If we don’t pass Obama’s jobs bill… horror awaits, according to Vice-President Joe Biden. Murder. Rape!

Watch Joe Biden in this short clip from HumanEvents.com:

So now we know. Unemployment causes rape and murder. Isn’t that what the Vice-President is saying? That’s why we must pass the jobs bill, because if we don’t, “murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise, all crimes will continue to rise!”

Fact-checking Biden

Is it true that employment causes these violent crimes? I suppose it could be the case that higher rates of unemployment correlate with higher rates of crime. It makes some sense to me that people without a job will likely use their time in a myriad other ways and, coupled with desperation, lack of purpose and lack of self-esteem, it seems likely that crime may rise during times of high unemployment.

A Wall Street Journal piece says that there is no correlation, however, between unemployment and violent crime, only a correlation between unemployment and burglary (which is somewhat unsurprising), and even that is yet to show up in the data this time (see below).

Further, when Biden talks about the rise of murder and rape, he was referring the rates in Flint, Michigan only! So Biden wants a national jobs bill passed as a response to crime rates in Flint? Perhaps what’s happening in Flint is happening everywhere; perhaps Biden cited the crime rates in Flint because they represent in microcosm the rest of the country. Yes?

No. The FBI Uniform Crime Report has consistently showed decreasing crime rates – falling numbers of crimes – for the last quarter-century. Everything is down: murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, vehicle theft, arson… everything.

How could Joe Biden get it so wrong?

He really wants that jobs bill.