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Crime and Unemployment Among Youths in the United States, 1958‐1990

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  • Chester L. Britt

Abstract

. Unemployment and arrest time series data for persons aged 16 to 19 years in the United States from 1958 to 1990 show crime among youth to be associated with both the current level of youth unemployment and the annual change in the rate of youth unemployment. For violent offenses (homicide, rape and aggravated assault), as well as for property offenses (robbery, burglary and larceny), higher rates of youth unemployment are negatively associated with annual changes in the arrest rates of youth. Conversely, the lagged effect of youth unemployment is limited to property offenses, where annual changes in youth unemployment are positively related to annual changes in the arrest rates of youth for robbery, burglary and larceny, but negatively related to changes in the auto theft arrest rate.

Suggested Citation

  • Chester L. Britt, 1994. "Crime and Unemployment Among Youths in the United States, 1958‐1990," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(1), pages 99-109, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:53:y:1994:i:1:p:99-109
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1994.tb02680.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Belton M. Fleisher, 1963. "The Effect of Unemployment on Juvenile Delinquency," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(6), pages 543-543.
    2. Lawrence Cohen & Marcus Felson, 1979. "On estimating the social costs of national economic policy: A critical examination of the Brenner study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 251-259, April.
    3. Ehrlich, Isaac, 1973. "Participation in Illegitimate Activities: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 521-565, May-June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Abdul Saboor & Shumaila Sadiq & Atta Ullah Khan & Gulnaz Hameed, 2017. "Dynamic Reflections of Crimes, Quasi Democracy and Misery Index in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 31-45, August.
    2. Lauridsen, Jørgen T. & Zeren, Fatma & Ari, Ay?E, 2015. "Is Crime in Turkey Economically Rational?/¿Es económicamente racional el crimen en Turquía?," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 33, pages 37-52, Enero.
    3. Fishman, Gideon & Schwartz, Ira & Hsieh, Chang-ming, 1997. "Commitment of Juveniles to Training Schools," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 633-650, December.
    4. Santiago, Catherine DeCarlo & Wadsworth, Martha E. & Stump, Jessica, 2011. "Socioeconomic status, neighborhood disadvantage, and poverty-related stress: Prospective effects on psychological syndromes among diverse low-income families," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 218-230, March.
    5. Ferda Halicioglu, 2012. "Temporal causality and the dynamics of crime in Turkey," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 39(9), pages 704-720, July.
    6. William J. Baumol & Edward N. Wolff, "undated". "Side Effects of Progress, How Technological Change Increases the Duration of Unemployment," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_41, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. Pudney, Stephen & A. Galloway, Taryn, 2011. "Initiation into crime: an analysis of Norwegian register data on five birth cohorts," ISER Working Paper Series 2011-11, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    8. Nouman Khaliq & Muhammad Shabbir & Zahira Batool, 2019. "Exploring the Influence of Unemployment on Criminal Behavior in Punjab, Pakistan," Global Regional Review, Humanity Only, vol. 4(1), pages 402-409, March.
    9. Sediq Sameem & Kevin Sylwester, 2016. "Unemployment and Homicides: Evidence from Individual Level U.S. Data," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1295-1305.
    10. Nikolaos Dritsakis & Alexandros Gkanas, 2009. "The effect of socio-economic determinants on crime rates: An empirical research in the case of Greece with cointegration analysis," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 2(2), pages 51-64, December.
    11. Mohamad Kassem & Amjad Ali & Marc Audi, 2019. "Unemployment Rate, Population Density and Crime Rate in Punjab (Pakistan): An Empirical Analysis," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(2), pages 92-104, June.
    12. Plum Alexander, 2016. "Can Low-Wage Employment Help People Escape from the No-Pay – Low-Income Trap?," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-28, October.
    13. Kent Bausman & W. Richard Goe, 2004. "An Examination of the Link Between Employment Volatility and the Spatial Distribution of Property Crime Rates," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 665-696, July.
    14. Mishra, Sandeep & Lalumière, Martin, 2009. "Is the crime drop of the 1990s in Canada and the USA associated with a general decline in risky and health-related behavior?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 39-48, January.

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