Is this apartment still available? Maybe not for exonerees

Westervelt and Cook (2010) tell the story of Shabaka Brown, a man who was exonerated from death row but forced to live with his postconviction defense attorney for 6 months because he could not find housing. Unfortunately, the experience of Shabaka Brown is familiar for thousands of individuals in Canada and the United States who have been wrongfully convicted.

When individuals are exonerated and attempt to reintegrate back into society, they often experience stigma in their communities. For example, exonerees have reported difficulty obtaining housing upon release. In Canada, because exonerees are not provided with a legal designation or written documentation that definitively proves their innocence, it is possible that employers and landlords may question the sincerity of exonerees who maintain their innocence. These effects may reasonably be compounded for Black and Indigenous individuals who are not only overrepresented in the prison population but in the proportion of exonerees in the United States and Canada, respectively.

Although reintegration programming such as work release programs and housing assistance improves the likelihood that releasees will secure employment and housing upon release, exonerees typically do not receive reintegration support upon release. Previous research has demonstrated that landlords are generally unwilling to rent to individuals when they have a criminal record, are convicted of violent offenses, or are from ethnic minority groups.

In an article in Law and Human Behavioropens in new window, Zannella and colleagues examined whether criminal status (exoneree, releasee, general member of the public), race (White, Black, Indigenous), or criminal offense (murder, robbery) influenced landlords’ willingness to rent to exonerees.

The authors responded to 1,107 online apartment listings across Canada (Study 1) and 448 online apartment listings in Toronto, Canada (Study 2). They found that exonerees and releasees experienced more difficulty in securing housing than did the average person without criminal justice involvement. They also found that Indigenous renters experienced more difficulty securing housing than Black renters and especially White renters, and that those convicted of robbery experienced more difficulty than those convicted of murder.

The featured study is the first to empirically examine and provide evidence for the difficulties exonerees face in obtaining housing upon release. The authors argue that with more research in this area, policy changes should include providing exonerees with housing assistance to ensure their successful reintegration back into society.

Note: This article is in the Forensic Psychology topic area. View more articles in the Forensic Psychology topic area.

Zannella, L., Clow, K., Rempel, E., Hamovitch, L., & Hall, V. (2020). The effects of race and criminal history on landlords’ (un)willingness to rent to exonerees. Law and Human Behavior, 44(4), 300–310. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000419opens in new window

Lesley Zannellaopens in new window received her PhD in social (forensic) psychology from Ryerson University in 2020. She is currently an academic associate of forensic psychology at Ontario Tech University. Her research focuses on the rehabilitation and reintegration of rightfully and wrongfully convicted individuals.

Kimberly Clow is a professor of forensic psychology at Ontario Tech University. Her research focuses on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Her primary area of research is on the stigma of wrongful conviction. Additional projects investigate resistances to individuals fulfilling social roles that are incongruent with traditional gender roles (e.g., men in nursing) and community responses to immigration and diversity.

Leah Hamovitch is a PhD student in social (forensic) psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Her research focuses on the sources of wrongful convictions, specifically false confessions and the use of manipulative interrogation practices.

Emma Rempel is a PhD student in psychology at Ryerson University. Her research interests include wrongful convictions, cyberjustice, and jurors’ decision-making processes.