The Relationship Between Involuntary Employment Separation and Violent Gun-Related Incidents

This paper examines the relationship between involuntary employment separation and violent gun-related offenses and incidents in the state of Wisconsin. To proxy for involuntary job separation, unemployment insurance claims are used in the analysis. The results suggest that increases in unemployment insurance claims increase rates of gun-related mortality and gun-related offenses as measured through the Uniform Crime Reporting system. Further analysis of the data suggests that Milwaukee County is a driver of the estimates; when removing this county from the sample, the magnitude of the relationship between unemployment insurance and crime moderates greatly. Further analysis reveals no significant difference in the magnitude of crime between urban and rural counties in Wisconsin more generally, however.