Study Ties Loss Of Jobs To Rise In Violent Crime
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new study out this week suggests that the loss of jobs in Chicago's inner city has been a major factor in the rising crime rates in some neighborhoods.
A new report on youth joblessness draws a strong connection between the loss of jobs in several neighborhoods and violent crime.
The report is called "Abandoned in their Neighborhoods," and co-author Teresa Codova, director of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Great Cities Institute, said it shows the connection between the loss of manufacturing jobs and Chicago's spate of violence.
"In a sense, what's happened here is the chickens have come home to roost. This is part of a trend that has gone on now for decades," she said. "It is clearly something that we knew is happening, that we've known is happening."
Cordova said communities that have lost the most manufacturing jobs are among those that have the highest crime.
"We now see, all these years later, very dramatically, that there really has been an impact from the departure of jobs from these areas, and if it's a structural problem, then we must come up with structural solutions," she said.
The study found joblessness for African Americans between 20 and 24 years old rose from 58.7 percent in 2014 to 60.2 percent in 2015. It also found black men and women from 20 to 24 years old had a much higher jobless rate in Chicago than New York and Los Angeles, as well as the state of Illinois and the U.S. overall.