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Soc 1510,
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Relationship between poverty and crime
Introduction
Crime has been associated with poverty. When people lack material things, they tend to steal or take it from someone else using force which leads to law-breaking or abuse of criminal law. Poverty is the lack of sufficient resources to spend on basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Poverty is dynamic and relative since it is caused by many factors which include, health issues, lack of education among others. Therefore, some crimes can be related to poverty as the offenders commit them as they try to access the unavailable resources. Applying the economic concepts will help in understanding the close relationship between poverty and crime and that the occurrence of one is connected to the other.
Objective Conditions
Several studies have proved that poverty is directly related to criminal activities. Reflecting on research done on the illegal cigarette business, most people who were involved were mainly from low social classes (Lompe, and Kurti, 217). From participants of the research, it was observed that the smokers who consumed the illegal cigarettes approved them as legit and normal. They consumed them because they are cheap and they could not afford the legal cigarettes in the market. Their consumption motivated the criminal activity of supplying illegal cigarettes in the market. According to the United States census report in 2010, the poverty level In South Bronx was 38.9% which was higher than 20.1% in the city (Lompe, and Kurti, 218). Consumption of illegal cigarettes in South Bronx was 80% which was higher as compared to 50-60% of illegal cigarette smokers in New York City.
Additionally, areport obtained from the Crime Survey of England and Wales, it was evident that people who had an income of below 10,000 Euros faced many crimes than the ones above 50, 000 Euros (Cuthbertson, 3). In table 1, 62% of the participants with the lowest incomes faced personal crimes and 73% were more violent crimes. This shows that:
Poor people with incomes below 10,000 Euros are prone to violent crimes than the ones with income above 50,000 Euros (Cuthbertson, 3).
Less fortuned individuals suffer robbery and muggings three times more than their counterparts.
The poor are attacked by people they know since they are degraded because of their economic status.
Poor individuals are at a higher risk of rape and domestic violence three times more than their counterparts.
Thus, form the report above, poverty is related toa crime such that a poor person can engage in criminal activities or be a target of crime since they are assumed to be weak.
Furthermore, findings from research in several counties in the United States from 1979 to 1997 showed that low-skilled workers and low-income earners were involved in 50% of the crimes committed during that period (Lompe, and Kurti, 215). They particularly engaged in property and violent crimes as they tried to acquire what the rich people owned. Also, the findings of Machin and Meghir in 2004 in the United Kingdom showed that during periods when the wages were reduced, there were increased criminal activities. Similarly, when the rate of unemployment was low, people were able to earn enough income to spend on their basic need thus the level of crimes was low. Thus unemployment and underemployment have a direct relationship with poverty and crime.
Moreover, the geographical differences determine the relationship between crime and poverty. Findings from the 1999 UCR report in the United States showed that law enforcement personnel were between 2.5 to 4.3 persons in a population of 1000 people (Wikström, and Treiber, 1236). Climate conditions, religious characteristics, recreational places and cultural factors such as the family structures associated with the various regions led to the differences in crime activities. For instance, in regions with temperate climate, there is a lot of crime since the weather does not support proper growth of food all through the year. Thus, the people in those regions do not afford the basic need of food all the time which makes them engage in criminal activities. Also, areas that do not have enough law enforcers to control the behaviors of people will tend to experience more crimes than areas that have a high number of police activities. Hence, geographical conditions influence crime in a given area.
Besides, education level is associated with poverty which is related to crime. In certain research conducted in the U.S, families which had uneducated people were at a higher risk of poverty than the ones which had learned members. Uneducated people were living below the poverty level since they had no skills or knowledge to acquire employment (Owusu, 4). Those who had general skills were employed in low-paying jobs thus the income which they earned was not enough for basic needs. Since the level of poverty is measured with the level of income which a family spends on basic needs annually, employment is, therefore, significant in this context. When a family lacks income, the members, especially the young people will engage in criminal activities to afford the resources. This shows the relationship between the level of education and property.
Theoretical Discussion
The relationship between crime and poverty can be explained using two theoretical perspectives: economic view and situational action theory.
1. Economic view- Poverty is lack of individual income. Several economic factors such as unemployment, underpayments and unequal opportunities in the labor markets lead to poverty (Owusu, 3). When people have no means of acquiring income, the income per capita in a family goes down. This means that individuals will not be able to afford the basic need since they do not have the required finances. As a result, they will use other means since insufficient resources are a threat to their survival. The urge to fulfill the needs will lead the people to commit intentional crimes. Also, the unequal distributions of wealth course the poor to engage in criminal activities as they try to get what they do not have from the rich people.
2. Situational action theory- It explains how the environmental setting can cause an individual to engage in crime. A person makes the choice to commit a crime with regards to the kind of people and social factors that they interact with (Wikström, and Treiber, 1235). For instance; people who are born in areas where poverty is dominant grow up in a harsh society. The people they relate with may introduce them to criminal activities since that is the way of survival in the region. Also, lacking some resources will automatically make the person make bad choices of stealing or burglary. Thus, the hard conditions and the surrounding environment will make people engage in crime.
Predictions
To reduce the causes of crime in society, policymakers have to understand the factors which cause poverty. From the above findings on the relationship between crime and poverty, the major cause of crime is poverty. Therefore, the government of a given country should focus on the following predictions:
Create more job opportunities particularly for young people. This will help them in acquiring basic needs (Bharadwaj, 30)
Facilitate cheap education systems to ensure everyone is able to afford it. A higher level of education have been associated with reduced poverty levels which will result in minimized criminal activities
Ensure equal opportunities in the labor market. For instance, there should be a minimum wage to prevent underpayment and enforcement of female employment to ensure gender equality in jobs.
These predictions will help in dealing with crime issues since people will have finances to cater to their needs. As demonstrated in the research above, people are pushed to commit a crime by lack of something. When the economic conditions and social environment is stable, people will have no reasons to commit crime whether violent or non-violent.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the increasing number of crimes in the community is associated with poverty. Lack of enough resources makes people make bad choices of engaging in crime so as to acquire what they do not have. Economic factors such as unemployment are what cause poverty. Therefore, understanding the basic causes of poverty will help in relating the modern crimes which have been rampant in society. Policymakers should adopt the predictions which will focus on alleviating poverty rates first since this will directly affect the crime level.
Works Cited
Bharadwaj, Ashish. “Is poverty the mother of crime? Empirical evidence of the impact of socioeconomic factors on crime in India.” Atlantic Review of Economics, vol. 1, 2014, pp. 1-40.
Cuthbertson, Peter. “Poverty and Crime: Why a new war on criminals would help the poor most.” Civitas, 2018, pp. 1-12.
Lompe, Klaus V., and Marin K. Kurti. “The link between poverty and crime: Views from consumers in the cigarette black market in the South Bronx.” ResearchGate, 2015, pp. 213-228.
Owusu, George. “Introduction: Urban Crime and Poverty Nexus.” Ghana Journal of Geography, vol. 8, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-10.
Wikström, Per-Olof H., and Kyle Treiber. “Social Disadvantage and Crime: A Criminological Puzzle.” Sage, vol. 60, no. 10, 2016, pp. 1232-1259.
Appendix
Table 1
No. crimes per head suffered by those with household incomes below £10,000 for every 100 crimes per head suffered by those on household incomes above £50,000 No. victims per head with household incomes below £10,000 for every 100 victims per head on household incomes above £50,000
Theft from a dwelling and meter 399 266
Robbery 298 285
Mugging 285 262
Rape and assault by penetration 275
Attempted burglary in a dwelling 271 195
Snatch theft 244 244
Domestic Violence 225 563
Common Assault with Injury 220 232
Violence with injury 215 216
Attempted snatch and stealth theft 209 163
Wounding 205 187
Burglary in dwelling 205 163
Theft from the person 201 176
Stealth theft 183 179
Stranger violence 172 141
Common assault 167 157
Other household theft 159 142
Theft from an outside dwelling 143 136
Arson and other damages 130 125
Acquaintance violence 123 125
All vehicle crime 49 38
All personal theft 134 132
All violence 173 164
All personal crime 163 152
