Does Unemployment lead to Higher Crime Rates?
Introduction:
Every year millions of crimes are committed all over the world. The US is no exception to crimes. However, as most Americans will have you believe, some states are more dangerous than others; some cities are more dangerous than other. This hierarchy goes down to counties, even neighborhoods. High crime rates hurt economic conditions in the society. The image of a neighborhood is shattered and businesses want to move away as a result of which real estate prices might go down. Furthermore, a high crime rate impacts the social condition of a neighborhood. It induces gangs to spring up that attract young people, people who could otherwise be attending school. Thus, education suffers. As you can see crime can have a wide variety of cascading effects which could impact a large group of people, societies and nations.
Perhaps the most harmful crimes are violent ones. They are usually ugly and involve harrowing tragedies as murder, manslaughter and rape. Moreover, given the power of the media and its pervasiveness, we are regularly spectators to these horrific acts. The televison is often misused by children and exposing children to gory and bloody sights could have a long lasting impact on them. Thus, it is crucial that we understand the factors that might cause violent crime rates to increase and in turn try reduce them.
According to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, crimes that involve force or threat of force are defined as violent crimes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation states that there were around 1.37 million violent crimes in the United States in 2004.[1] That figure was a 1.2% decrease from 2003, and when taken on per capita basis, it was a solid
2.2 decrease. What might have caused that decrease? The US had just recovered from a recession which began in 2001.[2] By mid 2003, the recession was declared over. In particularly, job opportunities began to grow as the economy...