Criminologists at Carnegie Mellon University developed a research model that helps employers to determine when an ex-offender’s criminal past is no longer a deterrent to successful employment.

“In the past, employers had no way of knowing when it might be safe to look past a criminal record. Hiring an ex-offender was a totally arbitrary decision,” says Alfred Blumstein, co-author of the research’s report and professor at the university’s H. John Heinz III College. “We believe our model can change that and help provide employers with data in making such decisions,” he adds.

Analyzing criminal records of more than 88,000 first-time offenders in New York from 1980, researchers determined that many of the first-time offenders had no further crimes on their records after five years. Additionally, the former offenders posed no greater risk of committing the same crime again than their contemporaries without a criminal record.

The research, funded by the National Institute of Justice, comes on the heels of federal policymakers’ attempts to break down employment barriers for those who have been charged with a crime, but have stayed clean for a substantial amount of time.

Dr. Blumstein explains that employing ex-offenders has become even more of a problem in a digital age where records are much more public and stored for longer periods of time. He notes that some employers require criminal background checks to avoid liability risks if the ex-offender commits a new crime.

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