A NOTE ON THE EFFECTS OF POPULATION DENSITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT ON URBAN CRIME

Abstract

This note presents a brief review of reported studies analyzing the effects that population density and unemployment may have on urban crime rates. Very few such empirical studies have been conducted. and their Jindings have been quite contradictory and not entirely conclusive. However, for certain types of crimes, the evidence seems to indicate that the unemployment rate has a positive effect on the crime rate, while the effect of population density, if significant at all, is a negative one.