Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration

Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration is a non-fiction book by Devah Pager, an American sociologist known primarily for her work on racial discrimination in the US labor market and criminal justice system. Rich in statistics and survey data, the book explores the economic and social consequences of mass incarceration on young Black men seeking employment in the greater Milwaukee area. The book is based on experimental audits Pager conducted for her doctoral thesis at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, which received the American Sociological Association’s 2003 Dissertation Award.

This guide refers to the 2007 edition published by the University of Chicago Press.

Summary

Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration consists of an Introduction and eight chapters, each of which contains short, subtitled sections. The Introduction defines Pager’s aims; namely, to assess the consequences of incarceration on Black and white employment seekers in Milwaukee. It introduces readers to several key themes, such as mass incarceration, recidivism, and the criminalization of Blackness. The Introduction ends with a description of the author’s experimental audit methodology and a concise chapter summary.

Chapter 1, “Mass Incarceration and the Problems of Prisoner Reentry,” opens with a historical perspective on how the US became the world’s leading prison nation. “Tough on crime” policies that stressed retribution over rehabilitation spurred mass incarceration starting in the 1970s, while a new emphasis on moral order and the ensuing war on drugs unfairly targeted young Black men. Today, prisoner reentry, or recidivism, is a pressing problem. Government policies actively hinder transition. Meanwhile, reabsorption resources are stretched thin, placing the burden of reentry largely on families and communities. Employment is imperative to curbing sky-rocketing recidivism rates. However, employers have little incentive to hire ex-offenders, even when market conditions demand it.

Chapter 2, “The Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration,” examines the varied and at times hidden effects of imprisonment on labor markets. Incarceration conceals inequity and presents an overly optimistic view of the health of the economy by removing disadvantaged workers from official labor records. Incarceration also exacerbates inequality by deepening the disadvantages of these invisible workers. Pager sheds light on the mechanisms fueling negative employment outcomes by addressing the stigma of criminality, as well as the almost insurmountable impact of criminality and race combined.

Chapter 3, “Measuring the Labor Market Consequences of Incarceration,” underscores a key contribution of Pager’s book: measurement. It summarizes the main scholarly approaches to measuring the economic impact of incarceration: namely, employer surveys, ethnographies of job seekers, statistical analyses of work trends, and experimental studies of hiring behavior. Following this overview, the author provides a detailed introduction to her approach: the experimental audit method. The chapter concludes with critiques of this approach and the author’s rebuttals.

Chapters 4-6,“The Mark of a Criminal Record,” “The Mark of Race,” and “Two Strikes and You’re Out: The Intensification of Racial and Criminal Stigma,” present the results of Pager’s experimental audit of 300 Milwaukee-area employers. The author explains the design of her experiment, which involved sending matched pairs of Black and white men to apply for entry-level jobs using fictious résumés that sometimes included a criminal record. The experiment, which was designed to prioritize the perspective of job applicants, yielded strikingly different outcomes for the various candidates. These outcomes depended on race (Chapter 4), criminal background (Chapter 5), and a combination of the two (Chapter 6). The last experimental condition—Blackness combined with criminality—most profoundly hindered the applicants’ job prospects, regardless of market conditions.

Chapter 7, “But What If . . .? Variations on the Experimental Design,” shifts the focus from job applicants to employers. Pager supplemented her audits with post-audit interviews with employers and employer surveys. This data offers a more nuanced understanding of employer behavior as it relates to evaluating Black job candidates and candidates with criminal records. Employers commented on a range of issues, including type of crime, severity of sanction, prior experience with ex-offender employees, and liability issues.

Chapter 8, “Conclusion: Missing the Mark,” provides alternatives to the current system for managing offenders. After decades of support for “tough on crime” policies, public opinion is shifting away from containment and punishment toward rehabilitation and reform. Policy makers are experimenting with alternatives to incarceration in the form of treatment and community service, allowing many offenders to avoid the stigma of criminalization. Transition assistance is also on the rise, with several states exploring new models of offender supervision outside the parole system. Curbing recidivism rates also demands supporting employers with new programs that limit their liability, as well as limiting public access to criminal records. There is no single solution to the problem of prisoner reentry. Identifying and measuring the labor consequences of incarceration, however, is an important step toward criminal justice reform.