erstand.Rubenstein opens this article with a modern day example of crime in an urban area where employment rates are generally found to be low. Using as his example is the South Central Los Angeles riot of 1992 started by the minority population in that area. He sets up an argument for the correlation between crime and unemployment rates by quoting the California Assembly Special Committee. They agreed with the Kerner Commission of a generation ago, emphasizing that "economic opportunity [was] a major cause of the riots and the high crime rates in South Central Los Angeles."(Hicks 48). He goes on to support this statement throughout the first two paragraphs of the article, agreeing that "the coincidence of crime and unemployment in places like South Central Los Angeles seems to confirm their connection. And it makes sense motivationally."(48)His line of reasoning makes sense as one would think that the greater need for money due to unemployment would motivate someone to criminal behavior. However, the rest of the article goes to disproving this theory. In the body of his work, Mr. Rubenstein puts forth a great deal of research spanning the decades since the turn of the century. He begins with the correlation of age to crime. If crime were an economic motivator than the "limited job options would mean more to a man approaching Ellison 830 than to a teenager."(48) Since the conviction rates for boys and single men who do not have the responsibility of supporting a family are significantly more than that of a married man, then economic factors really have no place in the crime equation. Also, women "are invariably less prone to crime than men" even though today they are still paid only about 75 cents to every $1.00 earned by a man. Rubenstein goes on to disprove the theory of economic background affecting crime by bringing up crimes such as rape, drug addiction and homicide which are not "profit oriented crime"(48). There is no economic b...
