Unemployment and Crime
Unemployment and Crime:
An analysis of the Cointegration and the Socio-economic Impacts of Unemployment on Crime
Marvin A. Cole
Strayer University
Economics 405, Section 004016
Professor Stradtner
March 28, 2010
Unemployment and Crime:
An analysis of the Cointegration and the Socio-economic Impacts of Unemployment on Crime
In today’s society, we are faced with an alarming situation with tends to plaque us and have made it on many of our chief economist and researchers list. Evidence of this is based on the works of many econometricians who tried to find the relationship between crime and how it affects the level of unemployment within a country. Siegel (2009) asserted that “crime is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by a criminal legal code created by people holding social and political power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of status” (p. 18). On a more macro-economic level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines unemployment as people who do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and are currently available for work. Also, people who were temporarily laid off and are waiting to be called back to that job are counted as unemployed.
Numerous studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between unemployment and crime with the former bear strong influence on the latter. Economics of crime or illegal activities has grown into a new field, which requires an investigative review of its principal components; particularly this is as a result of the rapid increase in criminal activities “in various western and eastern countries of the world.” Ehrlich (1973) considers that unemployment has its effects on the crime rate. He outlines that the unemployment rate can be viewed as a complementary measure of income opportunities available in the legal labor market. Therefore, when unemployment rate
An analysis of the Cointegration and the Socio-economic Impacts of Unemployment on Crime
Marvin A. Cole
Strayer University
Economics 405, Section 004016
Professor Stradtner
March 28, 2010
Unemployment and Crime:
An analysis of the Cointegration and the Socio-economic Impacts of Unemployment on Crime
In today’s society, we are faced with an alarming situation with tends to plaque us and have made it on many of our chief economist and researchers list. Evidence of this is based on the works of many econometricians who tried to find the relationship between crime and how it affects the level of unemployment within a country. Siegel (2009) asserted that “crime is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by a criminal legal code created by people holding social and political power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of status” (p. 18). On a more macro-economic level, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines unemployment as people who do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, and are currently available for work. Also, people who were temporarily laid off and are waiting to be called back to that job are counted as unemployed.
Numerous studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between unemployment and crime with the former bear strong influence on the latter. Economics of crime or illegal activities has grown into a new field, which requires an investigative review of its principal components; particularly this is as a result of the rapid increase in criminal activities “in various western and eastern countries of the world.” Ehrlich (1973) considers that unemployment has its effects on the crime rate. He outlines that the unemployment rate can be viewed as a complementary measure of income opportunities available in the legal labor market. Therefore, when unemployment rate