'Civil Death' and Labor Market Alienation : Comparative Analysis of Legislation Limiting Access to Work for the Justice Impacted in OECD Countries

Many nations around the world have legislation that restricts access to employment for people with criminal convictions. Currently, there is little comparative research that empirically investigates the number, content, and cross-national differences of these laws. To contribute to this topic, we describe a study that explored legislative barriers to employment for people with convictions in all 38 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The researchers compiled a new dataset of national legislation (n = 335) restricting access to specific areas of work for the justice impacted in the OECD. Content analysis methods were used for: (1) dataset development and refinement; (2) qualitative coding of categories and themes; and (3) subsequent mixed methods analysis to explore cross-cultural commonalities and differences within relevant legislative restrictions. We present findings describing the proliferation of restrictive legislation in the OECD, including the number of laws passed over time, number of restrictions present in those laws, and their applicability to diverse economic sectors and industries. Findings illustrate that the diffusion and growth of restrictive collateral consequences to employment occurred during periods where incarceration rates were also growing across the OECD. This indicates that the growth in such lawmaking might be tied to punitive ideologies, rather than to public safety objectives and rehabilitative principles. Descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis of themes also illustrate the extent to which collateral consequences to employment are cumulative in nature: civil death by a million cuts. Over time, seemingly minor restrictions in finance, aviation, healthcare, childcare, etc. add up in ways that functionally close off access to large numbers of jobs. Moreover, as particular sectors and industries rise in political or economic importance—or their nexus to governmental function and budgets is realized—seemingly minor prohibitions tied to objectives of professionalization and public safety can result in prolonged barriers to work for people with convictions, who return home to a labor market that is increasingly artificially narrowed by legal regimes