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The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America
How a convergence of policy, law, and profit drives the use of criminal background checks in hiring
Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—and thus denying opportunities to those who need them most. In this powerful analysis, Melissa Burch sheds light on one of the most significant forces of social and economic marginalization of our time—discrimination on the basis of criminal records. Chronicling the daily interactions of hiring managers, workforce development professionals, and job-seekers with felony convictions in Southern California, Burch shows that this discrimination is not simply a matter of employer bias. Hiring is shaped by a set of institutions, organizations, and industries that promote the erroneous idea that people with criminal records are dangerous to employ. This “criminal record complex,” as Burch names it, encourages exclusion and undermines employers’ common-sense ways of assessing candidates. In vivid and intimate detail, Burch reveals both the futility and devastating human consequences of discriminatory policies.
Burch places today’s routine practice of background screening within racialized notions of risk originating in early capitalist development, tracing how, over decades, criminal background checks became a convenient catch-all, leveraged by entities with a direct interest in growing the practice. Despite this reach, however, Burch discovers that small business owners tend to put less value on background checks, trusting their own judgment. Approaching the issue from both personal and policy perspectives, The Criminal Record Complex upends what we thought we knew about the causes of criminal record discrimination. It suggests that our best hope for creating safe workplaces lies not in the false promise of background screening, but in building the kinds of economies and communities that support true safety.
Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—and thus denying opportunities to those who need them most. In this powerful analysis, Melissa Burch sheds light on one of the most significant forces of social and economic marginalization of our time—discrimination on the basis of criminal records. Chronicling the daily interactions of hiring managers, workforce development professionals, and job-seekers with felony convictions in Southern California, Burch shows that this discrimination is not simply a matter of employer bias. Hiring is shaped by a set of institutions, organizations, and industries that promote the erroneous idea that people with criminal records are dangerous to employ. This “criminal record complex,” as Burch names it, encourages exclusion and undermines employers’ common-sense ways of assessing candidates. In vivid and intimate detail, Burch reveals both the futility and devastating human consequences of discriminatory policies.
Burch places today’s routine practice of background screening within racialized notions of risk originating in early capitalist development, tracing how, over decades, criminal background checks became a convenient catch-all, leveraged by entities with a direct interest in growing the practice. Despite this reach, however, Burch discovers that small business owners tend to put less value on background checks, trusting their own judgment. Approaching the issue from both personal and policy perspectives, The Criminal Record Complex upends what we thought we knew about the causes of criminal record discrimination. It suggests that our best hope for creating safe workplaces lies not in the false promise of background screening, but in building the kinds of economies and communities that support true safety.
248 pages, Hardcover
Published November 11, 2025
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Burch
12 books25 followersMelissa Burch is a bestselling and award winning author, teacher and speaker who inspires men and women to live an adventurous life and to develop their own spiritual practice rooted in the teachings of the heroine’s journey.
Her newest memoir, “Yearning for Magic: Spiritual Journeys of a Mother, Healer, and Lover,” The Heroine’s Journey Book 2, explores the meaning and joy she discovered in surprising places: from a christening on a Greek Island to life in an East Village Quaker community, and from a miraculous healing in Brazil to a life-changing spiritual experience in India, and learning homeopathy.
"My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker,” The Heroine’s Journey Book 1, won the Silver Award in the memoir category for both the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards and the Foreword INDIES book of the Year Award, and was a #1 Amazon bestseller.
Prior to doing this work, she was a filmmaker, producer and former war journalist for the BBC, CBS, and other networks. Her team was one of the first documentary crews in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and a story about her in Afghanistan was featured in “The New York Times.” She was just in her twenties when she traveled with the mujahedeen, filmed an attack on a Soviet convoy, slept with an Afghan commander, and climbed 14,000 foot mountains in the Hindu Kush. These experiences and many more are featured in her adventurous spiritual memoir, “My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker.”
Burch was the executive producer of "Women in Limbo Presents," a national public television series about women’s lives, and she served as president of the New York Film/Video Council. Her book, “The Four Methods of Journal Writing: Finding Yourself Through Memoir,” was a #1 Amazon bestseller. She spent several years as an internationally recognized leader in homeopathy, co-founded the Catalyst School of Homeopathy, and produced and hosted one of the first successful radio shows on Voice America on homeopathy.
Her newest memoir, “Yearning for Magic: Spiritual Journeys of a Mother, Healer, and Lover,” The Heroine’s Journey Book 2, explores the meaning and joy she discovered in surprising places: from a christening on a Greek Island to life in an East Village Quaker community, and from a miraculous healing in Brazil to a life-changing spiritual experience in India, and learning homeopathy.
"My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker,” The Heroine’s Journey Book 1, won the Silver Award in the memoir category for both the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards and the Foreword INDIES book of the Year Award, and was a #1 Amazon bestseller.
Prior to doing this work, she was a filmmaker, producer and former war journalist for the BBC, CBS, and other networks. Her team was one of the first documentary crews in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, and a story about her in Afghanistan was featured in “The New York Times.” She was just in her twenties when she traveled with the mujahedeen, filmed an attack on a Soviet convoy, slept with an Afghan commander, and climbed 14,000 foot mountains in the Hindu Kush. These experiences and many more are featured in her adventurous spiritual memoir, “My Journey Through War and Peace: Explorations of a Young Filmmaker, Feminist and Spiritual Seeker.”
Burch was the executive producer of "Women in Limbo Presents," a national public television series about women’s lives, and she served as president of the New York Film/Video Council. Her book, “The Four Methods of Journal Writing: Finding Yourself Through Memoir,” was a #1 Amazon bestseller. She spent several years as an internationally recognized leader in homeopathy, co-founded the Catalyst School of Homeopathy, and produced and hosted one of the first successful radio shows on Voice America on homeopathy.
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