Doctoral Dissertation Research: Utilizing smartphones as experimental interventions for job search and employment at reentry

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Finding work in the immediate months after release from prison has been identified as a key factor for reducing recidivism and promoting successful reentry. Scholarship has documented the extensive barriers that individuals with criminal records likely encounter while searching for work; however, we know little about actual job search experiences at reentry and what factors lead to successful employment. Prior research has been limited by traditional data collection methods, which are particularly inadequate for studying poor and mobile groups. Using smartphones, this project will collect detailed information about reentry and job search experiences among men recently released from prison. Surveys will be sent to participants via smartphones twice a day for three months and an Android-based application will passively collect information on participants? geographic mobility and call logs. The project will experimentally test the importance of participating in a peer-based text forum for job leads and social support via the smartphones, as opposed to receiving job leads directly from the researcher. Prior scholarship has established the importance of social contacts for providing information and influence during job search; for individuals with fewer ties to the formal labor market, social support and motivation provided by peers may be particularly important for search persistence. This project is timely and policy-relevant, considering the scale of mass incarceration, the numerous challenges faced by individuals recently released from prison, and the mixed outcomes of employment reentry programs. The study capitalizes on recent advances in smartphone technology to study a traditionally hard-to-reach population. The experimental treatment - participation in a group-based text application - tests a potentially important and cost-effective intervention that employment reentry organizations can easily adopt. As part of the project, the researcher will develop an Android application, which includes a web-based interface for nonprogrammers, and will make the application available to social science researchers interested in non-traditional data collection methods.