BBC NEWS ONLINE: Why more ex-offenders may be about to get a second chance

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Jonathan Spencer, director of the Criminal Justice Research Unit at the University of Manchester, led the survey. He says sex offenders were a particular worry for participants. “The view was that if they re-offended there would be reputational harm to the company,” he says.

On the flip side, Spencer and his colleagues found that about 60% of employers who had actually taken on ex-offenders reported that the experience was mainly positive. But, he says, that’s a message which is hard to spread to other employers who haven’t hired people with a criminal history.