Social Work Licensure and Applicants' Criminal Histories

Background:

Individuals with criminal records face significant barriers in obtaining occupational-professional licensing. Licensing standards related to criminal history vary widely by state, lending to differential outcomes for those pursuing careers that require licensure. Additionally, consideration of criminal background in professional licensing has differential effects on people of color, due to disproportionate representation in the criminal legal system, as well as women, who often pursue occupations that require licensure.

In social work, the ASWB encourages reliance on licensure applicants’ criminal histories as both an indicator of “good moral character” and a predictor of future behavior. Simultaneously there is increased professional pressure to become licensed, with more states adopting BSW licensure. Title protection laws have enhanced this pressure, with some states requiring licensure to even use the title of social worker.

While other researchers have examined the role of criminal records as a means of gatekeeping the social work profession, there has been no systematic examination of the extent to which criminal background is considered within the licensing process. Therefore, in our study, we examined the following:

1. the ways in which one’s criminal charges impact social workers applying for licensure, including title use and the extent of criminal history reporting.
2. the presence of state laws designed to abate the burden of obtaining licensure by more narrowly focusing on specific crimes and other factors.

Methods:

Data collection was conducted between Spring 2022 and 2023. Two team members independently investigated each state’s general and social work-specific occupational licensure laws and regulations, social work licensure applications and procedures, and social work title protection laws. We compared results to identify potential discrepancies, and when detected that state’s licensure board was contacted directly to confirm the correct answer. Summary results are presented both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Findings:

One’s criminal history can significantly affect their ability to engage in social work. For example, 28 states plus DC require a license just to use the social worker title. While all states require reporting of people's criminal backgrounds in the licensure application, the extent of the reporting varies. For instance, some states require a full background check while others only ask the applicant to “check the box” indicating that they have a criminal record. Finally, 21 states have reformed their occupational licensure laws to more narrowly focus on violent and sexual crimes, as well as offenses directly related to the social work profession. For example, in Pennsylvania, offenses directly related to social work span from marijuana possession and tampering with public records to abuse of care dependent persons and failure to report suspected child abuse.

Conclusions and Implications:

Of the many professions with licensing credentials, social works’ value and ethics require it to question the use of criminal records as gatekeeping mechanisms to the profession. We should question how this expansion contributes to or perhaps even undermines the goals of protecting vulnerable client populations. Moreover, social work must contend with the ways our licensure and title protection laws have made us complicit with the expansion of the carceral state.