[game_edu] Criminal record?

[Anthony Hart-Jones]

  Just so you know, I am not going to touch 'right' and 'wrong' here;
there's a whole debate about forgiveness and justice and atonement that
could easily spill out here, but the question was about whether it will
make them too toxic to be employable.

  So, to answer that question, I can't see it being an insurmountable
issue.  It's a delicate subject, but I can't see it being that relevant to
most game-development jobs.  Not knowing the details (and not excusing any
sexual crimes), it's hard to say what a potential employer would take away
from his criminal record.  Obviously, there's sexual assault due to a
misunderstanding / lapse of judgement and there's sexual assault due to
being a lousy human being.

  The main issues would obviously be in situations where it does become
relevant.

  A company working on 'girl' games might require designers to be part of
focus testing and may not want to risk any misunderstanding with the person
having to interact with teenage girls.  If the company has a strong
tradition of 'bring your daughter to work day' or interns or
work-experience, they may not feel it is an appropriate place for that
person.  Even if his crimes have nothing to do with under-age girls or
dubious consent, the 'sexual predator' label will still be an issue.
  They will also be poorly-qualified for a job with any public-relations
elements, as more visible employees will obviously be under greater
scrutiny.  No company wants their product to be associated with any kind of
crimes, especially sexual ones.  Given how misogynistic the industry is
considered, his past could be highly embarrassing.

  In the end, I think it'll be harder on them and they might need to
consider the limitations that potential employers will  want to place on
them, but a suitably penitent (and open) explanation of what happened
should help.  I suppose they'll need to be twice as careful in
sexual-harassment situations, as they'll never get the benefit of the doubt
either.
  In the end, if you feel that they 'just made a mistake' and deserve a
chance because you feel like they wouldn't do it again, that says something
about their chances in the industry.  If you get a bad feeling, so will
other people.

  I don't know about the US, but in the UK (and, I think, most of Europe),
things like this become 'spent' after a certain amount of time and only
need to be disclosed for certain roles.  He'd be ineligible for a police or
childcare role, but it would probably be considered none of the employer's
business if he applied to work in a factory.

  Does that help?

On 12 September 2012 19:34, Peter Border <pborder at msbcollege.edu> wrote:


> Hi folks:

>

> Here's a question for you:

>

> I have a potential student who has a problem: he has been charged with 3rd

> degree sexual assault. Currently it is a felony but if he completes his

> probation without issues it will be dropped to a misdemeanor due to the

> mother and the daughter not pressing charges against him. His question is

> whether this will make him unemployable in the game industry. Frankly, I

> don't think it would help but I don't see how a misdemeanor would make him

> totally toxic. Obviously, if he has no chance of ever being employed due to

> his record he won't enter the program.

>

> Does anyone out there whether there is a common policy on criminal

> records, or do different companies just wing it?

>

> Peter Border

> Game and Application Design Chairman

> Globe University/Minnesota School of Business

> 1401 West 76th St

> Richfield, MN 55423

> pborder at msbcollege.edu

>

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