Employment Perceptions of Parolees: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Criminal Thinking

• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Evan Anderson,Christina Christie,Sydney Skaggs,Taren Swindle,Femina P. Varghese,Daniel Mark,Luke Sandlin
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20928022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Employment

Perceptions of Parolees:

The Role of Perceived

Barriers and Criminal

Thinking

Femina P. Varghese

1

,

Sydney Skaggs

1

, Christina Christie

1

,

Daniel Mark

2

, Taren Swindle

3

,

Evan Anderson

1

, and Luke Sandlin

1

Abstract

This study explored offenders’ perception of their barriers to employment and

investigated the role of criminal attitudes in parolees recently released from

prison. An analysis of open-ended responses from offenders indicated that they

perceived having a criminal record as the largest barrier to employment.

Structural equation modeling, utilizing a cross-sectional design, indicated moderate

support for a model of criminal thinking as a predictor of perceived barriers and of

self-efficacy. Survey results also found that criminal attitudes have a positive direct

relationship with perception of barriers in work and education, with perception of

barriers increasing as criminal thinking increases. Furthermore, criminal thinking has

a negative direct relationship with job search self-efficacy, with job search self-efficacy

decreasing as criminal thinking increases. Criminal thinking also had an indirect rela-

tionship with career aspirations through job search self-efficacy. Findings have impli-

cations for vocational programming for parolees.

1

University of Central Arkansas, Conway, USA

2

University of North Texas, Denton, USA

3

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA

Corresponding Author:

Femina P. Varghese, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR 72035, USA.

Email: fvarghese@uca.edu

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2021, Vol. 65(12) 1373–1389

!The Author(s) 2020

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/0306624X20928022

journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo

Keywords

offender, parolee, barriers, criminal thinking, work

Reentry of offenders, those individuals who were incarcerated for a crime and

are leaving prison to return to the community, is a leading issue in corrections

today. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Off‌ice of Justice Programs,

Bureau of Justice Statistics (2016), 6,851,000 adult offenders are under some sort

of correctional supervision in the United States, including parole. Often, a basic

requirements for parole is to obtain and maintain employment. According to

best practice in corrections, the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model, unemploy-

ment is among the central eight risk factors in recidivism, a criminogenic need

that needs to be targeted in effective interventions for offenders (Bonta &

Andrews, 2017).

Vocational interventions, however, appear to have limitations in reducing

recidivism for offenders (Varghese, 2013; Visher et al., 2005). This may be the

result of the numerous barriers offenders face upon release from prison, including

stigma as a result of a criminal record (Pager, 2007). The limitations of vocational

interventions in reducing recidivism may be due to other factors as well, including

those internal to offenders, such as the offenders’ own attitudes and beliefs. Yet,

the attitudes and beliefs of offenders are typically not investigated or targeted in

career programs in prisons (Vernick & Reardon, 2001). In particular, many pro-

grams for criminal justice populations focus on skill obtainment, with attitudes

and beliefs that inf‌luence work often being overlooked (Varghese, 2013). Yet,

attitudes towardwork, including antisocial attitudes, have been found to inf‌luence

recidivism and employment success among parolees (Bucklen & Zajac, 2009).

Furthermore, recent studies are now f‌inding that attitudes such as personal

agency toward prosocial goals are relevant in decreasing criminal behavior

(Paternoster et al., 2016). Furthermore, Paternoster and Bushway (2009) assert

that a change in attitudes precede actual job obtainment. Therefore, given that

desistance appears related to agency and attitudes (Paternoster et al., 2016) and

that such agency precedes actual job obtainment (Paternoster & Bushway, 2009),

it appears important to understand the work components of agency and attitudes

as this may be even more relevant to employment obtainment. There is a need to

investigate such attitudes and beliefs of released offenders to develop effective

vocational interventions to decrease recidivism, increase desistance, and increase

job obtainment and retention.

Criminal Attitudes and Work

Numerous scholars have indicated the important role of criminal attitudes as a

risk factor in criminal behavior (e.g., Walters & Lowenkamp, 2016). Those who

1374 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 65(12)