Devah Pager

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Devah Pager

| image =

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1972|03|01}}

| birth_place = Honolulu, Hawaii, US{{Cite web|url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Apr/18/ln/ln53alee.html|title=Racial bias in hiring made clear |website=The Honolulu Advertiser|date=2004-04-18|author=Cataluna, Lee|language=en|access-date=2017-10-13 }}

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|11|02|1972|03|01}}

| death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

| fields = Sociology, Criminology

| workplaces = Harvard University, Princeton University

| alma_mater = University of Wisconsin–Madison
Stanford University
University of Cape Town
University of California, Los Angeles

| thesis_title = The mark of a criminal record

| thesis_url = https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/198320.pdf

| thesis_year = 2002

| doctoral_advisor = Robert M. Hauser

| academic_advisors = Erik Olin Wright

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}}

Devah Iwalani Pager (March 1, 1972 – November 2, 2018) was an American sociologist best known for her research on racial discrimination in employment and the American criminal justice system.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/obituaries/devah-pager-dead.html|title=Devah Pager, Who Documented Race Bias in Job Market, Dies at 46|work=The New York Times|first=Katharine Q|last=Seelye|date=November 8, 2018|access-date=November 8, 2018 }} At the time of her death, she was Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at Harvard University.{{cite tweet |user= Kennedy_School|number=1058820800097255424 |date= 3 November 2018|title= Harvard Kennedy School community mourns the tragic passing of our colleague and friend Devah Pager. }} She was a class of 2011 William T. Grant Scholar.

Biography

Devah grew up in Hawaii. She attended Punahou.

Pager earned her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2002. Prior to that she received master's degrees from Stanford University and the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and a B.A. in psychology from University of California, Los Angeles in 1993. She was a 1989 graduate of Punahou School.

As part of her doctoral dissertation research Pager conducted an experiment in which she enlisted young men to pose as job applicants with similar characteristics. She found that a black applicant received a callback or job offer half as often as an equally qualified white applicant. A black applicant with a clean record got a callback or job offer about as often as a white applicant with a felony conviction. She later replicated the experiment in 2009 with Bruce Western and Naomi Sugle and found that black applicants without criminal records received fewer callbacks than white applicants with criminal records.{{cite journal |last1=Ajunwa |first1=Ifeoma |last2=Onwuachi-Willig |first2=Angela |author-link2=Angela Onwuachi-Willig|title=Combating Discrimination Against the Formerly Incarcerated in the Labor Market |journal=Northwestern University Law Review |date=2018 |volume=112 |page=1390 |url=https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1291&context=faculty_scholarship |access-date=13 February 2020}} The dissertation was awarded the "Best Dissertation Prize" by the American Sociological Association{{Cite web |url=http://www.asanet.org/about/awards/dissertation/pager.cfm/ |title=American Sociological Association Dissertation Award Recipient |access-date=2011-07-27 |archive-date=2011-11-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117050912/http://asanet.org/about/awards/dissertation/pager.cfm }} and was later published as a series of articles and a book, Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration (University of Chicago Press, 2007).

Pager's work has been widely featured in the media, including The New York Times,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/20/arts/when-a-dissertation-makes-a-difference.html |title=When a Dissertation Makes a Difference |date=March 20, 2004 |first=Brooke |last=Kroeger |author-link=Brooke Kroeger|work= The New York Times }}{{cite news |title=Study Shows More Job Offers for Ex-Convincts Who Are White |date=June 17, 2005 |first=Paul |last=von Zielbauer |author-link=Paul von Zielbauer |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/nyregion/race-a-factor-in-job-offers-for-exconvicts.html }} The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune,"Black Men's Pay in Top Jobs Lags," 8/15/2001, Quynh-Giang Tran, Chicago Tribune and in CNN's documentary Black in America.[http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/in.america/black.in.america/ CNN's Black in America] Pager's work was frequently cited by supporters of Ban The Box, a movement which aims to ban employers from asking potential employees if they have a criminal record on their application.{{Cite web|title=Ban the Box|url=https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/ban-box|access-date=2020-06-09|website=Brennan Center for Justice|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Mock|first=Brentin|title='Ban the Box' Helps, But Released Inmates Still Face 3 Major Hurdles When Rejoining Society|url=http://www.citylab.com/crime/2015/11/obama-ban-the-box-released-inmates-hurdles/413470/|access-date=2020-06-09|newspaper=Bloomberg|date=2 November 2015 |language=en}}

Pager died of pancreatic cancer on November 2, 2018, at the age of 46.{{Cite news|last=Seelye|first=Katharine Q.|date=2018-11-08|title=Devah Pager, Who Documented Race Bias in Job Market, Dies at 46|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/08/obituaries/devah-pager-dead.html|access-date=2020-06-09|issn=0362-4331}}

Selected bibliography

{{cite journal

| title = The Mark of a Criminal Record

| volume = 108

| issue = 5

| journal = American Journal of Sociology

| author = Devah Pager

| date = March 2003

| pages = 937–975

| jstor = 374403

| doi = 10.1086/374403

| s2cid = 11568703 |ref=none

}}

{{cite journal

| title = Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market: A Field Experiment

| doi = 10.1177/000312240907400505

| pmid = 20689685 |ref=none

|pmc = 2915472| journal = American Sociological Review

|author=Devah Pager |author2=Bruce Western |author3=Bart Bonikowski

| date = 2009-10-01

| volume = 74

| issue = 5

| pages = 777–799

}}

{{cite journal |last1=Pager |first1=Devah |last2=Western |first2=Bruce |last3=Sugie |first3=Naomi |title=Sequencing Disadvantage: Barriers to Employment Facing Young Black and White Men with Criminal Records |journal=Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science |date=2009 |volume=623 |issue=1 |pages=195–213 |doi=10.1177/0002716208330793 |pmid=23459367 |pmc=3583356 |ref=none}}
{{cite book

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Gs1DrgEACAAJ&q=Devah+Pager

| title = Investigating Prisoner Reentry: The Impact of Conviction Status on the Employment Prospects of Young Men - Scholar's Choice Edition

| author = Devah Pager

| publisher = Creative Media Partners

| year = 2015 |ref=none

| isbn = 978-1-297-04600-1

| access-date = 2019-04-13

}}

{{cite book

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=f067Pjis-T0C&q=MARKED:+Race,+Crime,+and+Finding+Work+in+an+Era+of+Mass+Incarceration.

| title = Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration

| author = Devah Pager |ref=none

| publisher = University of Chicago Press, 2008

| isbn = 978-0-226-64485-1

| year = 2007

| access-date = 2019-04-13

}}

{{cite journal

| title = Estimating Risk: Stereotype Amplification and the Perceived Risk of Criminal Victimization

| journal = Social Psychology Quarterly

|author=Lincoln Quillian |author2=Devah Pager

| year = 2010

| pages = 79–104 |ref=none

| volume = 73

| issue = 1

|pmc = 2914342|pmid = 20686631|doi = 10.1177/0190272509360763}}

{{cite journal

| url = http://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/images/members/docs/pdf/featured/grodskypager.pdf

| title = The Structure of Disadvantage: Individual and Occupational Determinants of the Black-White Wage Gap

| journal = American Sociological Review

|author=Eric Grodsky |author2=Devah Pager

| year = 2001

| pages = 542–567

| volume = 66

| issue = 4 |ref=none

| access-date = 2019-04-13

| doi = 10.2307/3088922

| jstor = 3088922

}}

References

{{reflist|30em|refs=

{{cite journal

| title = The Mark of a Criminal Record

| volume = 108

| issue = 5

| journal = American Journal of Sociology

| author = Devah Pager

| date = March 2003

| pages = 937–975

| jstor = 374403

| doi = 10.1086/374403

| s2cid = 11568703

}}

{{cite news

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/opinion/15mon4.html

| title = Even Now, There's Risk in 'Driving While Black'

| work = The New York Times

| author = Brent Staples

| date = 2009-06-14

| page = A20

| access-date = 2019-04-13

| quote = After sending carefully selected test applicants to apply for low-level jobs with hundreds of employers, Ms. Pager found that criminal convictions for black men seeking employment were, in many contexts, "virtually impossible to overcome," partly because those convictions reinforced powerful, longstanding stereotypes.

}}

{{cite news

| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB106262466678910800

| title = Racial Discrimination Is Still at Work

| work = The Wall Street Journal

| author = David Wessel

| date = 2003-09-04

| access-date = 2019-04-13

}}

{{cite news

| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB111939710173765904

| title = For Many, a Prison Record Poses Major Obstacle to Advancement