People with disabilities who also have criminal records face significantly worse employment outcomes than either group alone, according to new research from Cornell University.
The study, conducted through Cornell’s Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, found justice-impacted individuals with disabilities were nearly 11 percentage points less likely to be employed than people with disabilities who had not interacted with the criminal justice system.
Researchers said the findings challenge the assumption that the employment barriers faced by people with disabilities and people with criminal records are simply additive. Instead, the study found the combination creates what researchers described as a compounding disadvantage in the labor market.
The research, published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, examined employment disparities using two national U.S. data sets.
Study co-author Matt Saleh said both groups already experience employment rates below 50%, but little previous research had examined the overlap between disability and criminal justice involvement.
Researchers noted that more than half of incarcerated people in the United States have some form of disability.
Lead author Jennifer Brooks said the study also found major differences tied to race and gender.
According to the research, women with disabilities and criminal records had lower employment rates than comparable men, while white women in that group experienced the largest disparity overall. The study found white women with disabilities and criminal records were 13.5% less likely to be employed than white women with disabilities who did not have criminal records.
Brooks said the findings reinforce the idea that there is no single policy or employment model that works for all justice-impacted individuals with disabilities because experiences differ significantly across demographic groups.
The study was produced through Cornell’s ILR School and its Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative.
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