Shawn David Bushway

Senior Policy Researcher

Pittsburgh Office

Education

Ph.D. in public policy analysis and political economy, Carnegie Mellon University; B.S. in mathematics, University of Notre Dame

Overview

Shawn D. Bushway has dual degree (Ph.D.) in public policy and economics from Carnegie Mellon University. He has published over 70 peer reviewed papers in top journals primarily in three distinct areas: the causal relationship between work and crime, the use of discretion by actors in the criminal justice system, and the process by which people desist from crime. Occasionally, the areas intersect, such as his collection of studies on recidivism over time. This body of work was instigated by legal questions surrounding the appropriate role of criminal history records, particularly old criminal history records, in employment decisions. On the basis of research, Bushway has testified in front of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, worked with advocacy groups for individuals with criminal history records, and consulted with employers seeking to modify their background check processes. Current projects include a study of the impact of principals' suspension decisions on student outcomes, an exploration of the causes of mass incarceration and a comparison of criminal history record checks conducted using different methods. He is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology.

Research Focus

Honors & Awards

Fellow of the American Society of Criminology
Distinguished Alumnus, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University
SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship

Publications

Journal Article
A Policy Review of Employers' Open Access to Conviction Records
In this review, we find that (a) US employers' use of conviction information is not clearly aligned with the risk of future criminal behavior or employer costs, and (b) using such information leads to hiring errors that pose costs to society.
2021
Journal Article
Sentencing Scorecards: Reducing Racial Disparities in Prison Sentences at Their Source
Scorecards are a common tool for public policy decisionmaking, but none highlight racial disparities in incarceration. We constructed county-level scorecards for racial disparities in incarceration rates for the NY State Permanent Commission on Sentencing.
Oct 21, 2020
Journal Article
Locking Up My Generation: Cohort Differences in Prison Spells Over the Life Course
Our study highlights that the crime-punishment wave in the 1980s and 1990s created cohort differences in incarceration over the life course that changed the level of incarceration even decades after the wave.
Oct 1, 2020
Journal Article
"Nothing Is More Opaque Than Absolute Transparency": The Use of Prior History to Guide Sentencing
This article reviews prior literature, evaluating an algorithm used to determine prison sentencing for criminals with prior history.
Apr 15, 2020
Report
An Ounce of Prevention, a Pound of Uncertainty: The Cost-Effectiveness of School-Based Drug Prevention Programs
Focuses on school-based drug prevention programs that have proven effective in formal evaluations.
1999
Research Brief
The Benefits and Costs of Drug Use Prevention: Clarifying a Cloudy Issue
The United States has for some time now been spending tens of billions of dollars a year in an attempt to control the trafficking and use of illicit drugs; most of those dollars have been used to support stricter enforcement.
1999