LEGAL STIGMA FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION

A field experiment demonstrated that (1) the more serious a person's criminal history involving marijuana, the fewer positive responses were received from potential employers and (2) positions requiring bonding received fewer acceptances than those that made no such specification. No interaction between the combined effects of bonding and criminal record occurred. The present and previous studies suggest that legal stigma from a criminal record may affect employment opportunities in a generalizable manner and that even nonjail penalties have negative repercussions for future employment opportunities. This suggests inherent limitations to achieving a significant reduction of the harmful effects of criminalizarion by reducing the severity of penalties: some indirect costs of legal sanction appear to be inevitable.