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Example research essay topic: Youth Unemployment And Crime - 2,115 words

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Opinions such as those found in the Smith Family Youth Unemployment Report (2003) which hypothesize that juvenile crime is directly connected to the high rates of youth unemployment in Australia cannot be neither accepted nor critiqued until there is a clear understanding of what the terms "Youth Unemployment" and "Juvenile Crime" mean in the context of this essay. In this essay youth unemployment is generally taken to include the entire 15 - 24 age cohort - not just 15 - 19 year old teenagers - who are no longer at school or university and who are without a job. I have chosen to include 20 - 24 year olds under the banner of "Youth", as it gives a fairer picture of the performance of all young people in the labor market and takes into account the pattern of employment both during and after leaving school or university. The word juvenile is used to describe the actions of a person who is "not fully grown or developed" (web), and is marked by immaturity and childishness.

Crime is generally taken to include all acts which are deemed against the law of the state, and are therefore illegal. The term "Juvenile Crime" is usually taken to encompass juvenile delinquency. Explaining crime and delinquency is a complex task. A multitude of factors exist that contribute to the understanding of what leads someone to engage in delinquent behavior. Just as the casual factors of juvenile delinquency and crime are diverse and numerous, so are their definitions. Hartley (1985) and other sociologists state, "Sociologists define deviance as any behavior that members of a social group define as violating their norms.

This concept applies both to criminal acts of deviance and non-criminal acts that members of a group view as unethical, immoral, peculiar, sick, or otherwise outside the bounds of respectability. " In order to look discuss whether or not youth unemployment causes or has any correlation to the high crime rate in Australia, it is important to have a clear understanding of the patterns of youth unemployment. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in September 1995 10. 9 % of the total 15 - 24 age population was unemployed (or 15. 1 % of the 15 - 24 year old labour force). Unemployment as a proportion of the population among 20 - 24 year olds was 9. 7 % (or 11. 6 % of the 20 - 24 year old labour force) and among teenagers was 12. 2 % (or 20. 7 % of the teenage labour force). For considerable numbers of young people it is not getting any easier to find work as they move into their twenties or complete education. According to a study undertaken in 1995 by Wooden (1999) young people who just worked part-time represented 10 % of the total 20 - 24 age group compared to 5. 7 % of teenagers. Altogether 215, 000 young people were working part-time.

Two-thirds of those working part-time wanted to work longer hours but couldn^ 1 t find the work. So the total number unemployed or just working part-time equals 507, 000 young people or 18. 8 % of the total 15 - 24 population or 26. 2 % of the 15 - 24 age labour force. It is this group as a whole that is at risk of being relegated to the margins of the labour force. A further 163, 000 young people had already dropped out of the labour force, a significant number of them discouraged by their attempt to find work. It is also worth looking at where high rates of youth unemployment are concentrated. It is highest in regional centres and is disproportionately located in the western suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne and outlying states such as South Australia.

For example, in July 1997 52 % of the young unemployed in New South Wales were located in just four regions of outer Western Sydney, the Hunter Valley, the Illawarra and the north coast areas around the Richmond and Tweed rivers (Wooden: 1999). In South Australia youth unemployment in Adelaide^ 1 s northern an southern suburbs accounted for 56 % of the state's total youth unemployment while in Tasmania nearly half of all the unemployed were concentrated in Hobart. According to World Bank's "The Global Crisis of Youth Unemployment", male and females aged between 15 and 24 years account for 41 per cent of the world's unemployed, an estimated 74 million people. Compared to other nations, Australia's youth unemployment rates are high.

By 1993 Australia had the fifth highest youth unemployment rate among thirteen OECD countries, (ABS) and ten years later Australia still fares poorly. As the OECD (Employment Outlook 2003, p. 26) stated, 'teenage unemployment and early school leaving rates in Australia exceed the area-wide average. Moreover, the employment disadvantage of poorly qualified school leavers, compared to their better educated counterparts, is somewhat above the OECD average'. According to ABS trend statistics, in September of 2003 21. 6 per cent of 15 - 19 year olds in Australia were unemployed. Female teenagers (23. 3 per cent) had a higher unemployment rate than their male counterparts (20. 6 per cent). This is in stark contrast to the 5. 9 per cent of unemployed adults.

Thus in September teenagers were over two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than adults. The number of unemployed teenagers may be even higher, if the 11. 5 per cent of 15 - 19 year olds who are not in the labour force are taken into consideration. Alarmingly, 15. 3 per cent of all Australian teenagers are neither employed full-time, nor attending an educational institution (ABS Labour Force Australia Study; 2003). Although the adult unemployment rate has almost halved since 1993, the percentage of teenagers in these 'marginal activities' (not in full-time employment or study) has persisted over the last ten years (Strathdee and Hughes, 2002: 34), and some groups of the population have even higher proportions of teenagers in 'marginal activities'.

While 15. 3 per cent of all teenagers are not in full-time employment or in full-time education, (ABS Labour Force Australia Study; 2003) 45 per cent of Indigenous teenagers are in the same situation. Teenagers living in certain states are also less likely to be working or studying full-time - in the Northern Territory this is the case for 32. 2 per cent of teenagers, 18. 4 per cent in Western Australia, 18. 1 in Queensland and 17. 8 per cent in South Australia (Dusseldorp Skills Forum, 2003: 4). Australian and international studies have shown interplay between youth unemployment and Crime (Weatherburn, 2001). Two links between unemployment and crime are popularly supposed. One is the belief that boredom and other situational factors of unemployment increase opportunity for, and thus likelihood of, criminal activity. Another common view holds that if needs and wants cannot be sufficiently and legitimately met by employment, then individuals will seek illegitimate ways to meet these.

Thus wages from employment are used to provide food, clothing, shelter and other goods and services, but unemployment and a consequent lack of wages by which to meet these needs may lead to the attractiveness of criminal activity. These common views are essentially in concurrence with much of the scholarly work (Weatherburn, 2001). It would be simplistic and overly reductive to argue that unemployment causes crime in a direct straightforward, without-exception fashion. Unemployment may be one influence on an individual's likelihood of undertaking criminal activity. And, as with other aspects of disadvantage, youth unemployment may combine with other disadvantaging factors (such as socioeconomic disadvantage, region, duration of unemployment, prior criminal behavior, early school leaving, weak links to the labour market and Indigenousness) to result in criminal activity (Weatherburn, 2001). According to the ABS, 'Measuring Wellbeing: Frameworks for Australian Social Statistics', long-term unemployment is an antecedent of crime.

Scholars Chapman, Weatherburn, Kapuscinski, Chilvers and Roussel have highlighted in their report 'Unemployment Duration, Schooling and Property Crime' (2002), at least two influences regarding intersections between long-term unemployment and crime. Firstly, unemployment duration is inversely linked to labour market attractiveness. As Chapman et al, drawing on Rummery 1989, rationalize, 'the longer the period of joblessness... the greater the atrophy in human capital' (2002: 3). Therefore, given the link between human capital and success in the labour market, the longer a person is unemployed the less likely they are to find employment. As the likelihood of employment decreases the more the likelihood of 'illegitimate earning activity' increases (Chapman et al 2002: 3).

Secondly, long-term unemployment may affect an individual's attitude regarding future employment opportunities. The 'Factors Influencing Criminal Offending' report issued by the Crime Prevention Division of NSW found that a poor expectation of future employment prospects combined with a period of unemployment is more likely to result in criminal activity than the combination of unemployment with more positive expectation of future employment. As Chapman et al. (2002: 4) explain, 'individuals who do not expect to remain unemployed for long are much less likely to engage in crime'. For many unemployed youth, the above characteristics may be coupled with the first significant time in their life course where they are not subject to supervision and authority. They also may not have an acceptable place to be, in the way that school and the tertiary sector provide 'place' and 'space'. Unemployed youth therefore negotiate a confluence of several challenging factors; they cannot find employment and have little prospect and expectation of doing so.

They are without a significant degree of formal supervision and authority and without 'place' and occupation. Unemployed youth often have little, or no, experience in the labour market. While these challenges confront unemployed people of all ages, they are particularly adverse, and may be amplified, for youth who face them with only limited experience and maturity. When considering crime and unemployment 'immaturity' must be taken into account.

Youth unemployment is a major issue for the government, policy makers and planners. Although unemployment is a social problem, youth unemployment is of particular concern because of the effect it can have on a person's future. Youth is an important time for choosing a career, gaining and developing skills, establishing an identity and obtaining independence. As a nation, youth unemployment accounts for a large amount of expenditure.

The cost of youth unemployment in regard to unemployment benefits and the cost of countering and treating crime and mental and physical health problems are very difficult to quantify. In terms of early school leaving, however, some figures have been quantified. The Dusseldorp Skills Forum estimate that 'the cost to individuals, governments and the rest of society as a result of the disadvantages of higher unemployment, lower incomes and other costs arising from early school leaving in Australia is estimated at $ 2. 6 billion every year' (Spierings, 2001: 7 - 8). Applied Economics estimated that if half of all early school leavers over a five year period are provided with a Year 12 or equivalent education, unemployment benefits would be reduced by approximately $ 80 million per annum.

References Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Labour Force Australia, ABS, September 2003, pp. 1, 6, 9 - 10, 13. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 'Work -Unemployment: Youth Unemployment', Australian Social Trends 1995, Australia Crime Prevention Division, 'Factors Influencing Criminal Offending', Juvenile Crime in New South Wales Report, Chapter 4, web Accessed on 6 / 6 / 2005 Dusseldorp Skills Forum, How Young People are Faring: Key Indicators 2003, Dusseldorp Skills Forum, Sydney, August 2003, p. 4 OECD, Employment Outlook 2003, in Dusseldorp Skills Forum, How Young People are Faring: Key Indicators 2003, Dusseldorp Skills Forum, Sydney, August 2003, p. 26 Online Research Engine web Accessed on 7 / 5 / 2005 Strathdee, R and Hughes, D 'Changes in Young Peoples's oil Networks and Welfare Reform in Australia', The Drawing Board: An Australian Review of Public Affairs, vol. 3, no. 1, July 2002, p. 34. Spierings, J 'Regional and local government initiatives to support youth pathways: lessons from innovative communities', ACER Understanding Youth Pathways Conference, Melbourne, October 2001. Weatherburn, D 'The impact of unemployment on crime' in Saunders, P and Taylor, R (eds), (2001) The Price of Prosperity, pp 226 - 248 Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

Weatherburn D. (2001), What causes crime? (Crime and Justice Bulletin B 54) at URL: web Accessed on 5 / 6 / 2005 World Bank, 'The Global Crisis of Youth Unemployment', http//: web Accessed on 6 / 6 / 2005 Bibliography Hartley, R. (1985) What Price Independence? Youth Affairs Council of Victoria Inc. Fitzroy Poole, M. E. (1983) Youth: Expectations and Transitions, Routledge & Kegan Paul, Melbourne Wooden, M. (1999) Impediments to the Employment of Young People, NCVER, Australia


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Research essay sample on Youth Unemployment And Crime

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