Taking Roll: College Students’ Views of Their Formerly Incarcerated Classmates

Abstract

For those with a criminal history, higher education can facilitate successful reentry and desistance from crime. Still, a number of obstacles discourage the pursuit of higher education by the formerly incarcerated. One such obstacle is the prevalence of stigmatization and discrimination toward those with criminal justice system involvement on college campuses. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on how college students conceive of their formerly incarcerated counterparts, leaving those with a criminal history to wonder about the prejudices and biases they may encounter once enrolled. Drawing on a random sample of 185 respondents, this study explores the attitudes of undergraduate students toward their formerly incarcerated classmates. Findings reveal that students who have had frequent, close contact with the formerly incarcerated are more likely to express favorable views of that population, supporting prior research suggesting that proximity can mitigate negative views of stigmatized populations.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• formerly incarcerated students
• intergroup contact theory
• stigma
• prejudice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This legislative change now allows incarcerated individuals to apply and receive PELL Grants for educational opportunities that will occur post-release. The only restriction is that the Grant must fund post-release. This makes transition from prison to an educational institution far smoother for those who wish to seek out education after a period of confinement.

2 Others include Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, and Washington.

3 Supplementary analyses in Table A1 of the appendix using a factor score rather than a summed measure for our dependent variable yield substantively similar results to those in Table 3. Therefore, our main substantive conclusions do not depend on how the dependent variable is coded.

Additional information

Funding

CSULB Michael A. Barnes Criminal Justice Research Endowment Award 2019.