WITHDRAWN: MSW Admissions and Criminal Justice Involved Applicants

Background and Purpose

The last several years have witnessed growing public and policy attention to the social and economic barriers faced by individuals with histories of criminal justice involvement. One area identified for potential reform concerns admissions practices at higher education institutions. In 2016, the U.S Department of Education urged colleges and universities to forgo inquiries into applicants’ histories of criminal justice involvement as they create unnecessary barriers to educational attainment.

This issue poses ethical challenges for schools of social work. On the one hand, schools must serve as gatekeepers of the profession and ensure competent and ethical service. On the other hand, schools are committed to social justice principles and recognize deep social and racial inequalities perpetuated by over-incarceration.

The social work literature has addressed these ethical tensions and dilemmas from a conceptual perspective, yet there is relatively scant empirical investigation of this issue. To address this gap in the literature, the researchers posed the following questions:

1)    How do schools of social work evaluate applicants with criminal justice histories?

2)   What factors influence schools’ admission decision making in relation to these applicants?

Methods

An online survey was conducted between September 2017 and January 2018.  Invitations were sent to all CSWE accredited MSW programs in the U.S. (N=250), with reminders via email and phone. The questionnaire contained Likert type close-ended questions regarding admissions practices as they pertain to these applicants. Univariate, bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results

Of the 250 invitations sent, 182 were started and 146 were completed. The majority of schools (58%) reported asking about prior criminal convictions of applicants. Many schools (62.5%) reported that they had admissions policies to address prior criminal history of applicants.  However, 78% of respondents indicated that their schools do not provide training or guidelines to the reviewers on evaluating applicants with criminal convictions and 62% reported having no special review process for these applicants.

The foremost reason schools asked about prior criminal convictions was because of field placement requirements (81.9%). Other factors included responsibility to the profession (60.2%) and responsibility to clients (60.2%). For those schools that did not ask about prior criminal convictions, the foremost explanatory factor was social justice concerns (16%).            

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of schools of social work that responded to the survey reported admitting applicants with criminal background histories. A logistic regression was conducted to ascertain predictors of admission for these applicants.  The two significant predictors were length of time since the offense occurred (OR=.078) and successful engagement in rehabilitation (OR= 4.056).  Employment history (a predictor of recidivism in the criminal justice literature) was not found to be significant.

Conclusions and Implications  

Findings from this study can help schools of social work best navigate the ethical dilemmas concerning this applicant pool. Specifically, findings indicate that schools may need to provide better training to application reviewers, including an understanding of factors predicting recidivism. The development of more transparent admissions policies and as well as conversations with field placements and licensing boards may be warranted