Criminal record stigma, race, and neighborhood inequality

By Laura DeMarco

Justice-involved people experience high levels of hous-ing instability and residential mobility, making the housing search a recurrent part of life. Little is known,however, regarding how criminal record stigma func-tions in the rental housing market. This article examines how housing providers use criminal records to screen tenants in the rental housing market and whether it varies by type of neighborhood. I conduct an online cor-respondence audit to test discriminatory behaviors and find an adverse criminal record effect on housing oppor-tunities. Many housing providers disqualify all tenants with a criminal record, even without information about the severity or timing of offenses. The criminal record effect is significantly stronger in gentrifying neighbor-hoods and in neighborhoods where the proportion ofBlack residents is dwindling. Tenant screening emerges as a central obstacle faced by the justice-involved popu-lation, vital to understanding the web of disadvantages that traps so many in the wake of the carceral state.K E Y W O R D Criminal records, housing, inequality, race, neighborhood change

.Criminology. 2023;61:705–730.