Abstract

Recently it is increasingly common practice for universities and professional registration councils to probe into applicants’ criminal records as a precondition for admission. Using social constructionism, this qualitative study explored the experiences of six formerly incarcerated individuals previously sentenced to life imprisonment, who hold professional university degrees in Law, Education, Psychology and Social Work and investigated whether having a criminal record had any bearing when applying for professional registration. The results indicate that due to the perceived stigma of, and discrimination against a criminal record, there exist varying degrees of criminal record disclosure ranging from partial, to full and non-disclosure. Furthermore, the results show that, on the one hand, concealment of a criminal record has adverse implications; while disclosure demonstrates the “double-edge sword” nature inherent in disclosing a criminal record and serves to further re-stigmatise and ultimately exclude people with criminal records from gaining admission. The study recommends that professional licensing councils, in collaboration with institutions of higher learning, ought to formulate unambiguous policy guidelines that explicitly outline the conditions that qualify or disqualify the registration of applicants with a criminal record