Unemployment and Crime Rates

On the last workday before the Labor Day weekend, the official unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent, the highest since 1983.

What effect does protracted economic hardship have on crime rates? Inuitively, one might think crime would go up as more people become desperate. At least in Minneapolis, however, serious crime rates have fallen, even as unemployment has risen. For the month by month statistics from January 2006 to February 2009. see this post on the Smart Politics blog.