2014, the Chicago Housing Authority approved a pilot program to allow a limited number of individuals with criminal records to live in their housing programs. In this article, I contend that the pilot provides an important opportunity to institutionally recognize and extend material benefits to formerly incarcerated individuals for whom housing is both especially difficult to secure and especially important to find. Drawing on Wacquant, I argue that the pilot also offers an opening for key institutions of urban governance, such as housing authorities, to acknowledge their own role in perpetuating a pervasive “carceral continuum” that disciplines the urban poor and feeds mass incarceration. However, drawing on interviews with pilot organizers and participants, I show how the pilot responds to and replicates pervasive fears of crime that link poverty and criminality in particular. As a result, its cautious experimental design relegates participants to the status of test cases and exceptions, rather than normalizing their presence in public housing. The pilot further relies on a problematic and paradoxical understanding of “return” that obscures public housing’s historical role in the carceral continuum. In all of these ways, the logics of this pilot and others like it remain limited, thus undermining their potential to disrupt such carceral continuities.

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