Unemployment, Economic Activity and Crime Rates: A Reexamination From an Opportunity Perspective

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a general causal model of criminal activity that accounts for the relationship between unemployment rates and crime rates. The model proposed here argues that when predicting the sign of the unemployment rate two direct and opposing effects must be considered. First, decreases in macro economic activity, as indicated by an increase in the unemployment rate, decreases the time potential victims of crime spend in high risk, high exposure situations (criminal opportunity). Alternatively, these same decreases will increase the motivation to commit a crime for particular individuals because of the well known relationship between economic hardship and criminal offending.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Cantor, David Ira

• Sociology, Criminology and Penology

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8511591

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71004