“I’m Not Unemployed, I’m Unemployable”: Challenges Finding and Sustaining Work for People Requires to Register as Sex Offenders

Authors

Jennifer L. Wooldridge, University of Texas at Tyler
Danielle J. S. Bailey, University of Texas at Tyler

Abstract

Many individuals convicted of a sexual offense (ICSOs) experience various collateral consequences due to registration requirements, including income loss, unemployment, harassment, social isolation, homelessness, and more. Finding employment post-conviction is a difficult endeavor for many reentering citizens with criminal records, but for ICSOs, the difficulty increases due to their label as sex offenders. When these individuals are unsuccessful in obtaining steady, living-wage employment, it can result in mental health impacts such as depression, hopelessness, and other reactions. This paper seeks to analyze participants’ emotional and mental health reactions to their direct experiences with employment struggles due to registration. What feelings are participants experiencing as a result of these struggles? Using qualitative responses from over 550 ICSOs, this paper uses thematic content analysis to examine perceptions of their success within the system, their mental health reactions to this success, and ways in which the participants seek to mitigate the damage caused by their self-perceived failures in finding employment. The qualitative findings and policy implications are discussed.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Wooldridge, Jennifer L. and Bailey, Danielle J. S. (2023) "“I’m Not Unemployed, I’m Unemployable”: Challenges Finding and Sustaining Work for People Requires to Register as Sex Offenders," Qualitative Criminology (QC): Vol. 12: No. 2, Article 3.
Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/qc/vol12/iss2/3