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October 5, 2017 – Criminal Justice

New Report Demonstrates Relationship Between Occupational Licensing and Recidivism

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New Report Demonstrates Relationship Between Occupational Licensing and Recidivism

California’s exceptionally high recidivism rate is partially due to how difficult it is for the formally incarcerated to find jobs, according to new analysis of data from the Institute for Justice, the Pew Center on the States, and the National Employment Law Project.

Stephen Slivinski, senior research fellow at Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Economic Liberty, published his findings in the Los Angeles Times, which showed that states with more burdensome licensing laws saw an average 9 percent increase in recidivism from 1997 to 2007.

“In other words, the greater the licensing barriers, the higher the chances that ex-prisoners will be shut out of the job market and return to crime,” Slivinski writes.

Read Slivinski’s full piece in the Los Angeles Times