The Significance of Race: Overcoming Obstacles in the Adoption of Ban the Box Laws

LaPlant, Eric G.; Vuolo, Mike

doi:10.1080/00380253.2020.1787905

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The negative effect of the squared terms, as evidenced by IRRs less than 1, suggests a concave relationship between % Black/Latino residents and law criminal history sub‐inquiries, where the relationship is negative among law schools in states that have reached a “tipping point” in terms of their Black/Latino populations. Applying the following formula to the raw (i.e., non‐exponentiated) coefficients (Acock, 2013; LaPlant & Vuolo, 2021), we find that the inflection point is reached when the Black population reaches 17.75%: − β %Black residents /2 × β %Black residents squared = −0.0071/(2 × −0.0002) = 17.75%. Similarly, the inflection point for is reached when the Latino population reaches 13%: − β %Latino residents /2 × β %Latino residents squared = −0.0026/(2 × −0.0001) = 13%.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criminal history inquiries and minority threat in the legal profession: An analysis of law school and state bar admission applications

Binnall

Petersen

2023

Law & Policy

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While all but one U.S. law school and every state bar ask about criminal history on their admissions application, such inquiries vary considerably in the depth of information sought. One potential explanation for variations in the depth of criminal history inquiries among law schools and state bars relates to minority threat dynamics. Drawing on data quantifying the depth of criminal history inquiries for 190 ABA-approved law schools and all state bars, as well as school and state demographics, this study explores the issue for the first time. Negative binomial regressions reveal that law schools and state bars located in states with larger Black and Latino populations employ more probing criminal history inquiries. We also find that this relationship is parabolic-where the minority threat effect is negative in states with a critical mass of Black/Latino residents. Finally, minority threat effects for law school criminal history inquiries are moderated by state bar criminal history inquiries, suggesting that law schools are cued by state bar policies. These results provide some support for minority threat theory, informing debates about the continued use of criminal history inquiries to screen prospective law students and lawyers, and the inclusiveness of the legal profession generally. | INTRODUCTIONThough lawyers are part of the populace they swear to serve, the legal profession is notoriously homogeneous (Kennedy, 2019). Roughly 61% of first-year law students are white, whereas only James M. Binnall and Nick Petersen contributed equally to this manuscript.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criminal history inquiries and minority threat in the legal profession: An analysis of law school and state bar admission applications

Binnall

Petersen

2023

Law & Policy

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“…Whether that holds for state BTB policy adoptions is undetermined. Yet, as others consistently observe across public policies related and unrelated to citizens with criminal records, Black state legislators face challenges to converting Black descriptive representation directly into substantive representation within state legislatures, (Clark 2019;LaPlant & Vuolo 2021;Matsubayashi & Rocha 2012;Preuhs 2006;Owens & Smith 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing from community organizing (Orr 2007;Swarts 2008;Flores 2018;Han et al 2021), descriptive representation (Mansbridge 1999;Dovi 2002;Kerr et al 2013), and the "internal determinants" of policy adoption (Berry and Berry 1990;Karch 2007;Shipan and Craig 2006) scholarship, we deduce expectations about cities adopting BTB policies and we test them. Our primary interest is in the active presence of affiliates of workingclass community organizing leagues; they exist to empower marginalized groups and seek positive policy changes for them, and cities with such organizations should have a greater likelihood of adopting BTB policies than cities without them (Swarts 2008;Flores 2018;LaPlant and Vuolo 2021). As BTB policies are laborrelated policies, whether localities with ostensibly better labor-regarding contexts are associated with a greater likelihood of BTB adoptions is an interest, too (Swarts and Vasi 2011;Doussard and Jacob 2017).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As BTB policies are labor-related policies, whether localities with ostensibly better labor-regarding contexts are associated with a greater likelihood of BTB adoptions is an interest, too (Swarts and Vasi 2011; Doussard and Jacob 2017). Furthermore, the presence of some types of mayors and municipal legislators in terms of race and gender should increase the likelihood cities adopt BTB policies (LaPlant and Vuolo 2021). Finally, given city governments vary institutionally, which may affect municipal policymaking (Carr 2015), cities with council-manager systems may be more likely to adopt BTB policies than cities with mayor-council systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Noncongruent policymaking by cities for citizens with criminal records: Representation, organizing, and “Ban the Box”

Owens

Gunderson

2022

Political Research Quarterly

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Generally, public (and private) policymakers adopt policies—laws, rules, and procedures—that encumber groups with negative social constructions and low political capital. Sometimes, however, they adopt policies beneficial, not burdensome, to them. We examine beneficial policy adoption for one disadvantaged group—U.S. citizens with criminal records. Our focus is the adoption of “Ban the Box” (BTB) policies that embargo criminal records questions on job applications and defer them during hiring by employers. We leverage extant data on annual BTB policy adoptions, novel annual city-level data on community organizing groups and descriptive representation (i.e., race and gender), and event history analysis for a sample of 256 U.S. cities to provide a comprehensive understanding of the city contexts associated with the spread of BTB policy adoptions by cities across the U.S. between 2004 and 2019. Although descriptive, the findings deepen and broaden the scholarship about the roles of civil society organizations and descriptive representation for beneficial policymaking for disadvantaged groups and the connection of interests and representation for abolishing some punitive policy designs by public (and private) actors.

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“…As stated above, BTB laws emerged as a policy intervention to ameliorate earlyprocess criminal record discrimination (Henry and Jacobs 2007;LaPlant and Vuolo 2021). First adopted by Hawaii in 1998, BTB laws have spread rapidly in recent years.…”

Section: Discrimination In Hiring and Btb Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Before and After Ban the Box: Who Complies with Anti-Discrimination Law?

Schneider¹,

Vuolo²,

Lageson³

et al. 2021

Law Soc. Inq.

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Ban the Box (BTB) laws are an anti-discrimination policy intended to promote employment for persons with criminal records. However, research on law and organizations shows that firms often fail to comply with legal directives or engage in symbolic compliance that fails to alter day-to-day business practices. We consider whether BTB contributed to attitudinal or behavioral shifts among hiring managers and changes in job applications. We analyze a unique set of in-depth interviews (N = 30) and entry-level job applications (N = 305) collected from the same workplaces in 2008 and 2016, assessing the impact of state BTB legislation. We find: (1) that one in five organizations were noncompliant, with noncompliance twice as likely among employers who discriminated against applicants with criminal records pre-BTB and that widespread lack of knowledge and lack of enforcement of BTB appears to affect noncompliance; (2) organizations maintained considerable continuity in hiring practices and attitudes between 2008 and 2016, regardless of personnel changes and statewide implementation of BTB; and (3) post-BTB, strong warnings about criminal background checks at later stages of the hiring process emerged as an alternative source of gatekeeping. These findings contribute to the law and organizations literature by highlighting the importance of enforcement and limits of law for combating discrimination.

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The Significance of Race: Overcoming Obstacles in the Adoption of Ban the Box Laws

Cited by 4 publications

References 44 publications

Criminal history inquiries and minority threat in the legal profession: An analysis of law school and state bar admission applications

Criminal history inquiries and minority threat in the legal profession: An analysis of law school and state bar admission applications

Noncongruent policymaking by cities for citizens with criminal records: Representation, organizing, and “Ban the Box”

Before and After Ban the Box: Who Complies with Anti-Discrimination Law?

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