Living Down The Past: Criminal Record Checks and Access to Employment for Ex-Offenders: Final Report

This report summarises research undertaken for Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Scheme to fund the Project Living Down The Past Criminal Record Checks and Access to Employment for Ex-Offenders LP0990348). This project was a partnership between academics at Monash Law Faculty and the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, three government agencies and three non-governmental.
Criminal record checking is now a commonplace aspect of the employment process and affects a significant proportion of the population. Routine use of criminal record checks risks inhibiting rehabilitation of ex-offenders. At the same time there is very little understanding of either the drivers for criminal records checking or how criminal records data is treated by employers when it is provided to them by the police. The project shed light on employer practices, critically analysed the practices, and found that the complex legal frameworks drive the practices, and proposes way forward.