The policy adopted by housing authorities of denying prospective tenants with a criminal record access to housing is an important barrier to ex-offenders seeking somewhere to live. The policy is legal, but are there any good reasons in favor of it when we know that having no, or limited, access to secure and affordable housing increases the probability of recidivism? The primary aim of this article is to critically discuss two central reasons that have been given for denying people with criminal records access to housing: that doing so will prevent crime, and that the policy reduces fear of crime. We also try to evaluate an argument for the conclusion that current law, and the policies that follows wrongfully discriminate against people with criminal records. The general thrust of the article is that arguments for this practice turning on its crime preventive effect, and its role in reducing or preventing fear of crime, are unpersuasive. We then explained why, in our view, excluding ex-offenders from housing amounts to wrongful discrimination against them. Our analysis suggests that ex-offenders, apart from a few excemptions, ought to be allowed access to housing to the same extent as other people.

住房当局采取的政策，拒绝有犯罪记录的潜在租户获得住房，这是刑满释放人员寻找住处的一个重要障碍。这项政策是合法的，但是当我们知道没有或有限获得安全和经济适用住房会增加累犯的可能性时，有什么充分的理由支持它吗？本文的主要目的是批判性地讨论拒绝有犯罪记录的人获得住房的两个核心原因：这样做可以预防犯罪，并且该政策可以减少对犯罪的恐惧。我们还尝试评估以下结论的论点：现行法律以及随后的政策错误地歧视有犯罪记录的人。这篇文章的主旨是，关于这种做法的犯罪预防效果及其在减少或防止犯罪恐惧方面的作用的论点是没有说服力的。然后，我们解释了为什么我们认为将刑满释放人员排除在住房之外构成了对他们的错误歧视。我们的分析表明，除了少数例外情况外，刑满释放人员应该被允许与其他人一样获得住房。