Collateral consequences of criminal records from a cross-national perspective: An introduction

This special issue is devoted to a constantly growing field of interest within criminology and criminal justice: so-called collateral consequences of criminal records (hereinafter, CCCR). Criminal justice–involved individuals face burdensome legal and social barriers and disabilities that exist because of their prior contacts with the criminal legal system (Demleitner, 1999; Jacobs, 2006, 2015; Larrauri, 2014).1 Collateral consequences can be both formal and informal in nature. The first CCCR category − so-called de jure collateral consequences − includes sanctions, restrictions and disqualifications that attach to a criminal record which have either a statutory or regulatory basis. These consequences