The Case for Expunging Criminal Records

"The consequences of a run-in with the law can persist for decades after the formal sentence has been served. People with records face major barriers to employment, housing and education, effectively condemning them to second-class citizenship.

In recent years, criminal justice reform efforts have increasingly focused on finding policy tools that can lower these barriers. The most powerful potential lever is the expungement of criminal convictions, which seals them from public view, removes them from databases, and neutralizes most of their legal effects....

For many years, debates about expungement laws have been missing something critical: hard data about their effects. But this week, we released the results of the first major empirical study of expungement laws. Michigan, where our data came from, has an expungement law that exemplifies the traditional nonautomatic approach."

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Childhood Crimes From Over 30 Years Ago Show in DBS Checks - Study
"Nearly half a million childhood convictions from more than 30 years ago have been disclosed on criminal record checks in the past five years, research has found.

A further half a million criminal records relating to convictions more than 30 years ago when the person was a young adult aged 18 to 25 were disclosed in the period, according to data uncovered by the charity Unlock.

Its report, A Life Sentence for Young People, also reveals the findings of a survey of people with convictions and cautions, which shows 86% of respondents had a problem with employment later in life. About two-thirds also reported problems with stigma and discrimination."

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