College Admissions and Criminal Records: The Social Construction of Risk in the University Setting

Abstract

Research indicates that a criminal history significantly reduces a prospective student’s chance of being accepted into a higher education institution, yet little evidence addresses how universities make these decisions. Given the number of people with the mark of a criminal record and the collateral consequences that it carries, this analysis describes decision-making on criminal and disciplinary records. It utilizes a relational theory of risk to understand the social construction of risk in the context where universities hold stated goals of public safety and equitable access to education. Through interviews with seventeen university admissions administrators, we find that arbitrariness in the evaluation of “red flag” students remains although this university system has established formal requirements around background information. Along with formal requirements, decision-makers rely on their own subjective perceptions and experiences to evaluate risk among applicants. Findings contribute to our understanding of the construction of risk in organizations and policy around assessing criminal records in higher education.

Keywords:

• criminal records
• college admissions
• collateral consequences
• risk

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Stewart and Uggen (2020) note that their estimates are intentionally conservative since applications in their study included low-level convictions as compared to more serious and extensive criminal histories which would presumably lead to a higher rejection rate.

2 Applicants academically ineligible for admission will not be taken through the additional steps.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jordan Mayer

Jordan Mayer is a recent MA graduate from the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She currently works as a Criminal Justice Planner with the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission. Her research focuses on policing and the collateral consequences of incarceration.

Justin Smith

Justin Smith is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Western Kentucky University. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of mass incarceration and racial inequality, particularly as it relates to prisons, courts, and the war on drugs.