Briefly discuss the contribution of high unemployment rates in informal settlements to crime in inner city
Answers
If there is high unemployment in informal settlements then the crime rate of those areas will definitely increase.
Firstly to understand this relationship one must be aware that inner cities having informal settlements means living in shacks or densely clustered settings. Example, South Africa has many informal settlements. Statistics say that every 1/5 South Africans live in shacks.
People who live in rural areas migrate to urban areas looking for jobs, under duress. Thus those who live in informal settlements, they struggle to progress beyond dead-end and thus if there is limited existing employment then they will turn towards stealing.
Answer:
Informal settlements are seen as areas of low social mobility and structural barriers to progress. People move to these areas under duress, prompted by rural insecurity and poverty. Lacking the skills that employers want, these settlers are unable to find jobs. Or, they get the lowest-paid, least desirable positions that no-one else wants.
High unemployment keeps wages low and working conditions bad, so people get stuck in these jobs that have no future. Repeated job rejections discourage them, and as a result damages their subjective well-being. They then turn to a life of crime as an easy way to rise out of poverty.