Written by: Signe Hald Andersen

In 2005/06 the  Danish National Labour Market Authority carried out an experiment in two of the then existing counties in Denmark, Sønderjyllands Amt and Storstrøms Amt. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the effect on employment of an intensive labour market activation programme for a randomly selected group of unemployed people who had unemployment insurance (unemployment insurance is optional in Denmark). In this paper we utilise data from the same experiment to investigate whether the intensified activation affected criminality among these unemployed individuals. The issue is an interesting one to examine, because it contributes to our understanding of the extent of and reasons for any link existing between unemployment and crime.