Criminal Records and the Economics of Recidivism: Labor-Market Exclusion, Signalling, and Reintegration in Thailand
Keywords:
Recidivism, Reintegration, Labor-Market Exclusion, Criminal Records, Economic CriminologyAbstract
Recidivism remains a major correctional and economic challenge in Thailand, especially among people with drug-related convictions and those returning to disadvantaged communities. This conceptual article examines how post-release structural exclusion may shape reoffending. Drawing on Becker’s economic model of crime, Spence’s signaling theory, Arrow (1973) and Phelps’s (1972) statistical discrimination theory, and social capital theory, it explains how criminal records, employer risk perceptions, labor-market discrimination, stigma, and weak support can restrict stable lawful employment. It distinguishes rehabilitation from reintegration, arguing that skills and behavioral change alone are insufficient without employment, housing, treatment continuity, family support, and community acceptance. The article proposes employer incentives, time-limited criminal-record disclosure, transitional employment, job matching, community support, and health follow-up. It contributes to economic criminology by linking post-release exclusion with reduced lawful opportunities and recidivism risk. The theoretical contribution is further specified as a rehabilitation–reintegration conversion gap: rehabilitative gains in skills, treatment, and behavioral readiness may fail to become stable lawful opportunity when institutional and labor-market barriers remain. A Post-Release Opportunity Conversion Framework is proposed to make these relationships explicit and testable in the Thai context.
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