The majority of research conducted on the link between the unemployment and criminal behaviour has proven to be inconsistent and contradictory. This essay is going to analyse the current studies that have looked at this relationship and will try to summarise the strength between the two.
Any relationship between unemployment and criminal behaviour poses many methodological problems. There are limitations with statistics concerning its accuracy in both areas. Not all crime is recorded and criminal statistics are widely disputed as being incorrect. There are various reasons for this such as the dark figure of crime, unreported crimes and low understanding of crimes amongst people. There is a variety of different definitions and figures for unemployment meaning it can be difficult to interpret. Both of the sets of data are considered ‘faulty’.
A way that the link between unemployment and criminal behaviour could be studied is by looking at how many people are in the prisons, who were employed before their sentence. However there are a lot of factors that can interfere within the imprisonment of the unemployed, for example police may target the unemployed as they are more likely to be on the streets. It is perceived that the young and unemployed are more likely to be criminals. Areas characterised by high unemployment may also be seen as ‘problem areas’. The employment status of a defendant may affect decisions made in the criminal justice process, i.e. the courts may defer an employed person sentence; therefore interfering with the statistics collected.
Studies have been carried out, comparing economic depression and prosperity. The rationale for these studies is the expectation is that crime rates would rise during economic do...
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... misleading. The rise in casual jobs which have little security and low income is also important. Unemployment also has a different impact on different groups – the key question in relation to crime may well be, for example, rates of youth unemployment. This directs attention to other indicators such as low income and income inequalities.
Generally it has been thought and said by many that unemployment will lead to criminal behaviours in order to survive economically in today’s society. Also it has been theorised that unemployment will be likely to increase the anomie amongst the unemployed public related to criminal behaviour. Strain theory suggests that where societal values encourage expectations and aspirations which are blocked to certain groups by structural constraints, those groups will turn to criminal behaviour to meet those expectations and aspirations.
Through the first chapter of this book the focus was primarily on the notion of controlling crime. The best way to describe crime policy used in this chapter is comparing it to a game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’. This chapter also addresses the causes for decline in America’s
According to Robert Agnew, “Strain Theory is based on the idea that delinquency results when individuals are unable to achieve their goals through legitimate channels, achievement or strike out at the source of their frustration in anger”. (Agnew, R. (1985). A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency. Oxford journals. 64(1).151-166). The norms are violated to alleviate the strain that accompanies failure. When a good look is taken at the theories the strains might not only come from peoples frustrations with acquiring “ The American Dream”, but it becomes a mixture of strains such as economic deprivation, abuse, neglect, or the loss of a loved one. However, most people that experience strains do not commit crimes.
After the hungry 40’s, in the 19th century when the benefits of the industrial revolution began to appear, crime rates went down because food prices were more stable and sometimes decreasing and there was a higher amount of exports of industrial goods leading to more money. (Clive Emsley, Crime Reasoning Notecard, 41.) The police played a very small role in the decrease in crime but the years of carefully thought out policing systems ..
However, figures of this type need to be examined in detail. For example, these figures do not show whether the British Government has possibly ‘over spent’ on crime. Looking at figures of this type do not show the relevance of economic techniques, i.e. marginal deterrence, which was first introduced by Stigler in 1970. This paper has taken a comprehensive, but limited view on the relevance of economics and crime.
Many observers have drawn a simple correlation between these two trends. Putting more offenders in prison caused the reduction in crime. The Sentencing project has just completed a study that examines this issue in great detail and concludes that any such correlation is ambiguous at best. In examining the relationship between incarceration and crime in the 1990s the picture is complicated by the seven year period just prior to this, 1984-91. In this period, incarceration also rose substantially, at a rate of 65%. Yet crime rates increased during this time as well, by 17% nationally. Thus we see a continuous rise in incarceration for fourteen years, during which crime rose for seven years, then declined for seven years. This does not suggest that incarceration had no impact on crime, but any such connection is clearly influenced by other factors. A comparison with other nations is instructive in this rega...
Drawing from tenets of Marxist theory, critical criminology believe that crime results from the mode of production by capitalist and the economic structures they have created. Social classes have been divided into two: those whose income is secured by property ownership; and those whose income is secured by their labor. The resultant class structure influences the opportunities of an individual to succeed in life and his propensity to engage in crime. Although it encompasses the macro-economic factors that are rarely included in micro-economic analysis of crime, it does not substitute those macro factors, like unemployment, to micro factors, like being jobless. However, it combines the macro and micro factors in analyzing how micro factors of crime are integrated into the macro structures.
A person lacking education may not find easy employment leaving them with out efficient resources they need to sustain a living, which could provoke them into committing a crime. “There are a number of reasons to believe that education will affect subsequent crime. First, schooling increases the returns to legitimate work, raising the opportunity costs of illicit behavior, Additionally punishment for crime typically entails incarceration, Finally schooling may alter preferences in indirect ways, which may affect decisions to engage in crime”. (e.g. Lance. Lochner, Enrico Moretti,
Crime and criminalization can be ambiguous; crime is only crime until certain authorities deem the actions illegal. However, social inequalities can lead to increased crime rates, notions such as gender, age, race, and class influence crime and provide criminologist with the date to determine who is most likely to commit a crime and where.
In general, official statistics of crime recorded by the police and surveys of the public such as victim surveys and self-report studies are the three main measures of the extent of crime in Britain. The oldest method is to rely on official data collected by criminal justice agencies, such as data on arrests or convictions. The other two rely on social surveys. In one case, individuals are asked if they have been victims of crime; in the other, they are asked to self-report their own criminal activity. (Terence P. Thornberry and Marvin D. Krohn) Although these are a main secondary source of quantitative data, each of them may contain some drawbacks. Thus, this essay will introduce these three methods and demonstrates their disadvantages, such as the police crime statistics exclude the unreported and unrecorded crime;
Effects of poverty cause the feelings of economic needs, frustration and even anger that cause people to commit petty street crimes. Antisocial behavior generally coincides with the definitions of street crimes. Because street crime correlates with people in poverty does not mean every poor person commits crime, not even close. Petty street crime is considered less than desirable, but white collar crime, which is more often committed by whites, can be more devastating to a larger group of people in most cases because it can affect more people. (Barkan,
In this article the two authors research the connection between genetic factors and criminal behavior. They look at the causes that make someone act in a criminal way. There are several factors looked at in connection to the cause such as social factors and environmental variables. The social factors being the more examined of the two. They hypothesized that other factors in performance or alone with environmental variables would lead to better understanding of why some people become criminal. The genetic factor of influence due to mental disorders was posed to have a slight role in affecting people to show criminal behavior. Another cause looked at was the combination of genetic and environmental factors, with a possible result of having a higher risk for criminal behavior.
Strain theories of criminal behaviour have been amongst the most important and influential in the field of criminology. Taking a societal approach, strain theories have sought to explain deficiencies in social structure that lead individuals to commit crime (Williams and McShane 2010). Strain theories operate under the premise that there is a societal consensus of values, beliefs, and goals with legitimate methods for achieving success. When individuals are denied access to legitimate methods for achieving success, the result is anomie or social strain. This often leads an individual to resort to deviant or criminal means to obtain the level of success that they are socialized to pursue. This is the basic premise of strain theory. This paper will explore the evolution of strain theories by first examining their intellectual foundations which laid the foundation for Robert Merton’s theories of anomie and strain. Merton’s strain theory will be discussed in detail including the modes of adaptation that people use when faced with societal strain. Finally, the paper will conclude with the strengths and weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory and an examination of the criminological theories and social policies it has influenced.
This could explain the effect of strains on crime by taken this theory into account. Once strain causes bonds to weaken amongst conventional groups and institutions such as family, school, and peer networks will open up doors to delinquent behaviors, because by being in these social roles causes the person to regulate by role expectations.
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.
Similarly, a study conducted by Ohio State Economics professor Bruce Weinberg found that no relationship exists between unemployment and violent crime. Weinberg notes that most violent crimes, especial...