I just came across this release from Carnegie Mellon University entitled “When Is It Safe to Hire Someone With A Criminal Record”. The study suggests that a person has been fully rehabilitated after a period of 5 years without any additional criminal records. By no means do I endorse this study. They might be right and they might be wrong. One thought though: just because a person hasn’t been charged or convicted of a crime in five years doesn’t mean that that they have not engaged in criminal activity. It simply means that if they did, they haven’t yet been caught. What do you think?
The new study, which appears in the current issue of Criminology, estimates that after five years of staying clean an individual with a criminal record is of no greater risk of committing another crime than other individuals of the same age. The research comes at a time when President Barack Obama’s crime agenda includes breaking down employment barriers for people who have a prior criminal record, but who have stayed clean since their earlier offense.
