The Relationship between Female Labour Force Participation and Violent Crime in Malaysia: An ARDL Approach

Abstract

Crime has been on the rise in Malaysia, and this can pose a great challenge for the country to attract more tourist arrivals and even foreign direct investment. Numerous studies have investigated various factors in crime in Malaysia. However, none of them focused on female labour force as a potential determinant. Hence, it is vital to understand the effects of female labour force participation on violent crime in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to delve into the effects of the female labour force on Malaysia's violent crime using economic approach, namely as ARDL bounds testing approach. This study analyses annual data ranging from 1982 to 2017. The results demonstrate that the female labour force can negatively affect violent crime in the long run while it has an insignificant effect on violent crime in the short run. Thus, this study offers some important insights into formulating female participation policies in the labour force to combat violent crimes in Malaysia. Further research can be strengthened by having panel approach of cross-states analysis on these two variables for a more comprehensive perspective on violent crime in Malaysia.

The Economic Cost of Criminality: An Analysis of Its Impact on Development

“…Similarly, the result has shown a positive relationship between the crime rate and labor force (p < 0.005) which indicate that an increase in labor force (people who have work) would result in an increase in the crime rate. The findings of the study are in agreement with (Harun et al, 2021) in which, more crime mostly happened among a female who is working compared to their male counterparts (Harun et al, 2021), the stigma of women being weak and vulnerable has caused an increase in crime in labor force while decreasing the labor force participation (Chakraborty et al, 2018). Furthermore, hiring workers may reduce unemployment but this creates an increase in the crime rate of employed workers (Engelhardt et al, 2008).…”