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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for unemployment
14 results foundAuthor: Falk, Armin Title: Unemployment and Right-Wing Extremist Crime Summary: Right-wing extremism is a serious problem in many societies. A prominent hypothesis states that unemployment plays a crucial role for the occurrence of right-wing extremist crime. In this paper we empirically test this hypothesis. We use a previously not used data set which includes all officially recorded right-wing criminal acts in Germany. These data are recorded by the German Federal Criminal Police Office on a monthly and state level basis. Our main finding is that there is in fact a significant positive relation between unemployment and rightwing criminal activities. We show further that the big difference in right-wing crime between East and West German states can mostly be attributed to differences in unemployment. This finding reinforces the importance of unemployment as an explanatory factor for right-wing crime and questions explanations based solely on the different socialization in former communist East Germany and the liberal West German states. Our data further allow us to separate violent from non-violent right-wing crimes. We show that unemployment is closely related to both types of crimes, but that the association with non-violent crimes is much stronger. Since right-wing crime is committed particularly by relatively young males, we also explore whether the youth unemployment rate is a better predictor for right-wing crime than total unemployment. This hypothesis can be rejected: given total unemployment, a higher share of youth unemployment does not affect right-wing extremist crime rates. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor, 2005. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 1540: Accessed October 21, 2010 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp1540.pdf Year: 2005 Country: Germany URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp1540.pdf Shelf Number: 120038 Keywords: Hate CrimesRight-Wing ExtremismUnemployment |
Author: Johnson, Ryan Title: Striking at the Roots of Crime: The Impact of Social Welfare Spending on Crime During the Great Depression Summary: The Great Depression of the 1930s led contemporaries to worry that people hit by hard times would turn to crime in their efforts to survive. Franklin Roosevelt argued that the unprecedented and massive expansion in relief efforts “struck at the roots of crime” by providing subsistence income to needy families. After constructing a panel data set for 81 large American cities for the years 1930 through 1940, we estimate the impact of relief spending by all levels of government on crime rates. The analysis suggests that a ten percent increase in relief spending during the 1930s lowered property crime by roughly 1.5 percent. By limiting the amount of free time for relief recipients, work relief was more effective than direct relief in reducing crime. More generally, our results indicate that social insurance, which tends to be understudied in economic analyses of crime, should be more explicitly and more carefully incorporated into the analysis of temporal and spatial variations in criminal activity. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2007. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: NBER Working Paper Series; Working Paper 12825: Accessed October 25, 2010 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12825.pdf Year: 2007 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w12825.pdf Shelf Number: 120070 Keywords: EconomicsProperty CrimeSocial WelfareSpatial AnalysisUnemployment |
Author: Walton, Oliver Title: Youth, Armed Violence and Job Creation Programmes: A Rapid Mapping Study Summary: In response to growing evidence from the social science literature about the links between youth unemployment and armed conflict, donors have increasingly used youth job creation programmes as a tool with which to address armed violence. Many donors now identify addressing youth unemployment as an urgent priority, both in the field of peacebuilding and in efforts to foster economic development. The link between job creation and peacebuilding has been affirmed by the UN Secretary General’s approval of the ‘UN Policy For Post-Conflict Employment Creation, Income Generation And Reintegration’ in 2008 and more recently by the ILO’s 2010 Guidelines on Local Economic Recovery in Post-Conflict. A new sub-target for the first Millennium Development Goal which focused on youth unemployment was agreed in 2007. Donor armed violence reduction (AVR) strategies have begun to deploy a range of multi-sectoral interventions, including job creation, although AVR integration into donor strategies ‘remains relatively rare’. This rapid mapping study reviews donor approaches to addressing armed violence through youth job creation programmes. It covers a range of programmes including reintegration programmes, early recovery and cash for work programmes; as well as integrated AVR programmes that involve youth job creation components. Section two assesses the theoretical and empirical case for using job creation as a means of reducing armed violence. Section three provides an overview of key donor strategies for addressing armed violence and conflict through youth employment generation. Section four assesses the impact of these interventions; section five identifies some gaps in the current literature. Section six highlights some specific examples of successful programmes and section seven draws out some lessons and best practice based on donor experience. The study finds that both the theoretical and the empirical cases for using youth employment programmes as a stand-alone tool for reducing violent conflict are extremely weak. Donor interventions have been poorly evaluated and evidence of success is usually limited to demonstrating increases in employment levels, with little effort made to assess the impact on conflict. The evidence on using job creation as part of an integrated or comprehensive armed conflict or AVR strategy is stronger: some government-led initiatives in countries that experience high levels of armed violence (such as Brazil and South Africa) have shown clear positive results in reducing levels of armed violence. The study finds that donor approaches to reduce armed violence through job creation schemes have become more nuanced and sophisticated. There has been a growing emphasis on ‘holistic’, ‘comprehensive’ and ‘integrated’ approaches that go beyond simply addressing a lack of economic opportunities and seek to address the more complex array of factors that cause social exclusion for young people. These initiatives combine and integrate job-creation schemes with a range of other forms of intervention, such as capacity-building and training in conflict resolution. In a similar way AVR strategies have moved beyond a narrow focus on controlling arms and reducing the demand for weapons, towards more comprehensive strategies that address a range of risk factors associated with armed violence. Donors have also sought to make job creation schemes more effective by conducting more rigorous contextual analysis. They have also looked to improve the effectiveness and relevance of these schemes by working more closely with the private sector and tackling the demand-side of youth unemployment. Despite this progress, there is a still a significant gap between donor rhetoric and practice in this area. Details: Oslo, Norway: Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, 2010. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 8, 2011 at: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/EIRS11.pdf Year: 2010 Country: International URL: http://www.gsdrc.org/docs/open/EIRS11.pdf Shelf Number: 120717 Keywords: Armed ViolenceEconomics and CrimeEmployment and CrimeUnemployment |
Author: Bandyopadhyay, Siddhartha Title: An Analysis of the Factors Determining Crime in England and Wales: A Quantile Regression Approach Summary: We examine how socio-economic and police enforcement variables affect property and violent crimes at different points of the crime distribution in England and Wales over the period 1992-2007. By using data from 43 police force areas, we examine how the effect of real earnings, unemployment, crime detection rate, income inequality and proportion of young people varies across high and low crime areas. Six crime categories are examined - burglary, theft and handling, fraud and forgery, violence against the person, robbery, and sexual assault. Using a quantile regression model, we find that there are statistically significant differences in the impact of explanatory variables on various crime rates for low and high crime areas. For example, not only does unemployment increase crime but it does so more in high crime areas. Higher detection rates reduce crime rates and the effect is stronger in low crime areas. There are also differences in distributional impact on crime rates for real earnings, income inequality and proportion of young people. Thus, our work points to the need to look beyond the usual mean effects of policing and socio-economic factors on crime and consider their impact on the entire distribution of crime rates. This will enable us to tailor policies that are particularly effective at different points in the crime distribution. Further, given the differential impact of earnings and unemployment across high and low crime areas this provides insight into why paradoxically recessions may have no impact on crime or even lower it. Details: Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham, Department of Economics, 2011. 17p. Source: Internet Resource: Department of Economics Discussion Paper 11-12: Accessed July 18, 2011 at: ftp://ftp.bham.ac.uk/pub/RePEc/pdf/11-12.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: Shelf Number: 122083 Keywords: Crime RatesCrime StatisticsEconomicsPovertySocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUnemployment |
Author: Fallesen, Peter Title: The Effect of Workfare Policy on Crime Summary: In this paper, we estimate the effect of Danish workfare policy on crime by exploiting two exogenous welfare policy changes. First, we use a unique policy experiment that began in 1987 by an innovative mayor of the Danish city of Farum, where he imposed a 100 % work or training requirement for all welfare recipients immediately from the date of enrollment. By comparing the changes in crime rates among the unemployment uninsured workers, who are potential welfare recipients, in Farum before and after 1987 with that of the rest of Denmark, we identify the effect of workfare on the crime rate. Second, we examine the effect of a series of national welfare reforms introduced during the 1990s. Those reforms strengthened the work requirement for the welfare recipients younger than 30 and were introduced gradually, starting with younger people rst. We exploit the di erential introduction of workfare across different age groups and the difference in municipality level enforcement as the exogenous variation. Our results show a dramatic decline in the arrest rate among unemployment uninsured after the introduction of the stronger workfare requirements, both in Farum and at the national level. But we found no policy effect on the unemployment insured, who do not receive welfare when unemployed. Those results imply a strong and signi cant crime reducing effect of the workfare policy. Details: Kingston, ONT: Department of Economics, Queen's University, 2011. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/faculty/imai/papers/Farum2.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Denmark URL: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/pub/faculty/imai/papers/Farum2.pdf Shelf Number: 123769 Keywords: Economics and CrimeEmployment and CrimePublic Welfare and Economic Assistance (Denmark)Unemployment |
Author: Antkowiak, Bernard Title: Process Evaluation and Outcomes Analysis: Twin Cities RISE! Performance-Based Training and Education Demonstration Project Summary: In August 2008, the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) contracted with Coffey Consulting, LLC to conduct a process and outcomes evaluation of three ETA grants to TCR! awarded between January 2007 and February 2009. The stated goals of Twin Cities Rise! (TCR!), are to maintain a market-driven, outcomes-based approach that puts the needs of employers first and places emphasis on the achievement of a “gold standard” job, which is career-focused and pays a living wage. Founded in 1994, the mission of TCR! is to provide employers with skilled workers – primarily African American men in the Twin Cities area – by training underemployed and unemployed adults for skilled jobs that pay a living wage of at least $20,000 annually with benefits. The process evaluation documented program procedures and services and identified key implementation lessons. Outcomes considered included program retention, job placement and quality. The report contains an executive summary, an overview of TCR!, a summary of grant performance and outcomes, and a discussion of findings and implications. Information for the report came from three site visits that took place between September 2009 and December 2010 and included classroom observations as well as interviews with key informants. For the analysis of participant outcomes, the research team used aggregate data from the programs funded by the original Demonstration Grant and individual records for the Continuation and Earmark Grants. Data were most complete for the Earmark Grant. Details: Bethesda, MD: Coffey Consulting, 2011. 128p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 6, 2012 at: http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/ETAOP_2012_05.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/ETAOP_2012_05.pdf Shelf Number: 125869 Keywords: Employment Programs, Ex-OffendersPrisoner ReentryUnemployment |
Author: National Crime Research Centre (Kenya) Title: Human trafficking in Kenya Summary: Background This study sought to examine human trafficking in Kenya. Human trafficking is a serious crime and a grave violation of human rights. The general objective of study was to examine human trafficking in Kenya with a view to informing prevention, control and mitigation measures by agencies in the criminal justice system. The study examined the prevalence of human trafficking in Kenya, main types/forms, factors contributing to human trafficking; victims and their socio-economic profiles, survival mechanisms of victims and survivors; the recruiters and their socio-economic profiles; facilitators and networks, sources, transit routes, modes of transportation and destinations of trafficked human beings. The payment cost involved, socio-economic effects of human trafficking, intervention strategies and their effectiveness; and finally best practices in preventing and combating trafficking in human beings; challenges faced in preventing and combating and possible solutions. This research was initiated to provide detailed understanding of human trafficking in Kenya. Study Methods The study employed a survey design. This design of the methodology implied spending a lot of time in the communities where victims of human trafficking could be found. The techniques applied were the following: analysis of secondary reference materials, observation, unstructured and semi-structured interviews with key informant. Data was collected using questionnaire for Key Informants and Interview schedules for sample respondents. Data was analyzed using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Findings are then presented in distribution frequency and percentage tables and figures. The use of descriptions and quotations was instrumental in the analysis and presentation of qualitative data. All the data was presented in themes guided by the research questions. Review of literature identified gaps in policy and related studies is also covered. The field work was carried out in the across the Country in 20 counties that were sampled, with 735 sample respondents with 25 key informants drawn from institutions addressing human trafficking in Kenya and elsewhere. Key Findings Results of the study indicate that: i. Trafficking of people from Kenya to other nations was the most prevalent (external trafficking) in Kenya at 60.2%. 84% of the respondents indicated awareness of human trafficking and out of these, 55% indicated that prevalence of human trafficking was quite high, 36% indicated that it was medium and 9% said that it was low. On the most prevalent type/ form of trafficking, trafficking for labour scored highest followed by child trafficking and trafficking for prostitution at 58.7%, 24.1% and 17.1% respectively. ii. Forms of trafficking prevalent in Kenya were labour and sex related at 44% and 53% respectively. Trafficking involves children, men and women at 33%, 26% and 41% respectively. iii. Poverty and unemployment are the main factors contributing to human trafficking. In domestic poverty was highest at 47.1% and external at 37.6%. Unemployment scored second highest at 34.1% in external and 23.7% in domestic. iv. Victims of human trafficking are children, men and women and their socio-economic profiles are low income, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, desire for well paying jobs, domestic violence and social exclusion. v. Most survivors of human trafficking engage in self employment as a survival strategy at 28.5% and doing odd jobs at 20.8%. Other activities that they are involved in includes; support from relatives and well wishers; Enganging in prostitution; Involved in crime,; Get counselling services; Get government/ NGO'S assistance; Live in isolation and Joining religious groups. For the victims they comply with traffickers as their only survival strategy vi. Recruiters of human trafficking victims are relatives at 40.%, businessmen at 23%,, friends at 20.9% , government officers, wealth people in the village, middle and high level professional, teachers, social workers and religious leaders. Socio-economic profiles of recruiters are middle and high income earners, individuals who command a following and respect from people. They are generally influential persons in society. vii. High levels of Poverty and unemployment in the country are the main facilitators in external trafficking at 25.7% and 26% respectively. Ready markets for casual labour and corruption also scored high at 12% and 11.6%. Others were ; Ideology of better life styles, Illiteracy, its a lucrative business, porous border points and lack of awareness (civic education). viii. 70.5% of the respondents indicated that most of the victims in domestic trafficking are sourced from rural areas and 21.6% from urban areas. In external, 42.2% are sourced from urban areas and 29.7 from other African countries. Other sources include institutions like schools, churches, children homes and refugee camps. Road transport is the commonly used in domestic trafficking at 81.7% while air is mostly used in external human trafficking The results indicate that victims of human trafficking in external are mostly destined in Middle East countries at 44.5% and 32.9% are trafficked in other African countries. In domestic human trafficking, most of the victims are destined in urban areas at 67.2%. ix. Agent commission's cost emerged as the major payment cost with 46.7% . However, 28.6% of the respondents indicated unawareness of these costs. Others which were listed includes; Transport costs, registration fee, reward for brokers and agents, Medical cost, document processing costs and money for food and accommodation. x. Awareness of socio-economic effects was at 80.1% with Brain drain/labour drain emerging as the highest socio economic effect of human trafficking with 21.6% followed by psychological trauma at 19.9% and social breakdown at 10.6% and increased insecurity at 10.5% .Others were; death; improves family income; loss of revenue; Violation of human rights and freedom; increased school dropouts and poverty respectively. xi. Of those who indicated awareness of intervention strategies, the following were listed as the strategies used to address human trafficking in Kenya: Strategic checkpoints for verification of documents, civic education by government and media, Arrest and prosecution of culprits, ban on night travelling and to certain destinations, enforcement of existing Acts, embracing the Nyumba Kumi Initiative, and youth empowerment through Uwezo fund. xii. Three interventions were used to rate the effectiveness of intervention strategies used to address human trafficking. Based on three, the study showed that these intervention strategies are not working. This is after scoring the following percentages on non-effectiveness: prosecution 58.5%, prevention 58.7% and capacity building 47.8%. On effectiveness, they scored 26.7%, 31.9% and 36.3% respectively. Comparing the three capacity building was the most effective at 36.3%. xiii. Poverty, unemployment and corruption are the major reasons as to why the business of human trafficking continues to persist in the country despite various interventions in place. Other reasons which emerged from the results of the survey are; Ignorance among the Kenyan people, Corruption in government officials, Advanced technology which helps in recruitment, existing laws being lenient on perpetrators, Kenyans being greedy for money, poor implementation of existing laws, trafficking being a lucrative business, porous border points, high demand for labour in developed countries and high Illiteracy level among Kenyans. xiv. Improving renumeration for the officials handling the issue of human emerged the best at 24% followed by civic education at 22% and Increasing surveillance and beefing up security at 13.4%. Others were; job creation , Effective legislations, Taming corruption, improving the economy, collaboration among stake holders and community policing. xv. Corruption emerged as the major challenges faced in preventing and combating human trafficking in Kenya at 41.2% followed by unemployment at 13.5%. Other challenges identified were ; Lack of effective laws to address the issue, lack of collaboration between the stake holders, lack of political will/ hostile border relations, Ignorance, collusion between locals and perpetrators, poverty, and lack of resources xvi. Taming corruption and creating jobs/ offering loans to the youths emerged as the best solutions to the challenges faced in preventing and combating human trafficking in the country at 23.7% and 19.2% respectively. Other solutions listed were; providing civic education, Reducing the gap between the rich and the poor, Increasing surveillance, Enforcement of existing laws, providing resources, vetting of officers handling the issue of human trafficking, Initiating community policing ,Enacting new punitive legislations, collaboration among stake holders and Creating a special police unit to handle the issue. Recommendations i. Strengthen detection and investigation as corruption is rampant and could hinder the same through Networking and Collaboration among stakeholders ii. Stakeholders in fight against human trafficking should embrace new technology in tracking and detecting the culprit, establish inter-link between local and international investigating agencies and training of investigators to be enhanced iii. There is need to apply the anti-trafficking law to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses, and convict and punish trafficking offenders, including government officials suspected of complicity in human trafficking; iv. Enhance the use the anti-trafficking law or Section 14 of the Sexual Offenses Act to prosecute and punish child sex tourists; provide additional training to all levels of the government, particularly law enforcement officials, on identifying and responding to trafficking crimes; establish an official process for law enforcement officials to refer trafficking victims for assistance; v. The government should continue to increase oversight of and accountability for overseas recruitment agencies; increase protective services available to adult trafficking victims, particularly those identified in and returned from the Middle East; vi. Establish and convene the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Advisory Committee to coordinate the government's anti-trafficking efforts and oversee full implementation of the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2010; vii. Establish the board of trustees to oversee the National Assistance Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking and allocate money to endow this fund; and launch and implement the national plan of action. viii. Prosecutors to widely use the Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act. As guidelines for implementing the victim protection provisions of the anti-trafficking statute have yet to be developed, the government continued to lack a formal mechanism for identifying victims of trafficking among vulnerable populations. ix. There is need efforts to identify and protect all victims; male, female and child trafficking victims. Protection for adults was unavailable, including for the increasing number of victims in the overseas migrant worker population. Neither the Ministry of Gender nor any other ministry received a specific budget allocation for anti-trafficking activities. x. Efforts to reduce poverty and unemployment should be quickened to curb human trafficking especially of children and women. xi. Efforts should be geared towards protection, prevention and capacity development for the public particularly those in low income areas, with illiteracy and unemployed. xii. Recommendations strategies used to address human trafficking in Kenya: Strategic checkpoints for verification of documents, civic education by government and media, Arrest and prosecution of culprits, ban on night travelling and to certain destinations, enforcement of existing Acts, embracing the Nyumba Kumi Initiative, and youth empowerment through Uwezo Fund. Details: Nairobi, Kenya: National Crime Research Centre, 2014. 132p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 1, 2015 at: http://crimeresearch.go.ke/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=4:preliminary-reports&Itemid=496 Year: 2014 Country: Kenya URL: Shelf Number: 136936 Keywords: Child TraffickingForced LaborHuman SmugglingHuman TraffickingModern SlaveryProstitutionSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUnemployment |
Author: Long, Iain W. Title: Unemployment, Crime and Social Insurance Summary: We study an individual's incentive to search for a job in the presence of random criminal opportunities. These opportunities extenuate moral hazard, as the individual sometimes commits crime rather than searching. Even when he searches, he applies less effort. We then revisit the design of optimal unemployment insurance in this environment. If the individual is more likely to remain unemployed and unpunished when he commits crime than when he searches for a job (as suggested by empirical studies), declining unemployment benefits reduce the payoff from crime relative to that from searching. Compared to the canonical models of optimal unemployment insurance, this provides a further incentive to reduce benefits over time. Details: Cardiff: Cardiff Business School, 2014. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Cardiff Economics Working Papers, Working paper No. E2014/9: Accessed March 30, 2016 at: http://business.cardiff.ac.uk/sites/default/files/working-papers/e2014_9.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://business.cardiff.ac.uk/sites/default/files/working-papers/e2014_9.pdf Shelf Number: 138489 Keywords: JobsUnemployment |
Author: Giles, Margaret Title: Study in prison reduces recidivism and welfare dependence: A case study from Western Australia 2005-2010 Summary: Using a longitudinal dataset of prisoners in Western Australia, this paper describes the effectiveness of correctional education in improving post-release outcomes. The report shows that the more classes completed by prisoners the lower the rate of re-incarceration and the less likely they are to increase the seriousness of their offending. These, and other personal and societal benefits such as a reduction in welfare dependence, were positively associated with the number of classes prisoners successfully completed - that is, the more classes the inmate successfully completes, the less likely they are to reoffend and to access unemployment benefits. Much has been written about how correctional education contributes to post-release outcomes for ex-prisoners. In their systematic review of 50 studies of the effectiveness of correctional education, Davis et al. (2013) found that study in prison unequivocally reduces post-release recidivism and, on average, increases post-release employment. Unlike most earlier studies of the impact of correctional education on recidivism and employment, including the primary studies included in the Davis et al. (2013) meta-analysis, this study uses five years of linked prison history, correctional education and income support payments data. Improved employment and offending outcomes may better enable offenders to successfully reintegrate into their communities, and could produce cost savings into the future for justice authorities and social welfare services. This paper reports on the contribution of correctional education to reducing recidivism and welfare dependence (as a proxy for unemployment) for ex-prisoners in Western Australia. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2016. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 514: Accessed May 3, 2016 at: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi514.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Australia URL: http://aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi514.pdf Shelf Number: 138896 Keywords: Correctional EducationEx-offender EmploymentRecidivismRehabilitationUnemploymentVocational Education and Training |
Author: Alzua, Maria Laura Title: Workfare and Crime: Evidence for Argentina Summary: This paper investigates the effect of introducing a massive workfare program on property crimes. In order to circumvent the endogeneity problem common to joint factors determining crime and demand for workfare we make use of instrumental variables. We exploit two special features. First, the program was assigned according to political criteria which were trying to attract provinces and/or counties who were aligned with the national government. Second, the program was grant in mid-2002 and closed afterwards, so there were no new-comers to the program. We use political affiliation of different level of governments as instrument for the number of workfare programs per capita and find that the program reduced property crime but had no effect on other kinds of crime. The paper represents a contribution to the crime literature, since this issue has not been explored. If workfare programs have an effect on crime, then the welfare effect is different from the one often calculated in the literature. Details: Caracas, Venezuela: CAF DOCUMENTOS DE TRABAJO CAF WORKING PAPERS, 2011. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: CAF WORKING PAPERS N 2011/05 : Accessed September 8, 2016 at: https://www.caf.com/media/3894/201105Alzua.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Argentina URL: https://www.caf.com/media/3894/201105Alzua.pdf Shelf Number: 140253 Keywords: Economics and CrimeEmployment and CrimeProperty CrimePublic Welfare and Economic AssistanceUnemployment |
Author: Giles, Margaret Title: Prisoner education and training, and other characteristics: Western Australia, July 2005 to June 2010 Summary: Spending public funds on educating and training prisoners can generate a significant return on investment, because as this report argues, studying in prison can reduce costly recidivism and improve life outcomes for ex-prisoners. What are the costs of recidivism? Let's start with incarceration. Prisoners cost money - about $110,000 per prisoner a year. With over 4,000 prisoners in WA prisons at any one time and a turnover of 8,000 prisoners per year, incarceration is a costly business. In addition, there are policing and legal costs related to finding, charging and sentencing alleged offenders; as well as costs to the community in relation to property damage, insurance premium increases, lives lost and harm and trauma to victims of crime. Reducing recidivism alone can therefore bring about huge cost savings to the government and the community. Then there’s the cost of welfare dependence. In the short term, these include payments to families of incarcerated breadwinners and unemployment benefits for ex-prisoners; just two of the many different types of welfare payments administered by Centrelink. In the longer term, intergenerational welfare looms for an increasing number of disenfranchised, unskilled and unemployed workers, including ex-prisoners who are further disadvantaged by having a criminal record. Improving employability and reducing welfare dependence can therefore reduce demand on the public purse, as well as promote more productive lives. In Western Australia, considerable efforts have been made by the WA Department of Corrective Services (DCS) to reduce recidivism and improve individual and community outcomes. Internal reviews of offending behaviour by the Education and Vocational Training Unit (EVTU), which has provided courses and classes in Western Australia prisons for many years, show proportionately fewer repeat offences by ex-prisoners who studied in prison, compared with those who did not. Missing from these reviews however is the bigger picture. This research project demonstrates how studying in prison can lead to better labour market outcomes and reduced recidivism, and provides an evaluation of the resulting impact on welfare utilisation. This report is the first of three and summarises the prison training data. It indicates that the Western Australia prison population is diverse, and as can be seen from the class and course profiles, prisoners have varied education and training experiences. Details: Joondalup WA, Australia: Edith Cowan University, Centre for Innovative Practice, 2013. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 27, 2017 at: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1586&context=ecuworks2011 Year: 2013 Country: Australia URL: http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1586&context=ecuworks2011 Shelf Number: 144920 Keywords: Correctional Education Ex-offender EmploymentRecidivism Rehabilitation Unemployment Vocational Education and Training |
Author: Helmus, Leslie Title: Temporary absences reduce unemployment and returns to custody for women offenders Summary: Temporary absences (TAs) allow offenders to leave the institution for short periods of time to attend to administrative matters, perform community service, strengthen family contacts, receive medical attention, attend to parental responsibilities, engage in personal development, and/or attend rehabilitative programming in the community. TAs are intended to assist in community reintegration by allowing gradual and conditional access to the community while supporting offender rehabilitation efforts. This report focused only on the rehabilitative types of TAs, excluding those granted for medical or administrative purposes (as there is less discretion in granting these absences). The purpose of the current study was to examine who received TAs and to explore the impact of participating in TAs on community outcomes for women offenders. The final sample included 1,683 women offenders released to the community between April 1, 2005 and March 31, 2011. Outcomes included unemployment, any return to custody, return to custody with a new offence, and return to custody without a new offence. Overall, 44% of women offenders received a TA during their sentence. Women who received a TA were generally more likely to be higher risk, higher need, have lower Reintegration Potential, and were serving a longer sentence. Participation in TAs was also related to community outcomes. A significant dosage effect was found for returns to custody for any reason and returns to custody for a new offence: the more TAs an offender received, the lower the chances of returning to custody. For unemployment and returns without an offence, merely participating in a TA (yes/no) demonstrated a significant reduction in negative outcomes. These findings indicate that higher risk women are more likely to participate in TAs, and according to the risk principle of effective correctional practice, they stand to benefit the most from them. Additionally, participation in TAs reduces unemployment and returns to custody. Consequently, TAs play a valuable role in gradual reintegration to the community, and generally, the more the offenders participate, the greater the benefits. Details: Ottawa: Correctional Service of Canada, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Report No. R-354: Accessed April 5, 2018 at: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/scc-csc/PS83-3-354-eng.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Canada URL: http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/scc-csc/PS83-3-354-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 149701 Keywords: Ex-offender EmploymentFemale OffendersPrisoner ReentryTemporary ReleaseUnemploymentWomen Offenders |
Author: Couloute, Lucius Title: Getting Back on Course: Educational Exclusion and Attainment Among Formerly Incarcerated People Summary: Throughout their lives, people who serve time in prison are held back from educational opportunities, making it nearly impossible to earn the credentials they need to succeed after release. Using data from the National Former Prisoner Survey, this report reveals that formerly incarcerated people are often relegated to the lowest rungs of the educational ladder; more than half hold only a high school diploma or GED, and a quarter hold no credential at all. While incarcerated, and even after release from prison, we find that people rarely get the chance to make up for the educational opportunities from which theyve been excluded opportunities that impact their chances of reentry success. Education is especially critical for people seeking employment after release from prison. Building on our previous research, which revealed a staggering 27% unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people, we find that those with low levels of formal education face even higher unemployment rates. In particular, formerly incarcerated people without a high school credential report extreme unemployment rates, and the outlook is particularly bleak for people of color. These alarming results call for immediate transformations of our educational and criminal justice systems. To that end, we conclude with a series of fundamental policy recommendations necessary to reduce current inequalities faced by criminalized people across the United States. Details: Amherst, MA: Prison Policy Initiative, 2018. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 12, 2019 at: https://csgjusticecenter.org/nrrc/publications/getting-back-on-course-educational-exclusion-and-attainment-among-formerly-incarcerated-people/ Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/education.html Shelf Number: 154080 Keywords: Ban the Box Education GED High School Diploma Incarceration National Former Prisoner Survey Policy Recommendations Prison Reentry School to Prison Pipeline Unemployment |
Author: National Consumer Law Center Title: Broken Records: How Errors by Criminal Background Checking Companies Harm Workers and Businesses Summary: Since 2007, the United States has experienced the worst unemployment rates since the Great Depression. Adding to this job crisis, criminal background checking companies are making it even more difficult for workers to obtain employment. Approximately ninety-three percent of employers conduct criminal background checks for some potential applicants, and seventy-three percent of employers conduct criminal background checks for all potential applicants. The widespread dissemination of criminal record histories limits employment opportunities for an estimated sixty-five million adults (nearly one in four adults) in the United States who have some sort of criminal record. Moreover, criminal background checks often contain incorrect information or sealed information. Samuel M. Jackson was allegedly denied employment after a prospective employer ran an InfoTrack background check. InfoTrack reported a rape conviction from 1987 - when Mr. Jackson was four years old. The rape conviction actually belonged to fifty-eight-year-old male named Samuel L. Jackson from Virginia, who was convicted of rape in November 18, 1987. That Samuel Jackson was incarcerated at the time the InfoTrack report was run. Whether these checks should be used for employment screening is a matter of public debate. However, there is little debate that if these records are to be used, they must be accurate. Despite its promotion as a public safety service, the sale of criminal background reports has become a big business generating billions of dollars in revenue. The Internet has facilitated the emergence of scores of online background screening companies, with many claiming instant access to millions of databases. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), background checking agencies are required to maintain procedures to ensure the accuracy of information they report about consumer. Unfortunately, the FCRA, as currently interpreted and enforced, fails to adequately protect consumers when it comes to employment screening. Even applicants who successfully remove errors from their background check are frequently denied employment. Despite the importance of the accuracy of criminal background reports, evidence indicates that professional background screening companies routinely make mistakes with grave consequences for job seekers. This report describes a number of ways in which background screening companies make mistakes that greatly affect a consumer's ability to find employment. Although the mistakes discussed in this report are not inclusive of all errors found on background checks, attorneys and community organizations that work with consumers with faulty background reports state that they repeatedly see background reports that: - Mismatch the subject of the report with another person; - Reveal sealed or expunged information. Omit information about how the case was disposed or resolved;- Contain misleading information; and - Mischaracterize the seriousness of the offense reported. Many of these errors can be attributed to common practices by background screening companies, such as: - Obtaining information through purchase of bulk records, but then failing to routinely update the database; - Failing to verify information obtained through subcontractors and other faulty sources; - Utilizing unsophisticated matching criteria; - Failing to utilize all available information to prevent a false positive match; and - Lack of understanding about state specific criminal justice procedures. Even the National Association of Professional Background Screeners agrees there are some simple procedures that background checking companies can take to enhance the quality of their information. Unfortunately, few companies actually are willing to commit to even the limited recommendations of their own trade association. Criminal background checking is big business, and ensuring accurate and complete information reduces profits. Based upon the issues identified in this report, we recommend that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) use its rulemaking authority under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to: - Require mandatory measures to ensure greater accuracy. - Define how long an employer has to wait in between sending an initial notice and taking an adverse action, i.e., rejecting an applicant or terminating an employee. - Require registration of consumer reporting agencies. The Federal Trade Commission should use its FCRA enforcement authority to: - Investigate major commercial background screening companies for common FCRA violations. - Investigate major, nationwide employers for compliance with FCRA requirements imposed on users of consumer reports for employment purposes. Finally, as the source of most of the data reported by background screening agencies, states have a huge role to play in ensuring the accuracy of criminal background checks. States should that ensure that state repositories, counties, and other public records sources: - Require companies that have subscriptions to receive information by bulk dissemination from court databases to have some procedure for ensuring that sealed and expunged records are promptly deleted and ensure that dispositions are promptly reported. Audit companies that purchase bulk data to ensure that they are removing sealed and expunged data and, if a company fails such an audit, revoke its privilege to receive bulk data. With the explosive growth of this industry, it is essential that the "Wild West" of employment screening be reined in so that consumers are not guilty until proven innocent. Currently, lack of accountability and incentives to cut corners to save money mean that consumers pay for inaccurate information with their jobs and, thus, their families' livelihood. Details: Boston, MA: National Consumer Law Center, 2012. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 27, 2019 at: https://www.nclc.org/images/pdf/pr-reports/broken-records-report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.nclc.org/issues/broken-records.html Shelf Number: 155584 Keywords: Background Checks Criminal Background Checks Criminal Records Employment Jobs Unemployment |