POVERTY AND CRIME

Do people that live in poverty commit more violent crimes?



Do people that live in poverty commit more violent crimes?

Introduction

The relationship between economic deprivation and violent crime has been extensively studied in the field of criminology. In order to understand and prevent the occurrence of crime, researchers have long investigated possible factors related to crime. Examining how crime varies across different regions can help us to understand underlying reasons for violent crime, which is considered one of the enduring problems in society. Social disorganization theory assumes that poverty is one of the important factors increasing crime rates. Several researchers argued that poverty has significant positive effect on violent crime rate at the level of cities, metropolitan statistical areas, and U.S. counties. The purpose of this paper is to answer this question: Do people that live in poverty commit more violent crimes?

As more and more people become economically marginal, commitment to conventional order decreases and the probability a person will engage in crime increases (Hannon, 2005, p. 522). Those with a reduced stake in conformity are more likely to engage in criminal behavior. Poverty creates all situations in which people are alienated from meaningful attachment to social order and social institutions and this alienation can produce crime.

Discussion

Poverty and Violent Crime

Poverty refers to a lack of income to meet basic needs according to some fixed standard and is commonly demarcated by the official poverty line, which defines the standard for minimum family income according to family size and composition (Nichols, 2006). Poverty, and in particular chronic poverty, has detrimental consequences for families and children that are often cumulative. Not only does poverty cause economic strains such as the inability to pay bills and purchase basic necessities such as food and clothing, it also deprives families of the resources and capacity to cope with other stressful life events (Wadsworth et al., 2005).

This compounded stress can lead to problems such as parental depression and strained parent-child relationships, which in turn has important ramifications for adolescent development and well-being. Poverty has also been linked to adolescent outcomes through its association with other characteristics of families and parents such as family structure, age, race and ethnicity, and educational attainment (Diem and Pizarro, 2010). Therefore, the adversities faced by poor families could be a function of economic stress or the fact that parents are most likely to be single, young, minority, less educated and thus predisposed to a host of other economic and social ills that also have negative impacts on youth. Nonetheless, family poverty exposes youth to various individual, family, and community level risk factors, including emotional and behavioral problems (McLoyd, 1998); poor academic performance; exposure to marital and family violence harsh, lax, or inconsistent discipline (Grant et al., 2003); poor parental monitoring (Evans, 2004), residence in areas of concentrated poverty and exposure to lead and other environmental toxins that have been identified as risk factors for youth violence across multiple disciplines.

In one of the only studies to examine the effects of child ...