Absence of conflict of interest
Citation
Highlights
- The study's objective was to examine the impact of ban-the-box (BTB) policies on employment.
- The study used a difference-in-differences design to compare the employment outcomes of individuals in “high-crime” areas that adopted BTB policies with the employment outcomes of individuals in “high-crime” areas that did not adopt BTB policies. The authors used administrative data and statistical models to compare the outcomes between the groups, before and after the intervention.
- The study found a statistically significant relationship between ban-the-box policies and higher rates of employment.
- This study receives a low evidence rating. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to ban-the-box policies; other factors are likely to have contributed.
Intervention Examined
Ban-the-Box (BTB) Policies
Features of the Intervention
Ban-the-box (BTB) policies are designed to serve individuals with a criminal history who are seeking employment. BTB policies remove questions regarding criminal history on job applications to prevent potential job candidates from facing limited chances of securing employment based on their criminal background. Various cities, counties, and states in the U.S. have implemented BTB policies in an effort to help formerly justice-involved individuals successfully reenter their communities and the workforce.
Features of the Study
The study used a difference-in-differences design to compare the employment outcomes of residents in “high-crime” areas that adopted BTB policies (intervention group) with the employment outcomes of residents in “high-crime” areas that did not adopt BTB policies (comparison group). The authors identified the study sample using census tract crime data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS). The authors focused on the top 25 percent of the most violent census tracts and labeled those as "high crime" neighborhoods. In addition to the NNCS, other data sources included city-, county-, and state-level data on BTB policies from the National Employment Law Project; employment data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD) Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) data; and data on parolees and released prisoners from the Justice Mapping Center’s Justice Atlas of Sentencing and Corrections. The authors used statistical models to compare the outcomes between the intervention and comparison groups, before and after the BTB policies were implemented.
Findings
Employment
- The study found that BTB policies were significantly related to higher employment rates.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
While the authors ensured that the pre-intervention trends in employment between the intervention and comparison groups were parallel, the authors did not account for other factors that could have affected the difference between the groups, such as age and gender as required by the protocol. These preexisting differences between the groups—and not the BTB policies—could explain the observed differences in outcomes. Therefore, the study is not eligible for a moderate causal evidence rating, the highest rating available for nonexperimental designs.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is low because the authors did not ensure that the groups being compared were similar before the intervention. This means we are not confident that the estimated effects are attributable to ban-the-box policies; other factors are likely to have contributed.