(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-04)
Ajimotokin, Sandra; Haskins, Alexandra; Wade, Zach
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.