Economic Adversity and Criminal Behaviour: Rethinking Youth Unemployment and Crime
| Author | Rob White,Kenneth Polk |
| Published date | 01 December 1999 |
| Date | 01 December 1999 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589903200306 |
284
Economic Adversity
and
Criminal
Behaviour: Rethinking Youth
Unemployment
and
Crime
Kenneth Polk
University
of
Melbourne
Rob
White
University
ofTasmania
ThiS paper argues
that
in order to understand the impact of youth
unemployment on crime it is necessary
to
specify the particular
social location and meaning of contemporary economic adversity. A
starting point is an
analysis
of the collapse of the youth labour market.
This has created high levels of youth unemployment, has dramatically
worsened the educational situation of those who seek to
leave
school
without high level qualifications,and
has
had major consequences
for
the
income
available
to
young people. These forms
of
economic adversity
have
direct impacts on the social lives of the early school
leavers,
and
create a number
of
possible friction points with adults, such as conflicts
over public
space
recognisableas the 'mall problem'.We arguethat there
are particular forms
of
economic adversity which impact upon specific
groups of young people, and these in
turn
may have consequences in
terms of higher levels
of
recorded youth crime.
Within
criminology, one of
the
major focal points of dispute and debate is
the
issue
of
the
relationship between economic adversity and crime. To
the
layperson,
the
fact
that
criminal activity is closely connected to unemployment or poverty may seem
obvious,
but
informed analysis suggests
that
this is a complicated arena indeed.
While
some observers
have
found important links
between
such
phenomena
as
unemployment and criminal activity, others have questioned
not
only whether there
is such a relationship,
but
even
the
motives for attempting such analysis.
In
the
present paper, our
intent
is to bring together various theoretical strands
of argument to suggest precisely where
and
how particular aspects of
economic
adversity
can
be expected to have impact in particular
on
the
lives of young people.
Our
argument is
that
the
effects of various indicators of adversity must be seen
within
the
context of specific social conditions, especially
the
point
in
the
develop
...
Revision of a paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology
Annual
Conference, Gold Coast, Queensland,
July,
1998.
Address
for
correspondence:
Kenneth
Polk,
Department
of
Criminology,
University
of
Melbourne,
Queensberry
Street,
Carlton
VIC3053,
Australia.
THE AUSTRALIAN
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32
NUMBER
3 1999
PP.
284-302
ECONOMICADVERSITY
AND
CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR
mental
period of life being examined. It will be suggested, for example,
that
it is a
mistake to assume
that
unemployment across all ages and social conditions
can
be
expected to have constant effects
on
behaviour.
When
that
unemployment occurs
at
the
point
when
a young person is attempting to make
the
transition from educa
...
tion
to work, and when
that
unemployment constitutes asignificant
and
long term
(if
not
permanent) disruption in
the
transition from youth to conventional adult
...
hood,
then
its impact
on
social behaviour may be profound.
The
paper begins by outlining some of
the
key structural trends
which
have
effectively led to a collapse of
the
traditional
youth
labour market.
The
conse
...
quences of this collapse for teenagers have been considerable. As discussed in
the
second section,
the
massive contraction in
the
full
...
time labour market for young
people has impacted greatly
on
their experiences of employment, schooling and
opportunities for gaining an adequate living income. We
then
discuss
the
specific
relationship of teenagers to economic adversity, especially from
the
point
of view of
consumption
relations
and
young
people's
use
of
public
spaces.
The
paper
concludes by arguing
that
to make sense
of
the
relationship between economic
adversity and youth crime, it is essential to specify
the
specific community
context
and
social position of different groups of young people - and in particular, those
who
might
be described as 'abandoned youth'.
The
Co,lIapse
of
the
Youth
Labour
Market
The
current social
context
for youth is
one
characterised by high levels of youth
unemployment, increasing poverty, reductions in state welfare
and
educational
services and benefits,
and
a public culture of competitive individualism (Wyn &
White,
1997). These general trends
have
had
aparticularly negative impact
on
large sections of
the
youth population (Boss, Edwards &Pitman, 1995). Indeed, it
has
been
argued
that
the
present era is significantly different from previous decades:
whereas for most of this century
the
state has played a major supporting
and
inter
...
ventionist
role in assisting young people in
the
areas of education, welfare
and
rehabilitative juvenile justice, particularly
when
youth employment was stagnant,
the
same is
not
the
case today. Rather, we are seeing a simultaneous reduction in
youth employment prospects and in state support programmes for young people -
leading to what
can
be described as
the
phenomenon
of 'abandoned youth' (Polk,
1997).
It is our view
that
one
of
the
important general conditions which shapes
the
current situation of adversity for young people is
the
collapse in
the
availability of
full
...
time work for
the
young. Whereas barely 25 years ago, two
...
thirds of all
16-19
year olds in Australia were in full time work, by
the
1990s this has dropped to well
under 20 percent,
and
some economists are predicting
that
with
the
onset of
the
next
century, there will be no full time jobs for teenagers in Australia (Spiering,
1995).
As Jamrozik
(1998,
p. 76)
further
points
out:
"In
1966,
young
people
accounted for 13.6 per
cent
of all employed persons,
but
by 1995 they accounted
for only 6.9 per cent.
They
lost their share of employment in all sectors of industry,
including
those
industries
which
over
this
period
achieved
a very
high
rate
of
employment growth". In a similar vein, it is notable
that
between 1986
and
1991
the
proportion of young people (15-25 years) in full
...
time employment decreased by
THE AUSTRALIAN
AND
NEW
ZEALAND JOURNAL OF CRIMINOLOGY
285
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