The probable effects of national crime rate and unemployment rate

¶ … Causes of Unemployment and of Crime

The primary causes of the national unemployment rate and of a number of statistics that are involved with the rate of crime in the United States can be attributed to federal initiatives -- or the lack of such nationally-based measures -- that play a significant influence on these two highly valued concerns of American citizens. This statement certainly holds true for the national unemployment rate, which has consistently been above 8% for the past 29 months (and which is the longest streak of this sort since the Great Depression in the 1930s) (Associated Press, 2011). Due to what has widely been attributed to a global recession, the United States economy has been attempting to rise from a state of perceivable low status (in which its currency, the dollar, has been continually devalued, particularly in comparison to other international currency, such as the Euro). The consistently high rates of unemployment in the United States are a result of a poor economy at the federal level.

Specifically, the disadvantageous economy has contributed to a number of industries across the country considerably slowing down their hiring processes. Without people being hired, the unemployment rates will remain high. Other national factors have contributed to a lack of hiring, such as steep gas prices, in addition to transitory factors that include the parts shortage for the manufacturing industry, which stemmed from a spring earthquake in Japan. The cumulative effects of all of these factors is that due to a lack of success, a fair amount of people have simply given up attempting to locate employment in the United States. If statistical data from June unemployment rates were to include laborers who are not attempting to look for work because of their repeated failure to find success (which means they are not factored into traditional unemployment rates) the June rate for unemployment would have been as high as 16.2% (Associated Press, 2011).

There is an opposite effect of the federal efforts of the United States when it comes to its rates of crime across the country. Due to a number of active measures throughout the myriad states in the U.S., crime has consistently fallen during the past few years, despite the national and even global recession. Between 2008 and 2009, crime was reduced in all categories, perhaps most substantially in violent crime and property crime, which declined 5.5% and 4.9%, while robbery decreased 8.1% (Haq, 2010).