Employment
There has been a long debate as to whether there is a relationship between crime and unemployment. Schmid (1960) found high rates of unemployment to be the main indicator of crime. Empirical studies trying to link unemployment and property crime have been undertaken in many different ways. Two recent and interesting examples are Hale (1997) and Witt et al. (1999). Hale found that there is a long-run relationship between trends in recorded burglary and theft and the structure of employment. By using aggregate data from 42 police force areas for the period 1986 to 1996 Witt et al. (1999) found a significant relationship between high property crime and both increases in male unemployment and high wage inequality (see, for more details, § 2.6.1 this chapter). Reilly and Witt (1992) examined the relationship between crime and unemployment in Scotland using regional data. They concluded that unemployment cannot be dismissed as one of the determinants of the crime rate. A study in Sweden that investigated the effects of unemployment on crime using county panel data for the period 1988-1999 also found that unemployment had a positive and significant effect on property crime especially burglary and car theft (Edmark, 2005).
There are a lot of studies indicating that unemployment has a great influence on crime. Chamlin and Cochran (2000) studied how best to measure unemployment within the context of the relationship between unemployment and property crime. They suggested that the number of individuals unemployed for 15 weeks or more significantly affect the level of property crime. Long term or permanent unemployment, rather than temporary unemployment, is reflected in the production of higher levels of property crime.