Read review of 5 different articles, this is the first article. The assignment is to provide a one page summary of the information read. The summary should be double spaced, with one inch margins, and using Times New Roman 12pt font.The article below. Graffam, J., Shinkfield, A., & Hardcastle, L. (2008). The Perceived Employability of Ex-Prisoners and Offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52(6), 673-685.
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The Perceived Employability of Ex-Prisoners and Offenders Joseph Graffam
Alison J. Shinkfield Lesley Hardcastle Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia .A large-scale study was conducted to examine the perceived employability of ex-prisoners and offenders. Four participant groups comprising 596 (50.4%) employers, 234 (19.8%)employment service workers, 176 (14.9%) corrections workers, and 175 (14.8%) prison-ers and offenders completed a questionnaire assessing the likelihood of a hypothetical job seeker’s both obtaining and maintaining employment; the importance of specific skills and characteristics to employability; and the likelihood that ex-prisoners, offenders, and the general workforce exhibit these skills and characteristics.
Apart from people with an intellectual or psychiatric disability, those with a criminal background were rated as being less likely than other disadvantaged groups to obtain and maintain employment. In addi-tion, ex-prisoners were rated as being less likely than offenders and the general workforce to exhibit the skills and characteristics relevant to employability. Implications for the preparation and support of ex-prisoners and offenders into employment are discussed,together with broader community-wide initiatives to promote reintegration.
Keywords:employment; ex-prisoners; offenders F or ex-prisoners and for offenders serving or completing noncustodial community-based orders, obtaining and maintaining employment is recognised, on one hand,
as being very important to successful reintegration and avoidance of reoffending
and, on the other, as being very difficult to achieve.
Numerous benefits are associated
with employment of ex-prisoners and offenders, including those related to the indi-
vidual (such as increased self-esteem and confidence) and those related to the family
(such as the provision of financial assistance to family networks). Ex-prisoner
employment also includes various community benefits (e.g., less crime, greater
Authors’ Note: This research was supported by Research Grant No. CRC 26/02-03 from the Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra, Australia. That support is gratefully acknowledged. Joseph Graffam, PhD, is professor and head of the School of Psychology. Alison Shinkfield, PhD, is a lecturer in psychology. Lesley Hardcastle, MEd, is a doctoral student in the School of Psychology. Address corre-spondence to Joseph Graffam, PhD, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Burwood, Victoria, Australia;e-mail: jgraffam@deakin.edu.au.
674 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
public safety, and reduced costs to government in terms of lower recidivism rates) as
well as an array of potential social justice benefits (e.g., improved community attitudes toward ex-prisoners and offenders).
There is growing support that participation in postrelease employment preparation
and training programs is associated with lower recidivism (e.g., Graffam, Shinkfield,
Mihailides, & Lavelle, 2005; Zhang, Roberts, & Callanan, 2006). There is also evidence that variables such as older age and stable employment in the community contribute to lower recidivism (e.g., Schram, Koons-Witt, Williams, & McShane, 2006; Uggen, 2000).
Whereas the benefits of program participation and stable employment are generally
well accepted, numerous barriers to employment affect the ability of ex-prisoners and
offenders to obtain and maintain employment. In fact, attitudes of the various stake-
holders are understood to be crucial to the employability of ex-prisoners and offenders.
A relatively small amount of research has investigated employer attitudes toward the
employability of ex-prisoners and offenders; less has focused on prisoner and offender attitudes; and virtually none has investigated attitudes of employment service providers and corrective service staff. To address this weakness in the literature, the present study investigated views of those four stakeholder groups (employers, employment service providers, corrective service workers, and prisoners and offenders) in an attempt to iden-tify the extent and sources of attitudinal constraints toward employment of ex-prisoners and offenders serving and completing noncustodial community-based orders.
This infor-mation may promote a better understanding of the positive and negative perceptions of these groups toward the employability of ex-prisoners and offenders. Possible strategies for attitude change may also arise from an increased understanding of the nature and source of attitudinal constraints—potentially improving the employment prospects of ex-prisoners and offenders and, equally importantly, contributing to reduced recidivism and improved community and public safety.
Few studies have examined attitudes toward hiring ex-prisoners and offenders.
Albright and Denq (1996), for example, surveyed 83 of 300 employers and found
that only 12% of employers agreed that they were inclined to hire an ex-prisoner.
Employer willingness to hire an ex-prisoner was higher for those with a college
degree, a vocational trade, or a completion of two training programs. In addition,
employers reported that they were more willing to hire ex-prisoners on the basis of
government incentives but were generally unwilling to hire an ex-prisoner convicted
of a violent offence or crimes against children.
Similarly, Holzer (1996) found that nearly two thirds of employers reported that
they would not hire a person with a criminal record. In fact, employers indicated more willingness to hire welfare recipients and individuals with minimal work experience than someone with a criminal record. In addition, between 30% and 40% of employers who were likely to hire less educated workers indicated that they conducted background checks of recently hired employees. This study confirms a general reluctance by employers to hire someone with a criminal record. A later survey of 619 employers confirmed that self-reported willingness to hire correlated with actual hiring behaviour (Holzer, Raphael, & Stoll, 2003).
