HC Deb 23 June 1980 vol 987 cc23-4W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of crimes for the latest convenient date were committed by unemployed persons; and if he will break the figures down into age groups.

Mr. Brittan

Information is not collected centrally on the employment status of persons found guilty of or cautioned for offences.

Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what studies, if any, are taking place into the possible connection between unemployment and the crime rate; and, if none, if he will start an investigation into this possibility.

Mr. Brittan

Some relevant results are to be found in Home Office research study No. 58, "Race, Crime and Arrests" (pages 21–28), a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House. The Department has no specific research project on this topic in progress or planned because of the inherent difficulty of drawing conclusions from correlations where a wide variety of variables is involved.

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