7 Does it help to ban the box?

• Position: STATELINE - Brief article

In the 24 states that have enacted "ban the box" laws, employers may not ask about criminal history on public-agency job applications, and must delay background checks until later in the hiring process. Nine states require the same of private employers. The goal is to prevent hiring managers from dismissing candidates before even meeting them. But do the policies work? In a new study, researchers sent fictitious online job applications to employers in two waves, before and after the adoption of ban-the-box laws in two states. The results showed that candidates do benefit from not having to reveal a criminal past. But...