The recession and crime

According to the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Despite turmoil in the economy and high unemployment, crime rates fell significantly across the United States in 2009, according to a report released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday.

Compared with 2008, violent crimes declined by 5.5 percent last year, and property crimes decreased 4.9 percent, according to the F.B.I.’s preliminary annual crime report. There was an overall decline in reported crimes for the third straight year; the last increase was in 2006.

So if the relationship between unemployment and crime is positive, Why do we see these kinds of results? It is often argued that poverty is the root cause of lawlessness but if the trends evident in the above data continue this argument will look less likely to be true.