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9 Contemp. Crises 209 (1985)
Unemployment, imprisonment and prison overcrowding

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc9 and id is 207 raw text is: Contemporary Crises, 9 (1985) 209-228 209 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands UNEMPLOYMENT, IMPRISONMENT AND PRISON OVERCROWDING STEVEN BOX and CHRIS HALE By the end of 1982, official data on unemployment, crime and imprison- ment in England and Wales reached record-breaking proportions. There were more than 3.5 million unemployed (or nearly 14 percent of the available labour force, thus surpassing the 1930's depression); serious offences, such as burglary, robbery, assault, theft and fraud, reached the 3 million mark for the first time; the number of persons received into prison climbed to an unprecedented level of 170,000, and the average daily prison population still hovered around the all time high of 45,000. In response to these, and similar events occurring in the North American continent, there has been a renewed debate on the possible relationships between unemployment, crime and imprisonment. One fairly orthodox view is that rising unemployment leads to crime, and this in turn, assuming constant rates of reporting and recording crimes, arrest, conviction and imprisonment sentences, leads automatically to an increase in prison population. Whilst there may be some truth in this, there are at least two serious flaws in the argument. First, the relationship between unemployment and crime is nowhere near as simple or demonstrated as is commonly claimed. The response to unemployment depends very much on the meaning given to it by those experiencing it. This meaning varies across age, gender, class and ethnic divisions. It is also affected by the actual and perceived duration of unem- ployment, and what is believed to have caused it. Crime is likely to be a response adopted by only a sub-population of the unemployed. Even then, this criminal response would be contingent on many other factors, which is why numerous attempts to demonstrate a monocausal connection between unemployment and crime has produced ambiguous and contradictory results [11. Nonetheless, it is clear that many people believe that unemployment causes crime, and this belief has real consequences, particularly when it affects decisions taken by state officials processing suspected and convicted persons. Second, the rates of recording, arresting, convicting and imprisoning will University of Kent at Canterbury, England. 0378-1100/85/$03.30 © 1985 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

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