THE IMPACT OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE’S SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS ON THE

OCCURRENCE OF CRIMES: PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS

Rationale
Unemployment is an integral part of the normal capitalist system. Since
employment is a key source of identity and an organizational frame for daily life in our
cultures, unemployed individuals suffer psychological and social distress. It is well
researched that unemployment is connected with negative health consequences.
Unemployment leads to stress-related illnesses and a lowered self-esteem as a result of
unmet psychological and social needs in such contexts as: time structure, social
interaction, common goals, status, identity, recognition and also uncertainty about the
future, financial instability, and loss of vocational identity.
Previous estimates of the effect of unemployment on crime commonly omit
determinants of criminal behavior that vary with the business cycle, creating correlation
between unemployment rates and the residuals in aggregate crime regressions. In this
paper, we employ several strategies that attempt to minimize or break this correlation
and eliminate the accompanying omitted variables bias to estimates of the effect of
unemployment on crime. Moreover, in contrast to previous research, we find significant
and sizable positive effects of unemployment on the rates of specific violent, as well as
property crimes.
Crime exist in different places with the present of opportunity, instrumentality and
motive. Since then, crime has increased dramatically, beginning a year ago and
continuing today, adding to a large increase in crime rates in a certain area. It is
changing with time and has become a concern in our society. Although, (Freeman et al.,
2001) speculated that the declining wages and employment opportunities of unskilled
men contributed to their increasing involvement in crime. It is the only paper to examine
the relationship between wages and crime. It used a structural model with individual-
level data from the NLSY, and estimates the relationship between the wage offer and
the property crimes committed by the individual. In contrast, we focus on a variety of
property and violent crimes, and use a nonstructural approach that exploit s the
differences in the timing of wage changes across geographic areas to explain the timing
of the changes in various types of crime.
In the Philippines, crime takes many forms and is still a severe problem
throughout the country. Human trafficking, arms trafficking, homicide, corruption, and
domestic violence continue to be major challenges. As of 2014, the Philippines had the
highest rate of homicide cases in Southeast Asia. This study emphasizes the need of
understanding why these acts are still on the rise and the reasons that lead to such
behavior. The high rate of unemployment has negative psychological implications such
as loss of identity and self-esteem, higher stress from family and social pressures. The
unemployment rate is one of the most common economic indicators used to assess an
economy’s health. It fluctuates with the business cycle, rising during downturns and
falling during expansions. It is one of the most closely monitored metrics by
policymakers, investors, and the general public. According to Claire Dennis Mapa
(2014), Due to movement restrictions imposed by transportation curbs, the
unemployment rate in Manila, which accounts for 40% of the country’s economic output,
was 12.4 percent. It has been proposed the unemployment causes people to turn to
crime in order to meet their social and economic needs and that unemployed causes
anomie among the unemployed which is linked to criminal behavior.
The studies looked concerned with determining the impact of unemployment on
crime or looked at unemployment as one of many factors that could influence crime.
The study will be conducted in the Municipality of Kapalong Barangay Maniki Davao del
Norte with the prevalence of crime rates in the area. It’s pertaining the number of crimes
happened in locality which serve as the main problem of the said area. Crime rates in
the locality of Kapalong Barangay Maniki Davao del Norte are continue to rise due to
some reasons. Within this study we are able to categorize the main reason about the
crime happened in the locality.
This study focuses on the effect of unemployment to crime rates, where there
have not been studied within the locality. Therefore, the goals of this study is to analyze
the impact of social effects of unemployment rate in the prevalence of crime rate in
Kapalong.

Purpose of the study

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to capture the lived
experiences of our beloved locality. In this study, we, the researchers would focus on
the experiences of the concerned individuals in our locality who are in the right age and
have knowledge regarding of this matter and get their insights about this matter. As
criminology students and future law enforcers, the researchers are deeply interested in
understanding the experiences faced by our society regarding with this problems of
unemployment and its linked to the possible rise of crime rates and how they come up
with the changes, situations, and challenges ahead of them.
Moreover, this study also visualized and documented the different experiences
including the changes, situations, and challenges of the selected members of our
locality whom willingly participated in this matter in in-depth interviews (IDI) both the
positive and negative outcomes from their workplace, in Maniki, Kapalong, Davao del
Norte.
In addition, this study intends to seek to listen to and understand the
perspectives of the participants as they willingly shared their experiences and
knowledge in the new normal during the interview. Also, this study aims to gain
additional knowledge in the field of research on how their experiences give them a
lesson not to give up as a good citizen and to be well-prepared for future crises.

Interview Guide Questions

This study aims to gather the different Perception of people in The impact of the
unemployment rate’s societal implications on the occurrence of crime, from the people’s
perspective; especially it attempts to answer the following research questions
Research Question Main Question Probe Question
1.0 What are the lived 1.1. would you prefer
experiences/perception of working or unemployed?
people in being State your reason.
unemployed ? 1.2. have you ever had a
full time job or not? Share
your experiences.
2.0 What are the coping 2.1. would you consider of
mechanisms of people to moving to work ? Why or
the challenges that they why not.
have experienced? 2.2. do you feel you have
personally been
discriminated against
Potential employer? If yes,
share your Experiences
3.0 What are the insights 3.1. Do you consider the
of people in the Jobless growth would
unemployment rate in the increase the crime rate ?
occurrence of crime? Why or why not.
3.2. In your own opinion, in
what particular ways you
can alternatively
addressed the problems of
the continuous rise of
Unemployment rate and
the occurrences of crimes?

Theoretical Lens
 According to the theory of economics of crime, increased unemployment rates
lead to higher property crime rates. A fixed-effects model is estimated to investigate this
hypothesis. The model includes time- and county-specific effects and a number of
economic and socio-demographic variables to control for unobservable and covariates.
The results show that unemployment had a positive and significant effect on some
property crimes (burglary, car theft and bike theft). (The editors of the “Scandinavian
Journal of Economics”, 2005)

In their seminal work Cantor and Land (1985) developed a theoretical framework
to explain the link between unemployment and crime. They suggested two important
links: opportunity and motivation. The motivation hypothesis, similar to the Becker
(1968) analysis, suggested that a decrease in viable economic prospects will increase
the incentive to engage in crime; so the unemployed are more likely to engage in
criminal activities; this suggests a positive relationship between crime and
unemployment.

An equilibrium theory of unemployment assumes that firms and workers

maximize their payoffs under rational expectations and that wages are determined to
exploit the private gains from trade. This book focuses on the modeling of the transitions
in and out of unemployment, given the stochastic processes that break up jobs and lead
to the formation of new jobs, and on the implications of this approach for
macroeconomic equilibrium and for the efficiency of the labor market. This approach to
labor market equilibrium and unemployment has been successful in explaining the
determinants of the” natural” rate of unemployment and new data on job and worker
flows, in modeling the labor market in equilibrium business cycle and growth models,
and in analyzing welfare policy Pissarides (2000)
Significance of the Study

In conducting this phenomenological study, the findings of this enlightened and

gives knowledge to everyone about the said matters on how does unemployment
affects that occurrence of crime. It could be also beneficial to Department of Labor and
Employment as the primary beneficiary of this since they are the one which handles the
issues of employment rate, Philippine National Police organization, and government
considering that police personnel is the most visible representatives of the government
and they are also the one which have clear knowledge about this matter. They are
needed at times of danger, crisis, and difficulty. Also, this study would lead to
understanding the experience and shows the difference perspectives of people
regarding of this phenomena.
 To the Department of Labor and Employment, government and police
organization, for them to be aware of what are the experiences faced by our
community regarding with this issue of unemployment rate. To know what are their
actions to be given to the address this problems.

To the police personnel, the results of this study would help them to be
prioritized and their needs should be acknowledged and heard by the police
organization and the government.

To the society, the results provide some knowledge on community, if DOLE will
acknowledge and and gives solution which provide more ways and opportunities as
they are more productive in their work to maintain law and order in local areas by
protecting members of the and promoting public safety, preventing crime, reducing the
fear of crime and improving the quality of life for all citizens in the sense of slowly solve
the problems of poverty which leads to causation of crimes.

To the researchers, the outcome of this study is beneficial to either present

researchers or future researchers. This study may be one of the bases for their
research paper.
Definition of Terms
Unemployment- As used in this study, it refers to a condition when a person who is
actively searching for employ is incapable to find work.

Crime rate- As used in this study, it refers to the percentage between the numeral of
felonies and misdemeanors documented by the police and gendarmerie and the
populace in question.

Limitations and Delimitation of the study

This phenomenological study aimed only at gathering the different Perception of

people in the community or experiences regarding with the problem they could share
with the organization and government. We selected Five random participant, from
Maniki, Kapalong Davao del Norte.
 This study is dependent on the ability of the informants and of this interview are
those who are willingly wants to participate and honestly gives their perspectives and
experiences and answer the interview questions thru In- Depth Interview and play a
recording while conducting the interview and keep it confidential. Informants and
participants had varying degrees of knowledge and experiences with this problems ,
and therefore, may be subjective.

Lastly, the purpose of this study was to capture and to know how these
experiences and perspectives of people about how this unemployment link to the
occurrence of crime and how it may affect the mental and physical well-being of the
people in the community. The perspectives and the lived experiences of people who are
the being unemployed or as a concern citizens regarding with this problems are
described and documented in this phenomenological study. This study was limited only
to the opinion of the qualified informants and participants; their responses where be
recorded and confidential

Organization of the Study

This study was organized and arranged in an order to be easily identified and
comprehended by the readers. Here was the comprehensive presentation and
discussion of the organization of the study.

Chapter 1. Presented the introduction of the study; it included the purpose of the
study, research question, theoretical lens, significance of the study, the definition of the
term, scope, and limitation of the study, and the organization of the study.

Chapter 2. Aimed to support understanding of the problem better it also dealt

with the review of related literature. It was the section where studies and theories out
sourced from the internet, books, and even trusted authors.

Chapter 3. It specified the procedures taken and approaches employed in the

study such as research design, data collection, research participants the ethics uphold
upon the conduct of the study, and others.
 Chapter 4. Discussed the result of the study based on questions conducted to
the participants, which would shed light on reasons underlying the phenomenological
aspects of views. These were views gathered from the participants involved.

Chapter 5. Showed the basis of findings and the divergence of the theories
presented by different authors. It also discussed the explanation of its implication in the
practice and further research to be conducted together with its concluding remarks.