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Because people behave irrationally as regards convictions, and this produces an undesirable class of essentially unemployable people who are thus incentivized to commit more crimes because they are unable to work. It's entirely appropriate for government to regulate to prevent the perpetuation of this socially undesirable phenomenon.

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I would expect a stronger argument than a generic appeal to irrationality, before introducing a law that would force an employer to hire someone convicted of a violent crime.

How do you know that people's decisions are highly irrational, and that forcing people to behave another way would be more rational?

And it seems like the bar for government intervention is pretty high in this case as the government intervention may not only cost people money, but interferes with people's ability to protect themselves from harm.

I guess the important part of your comment is the "violent" part. To my mind, an employer could very easily justify not hiring someone with a background of violent crime (for the reason you state - their own safety). A crime like this one however, not so much.

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