Lack of access to employment opportunities is associated with poor physical and mental health, social isolation, poverty and an increased engagement with the criminal justice system.1 The effects of unemployment are compounded by the fact that there are lower employment opportunities for people who have previously been imprisoned.2
An individual’s life circumstances fundamentally affect their capacity for employment.3 Factors such as education,4 locational factors,5 and health can impact an individual’s ability to gain employment.
Being unemployed can have negative outcomes on mental and physical health indicators,6 social marginalisation,7 and child development outcomes.8 Furthermore, ‘[l]ong-term unemployment itself reduces people’s employment prospects, as employers worry about large gaps in their resumes and unemployed people lose confidence and skills'.9 Poverty and long-term unemployment are also causes of homelessness.10
Research has reported associations between unemployment and interaction with the criminal justice system.11 The relationship between incarceration and unemployment is cyclical, as ‘[t]he stigma of a criminal record for an ex-prisoner job seeker is among the most intractable barriers to employment.'12
The potential relevance of evidence of
of the causes and impacts associated with unemployment in sentencing proceedings may include an assessment of moral culpability; moderating the weight to be given to
general deterrence; determining the weight to be given to
specific deterrence and
protection of the community; and findings of special circumstances due to a possible need for extended supervision and the tailoring of a sentence to enhance prospects of rehabilitation.
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[1] Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee,
Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into the Value of a Justice
Reinvestment Approach to Criminal Justice in Australia (Report, 20 June 2013) 3 [2.1], 13 [2.50]; David Brown et
al, Justice Reinvestment: Winding
Back Imprisonment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) 97,
109; House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Affairs, Parliament of Australia, Doing Time –
Time for Doing: Indigenous Youth in the Criminal Justice System (June 2011) 156 [6.4].
[2] Senate Select Committee on Regional and Remote Indigenous Communities, Parliament of Australia, Indigenous Australians, Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System (Discussion Paper, March 2010) 30 [1.98]; Eileen Baldry et al, A Future Beyond the Wall: Improving Post-release Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison (Final Report, February 2018) 5.
[3] Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Closing
the Gap Report 2019 (Report, 2019) 94.
[4] Australian Council of Social Service and Jobs Australia, Faces of Unemployment 2020 (Report, March
2020) 15.
[5] Rob White and Chris Cunneen, 'Social Class, Youth Crime and Justice' in Barry Goldson and John Muncie (eds), Youth, Crime and Justice (Sage, 2nd ed, 2015) 17, 20; Australian Social Inclusion Board, Department of Prime Minister Cabinet, Addressing Barriers for Jobless Families (Report 2011) 16, citing Benjamin Edwards and Leah M Bromfield (2009) 'Neighbourhood Influences on Young Children's Conduct Problems and Pro-social Behaviour: Evidence from an Australian National Sample' (2009) 31 Children and Youth Services Review 317.
[6] House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations, Parliament of Australia, Inquiry into Issues Specific to Older Workers Seeking Employment, or Establishing a Business, Following Unemployment (June 2000) ch 2, 56 [2.23]; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The Health of Australia's Prisoners 2018 (Report, 2018) 17.
[7] Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous
Affairs (Cth), Parental Joblessness, Financial Disadvantage
and Wellbeing of Parents and Children (Occasional Paper No 48, 2012); House of Representatives Standing
Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations, Parliament of
Australia, Inquiry into Issues Specific to Older Workers
Seeking Employment, or Establishing a Business, Following Unemployment
(June 2000).
[8] Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Cth), Parental Joblessness, Financial Disadvantage and Wellbeing of Parents and Children (Occasional Paper No 48, 2012).
[9] Australian Council of Social Service, Submission on Future Employment Services to Department of Jobs and Small Business (Cth), Consultation on Future Employment Services (August 2018) 73.
[10] Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Cth), Parental Joblessness, Financial Disadvantage and Wellbeing of Parents and Children (Occasional Paper No 48, 2012); Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (Cth), The Road Home: A National Approach to Reducing Homelessness (White Paper, 2008); Launch Housing, Australian Homeless Monitor 2018 (Full Report, 2018) 22.
[11] Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network, 2015 Network Patient Health Survey Report (Report, May 2017) 27, citing Mikko Aaltonen et al, 'Examining the Generality of the Unemployment‑Crime Association' (2013) 51 Criminology 561; Australian Law Reform Commission, Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples: Discussion Paper, (Discussion Paper No 84, July 2017); Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The Health of Australia's Prisoners 2018 (Report, 2018).
[12] Eileen Baldry et al, A Future Beyond the Wall: Improving Post-release Employment Outcomes for People Leaving Prison (Final Report, February 2018) 5.