The trend of unemployment and crime index during COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia
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Date
2022-10Author
Nor Fadzilah, Zainal
Siti Nur Fathini, Muhsain
Nor Hidayah, Harun
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Show full item recordAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the number of unemployed to increase in
Malaysia and the issue of unemployment has become a social problem that has
always been positively linked to criminal activity. However, the crime index in
Malaysia showed a decrease over the period of the Movement Control Order
(MCO). Therefore, this study aims to explore this issue using secondary data taken
from various sources such as journals, books, proceedings, and press reports. The
results of the study found that the crime index decreased even though the number
of unemployed increased because it was in line with the theory of crime
opportunity. As the community needs to stay at home during the MCO period, the
chances of committing index crime are low because the home as well as property
are monitored as well as individuals are not exposed to violent crime. However,
the domino effect is non -index crime is reported to increase due to the stress of
life that makes the individual is motivated to commit non-index crime. The results
of the analysis of this study are expected to help the government, especially the
Department of Social Welfare to be more efficient by helping and supporting the
victims of non-index crime. In addition, the results of this study are also expected
to provide an explanation to the community on the question of why the
unemployment rate is negatively related to index crime as well as remove the
negative impression of the report given by the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP).
However, the results of this study are only a preliminary analysis, and it is
suggested that empirical studies can be conducted to support the results of this
analysis.