Correlation between Poverty and those in Prison

Correlation between Poverty and those in Prison

Introduction

The structural study of crime rates has a long tradition in Europe and the United States dating back to the early nineteenth century. One hundred years later appeared the first systematic investigation on the crime rate by the Chicago school, which concluded that the central explanatory factor in crime was the social disorganization. Much progress has been made since then in the purification methods, especially quantitative, used to find relationships between different variables that induce changes in the types and amounts of crime within a community. Of all conceivable variables, economic circumstances that lead individuals and social groups towards crime have long been a source of interest to sociologists, economists, criminologists and policy makers (Sanford, 1996).

The question of the relationship of poverty to those who are in prison is a very controversial issue historically in criminal policy. Now agrees that the doctrine does not exist between the two phenomena a direct relationship, deterministic and fatal, although it is easy to see that the vast majority of crimes are committed by people who come from environments where raw social marginalization and exclusion (Mauer, 2003).

After decades of study of the relationship between economic conditions of social groups and their inclination to commit crimes, two theories have emerged essentially believe they have found a causal explanation between the two variables. Both theories have been tested with multiple methods, levels of aggregation and statistical data. Their results have been generally mixed. The first is the motivational perspective, which assumes a positive relationship between unemployment and crime based on an extrapolation of the combination of processes at the individual emotional and rational choice. Thus it is considered that the higher the level of unemployment, and therefore the worse the economic situation of social groups, the more likely it is that is involved individuals who compose in criminal acts. Intuitively obvious substitute underlines the relationship between income net of income through legitimate means, normally paid employment or income, and financing criminal activities. There are two key sources that generate this positive relationship between crime and unemployment within a social group, so this implies the absence of income for many individuals. First, there is a tendency to frustration it generates in people the inability to obtain and maintain employment, income is the same, while preserving intact the instincts seem to improve or stabilize the level of individual life. In other words, it sharpens the conflict typical of the more orthodox economics between scarce resources and needs, socially constructed, unlimited (Irwin and Cressey, 2002).

Discussion

One area that has generated more interest in crime has been the relationship of poor youth and the characteristics that make them more vulnerable to crimes and victimization of the same. The reason for the abundance of both types of studies is obvious and goes through the fact that the crime rate and poor youth are much higher than those of the whole population. However, the scientific production about the economic conditions that influence ...