Love in the Time of Stigma: Public Interest in Relationships Following Criminal Conviction

ABSTRACT

Criminological scholarship underscores that marriages or stable partnerships are key turning points toward desistance from crime. Yet, whether people are open to starting a relationship with someone with a criminal record remains underexplored. Researchers have recently explored the effect of criminal records on finding dating partners, but these studies do not account for varying offense severities that may influence consideration of romantic partners. Using a survey design, this study investigates the degree to which various offense conviction types, prior personal and vicarious legal system contact, and demographics influence consideration of dating relationships with someone criminally convicted. Results indicate that age, education, race, political stance, gender, sexuality, prior arrest or conviction, and knowing others who have been incarcerated affected consideration of dating relationships with someone with a conviction, although the association depends on the offense type. This study addresses the important gap of relationship interest, which is a necessary precursor to relationship formation that could enhance desistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Criminal record stigma
• dating
• romantic relationships

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Eleven respondents lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Virginia. Thirty-one respondents did not identify the city and state in which they live.

2. A neutral option was excluded because despite some research indicating that this does not impact outcomes (Schuman and Presser 1979), it leads respondents to select the neutral option more often than if it were not offered (Bishop 1987)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Douglas N. Evans

Douglas Evans is an Associate Professor, Chair, and Graduate Program Director of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He teaches college courses at correctional facilities in New York and New Jersey and his research addresses barriers to housing, romantic relaitonships, and college admission, the post-release benefits of higher education in prison, the impact of mass incarceration on families and public health of communities, and authoethnographic analyses of prison experience.

Popy Begum

Popy Begum is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the School of Social Work at Saint Louis University. She earned her PhD in criminal justice from Rutgers University-Newark and MSc in criminology and criminal justice (research methods) from the University of Oxford. She examines the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender and religion within the contexts of violence against women, sex work, and re-entry both in the United States and overseas. Prior to her doctoral studies, she served as a Re-Entry Specialist on Rikers Island Correctional Facility serving incarcerated people who have a history of recidivism.

Jeremy R. Porter

Jeremy Porter is a Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York with appointments in multiple departments throughout CUNY. He is currently the Director of the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) Program at the CUNY Graduate Center and is on the doctoral faculty in the GC’s Ph.D. programs in Sociology, Demography, and Criminal Justice. Additionally, Porter is a Faculty Associate at the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research (CIDR).