Title:
The Effects of Unemployment on Crime Rates in the U.S.

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Ajimotokin, Sandra
Haskins, Alexandra
Wade, Zach
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Abstract
This paper aims to analyze the relationship between unemployment and crime rate. Using data from 2013 acquired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (used for violent crime rate data) and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (used for unemployment data), the effect of unemployment rate on violent crime is estimated. In addition to unemployment rate, GDP per capita, high school graduation rates, police officers per 100,000 inhabitants, as well as poverty rates also are accounted for. Two equations are present, one which estimates the variable’s impacts on violent crime, and another for their impacts on property crime. In both the simple and multiple regression models for estimated the enumerated variables’ impacts on crime rate, the results were that there were positive effects of these variables on the crime rate. From this, it can be concluded that there is a positive correlation between both violent and property crime, not only with unemployment rate, but also with GDP per capita, high school graduation rates, police officers per 100,000 inhabitants, and poverty rate.
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2015-04
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Undergraduate Research Paper
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