Crimes of the Poverty Stricken vs. the Affluent

People may feel frustration and anger when they’re unable to attain their goals through legitimate means, and therefore will turn to crime. This phenomenon typically occurs among low-income individuals. Despite living in poverty stricken neighborhoods, most people still desire the same needs as the middle class: status, and wealth. However, due to perceived blocked opportunities, these poorer people feel strained. When this occurs, they may turn to criminal activities.

Why do people commit certain crimes? Crimes are committed for many different reasons by people, but there is category of people who commit crimes in response to a State in which is biasedly against them and is posed to create some sort of statement and in many instances poverty can contribute to crime. Lets take the instance that if someone has grown up in a situation of poverty and is in a hopeless situation some individuals given those circumstances will turn to crime to get out of their poor conditions. Some may argue it is not an excuse because they are many who are poor who do not commit crime but on the contrary there are also many who are rich that do commit crime and get away with it due to their power or legitimacy. So we see that clearly if the conditions are bad or poor for somebody chances are that they is a higher possibility that some of those people might be involved in crime. There are some determinants that factor out in this consideration which is depending on the area and environment the individual surrounds themselves around with, there is a saying that “you are a product of your own environment”, due to this proposition the poor people get lack of opportunity to network with wealthy and educated individuals up in the hierarchy. They can only resort to the streets because of their environment, these people grew up in poverty and all around them is gang-affiliates, violent and drugs. The norms is that society considers

Unfortunately for the 99%, the lower class is at greater risk for incarceration than the financially elite - regardless of the virtually non-existent gap between the socio-economic crime rates. It all comes down to money; the upper-class have more of it and, subsequently, more access to education and legal aid, giving them the tools to evade persecution. Although a life of extreme poverty can place greater emphasis on survival rather than morals, leading to increased crime and incarceration rates, the affluent are just as likely to commit crime, just less likely to be vilified and jailed for it.

Poverty fosters large crime rates. Where you find poverty, you often find crime. Urban areas are commonly known to be densely populated. High population along with the close proximity of businesses provide criminals with larger amounts of potential targets. For many impoverished people, the potential benefits of crime outweigh the risks of being caught. The pressing need for material goods, such as food, can steer people to commit crimes. Often threats and violence produce larger quantities of goods, which provokes people to commit even more violent acts. These acts are carried out primarily by people from poorer segments of the population and who are more likely to live in urban areas.

People have a tendency of ascribing external stimuli as reasons for actions and behaviour of man. If a person becomes a criminal, we look for reasons in his background and social setting. However, it is not always necessary that a poor person will take to crime to alleviate his misery.

Just as Grendel’s social status precludes his being shunned from society, so today is society’s relationship to wealth and social status significant in determining criminality within a population. The 2008 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) stated that “[i]n

Individuals in poverty stricken communities are more likely to embark on a criminal path than those in wealthier communities due to the lack of opportunities presented to them. Poor communities are usually composed of single parent households with low levels of education. The need for money and closing doors presented to them when applying for jobs lead many to turn to a life of crime. A life of crime where money is obtained by selling drugs, theft, and fraud. As more of those homes emerge, communities are left divided. While some rise up to the challenge to combat crime, others ignore the situation. Many law enforcement agencies benefit from the social control created by crime. Some police officers are given arrest quotas to meet. Social control provides a justification for the large number of arrests. Justifications vary from keeping the streets crime free to holding the individual accountable for their crime. As crime rates increase, law enforcement is seen by society as a necessity thus keeping them

The relationship between Crime and less fortunate people cannot underestimated; it may just be the way the media has conditioned us to characterize what a criminal looks like and how they live their lives. There are many low income cities and crime rates widespread across America. One may say that people with low income have nothing to lose when they commit crime or depressed or desperate to the point that they will commit crimes for the profit of money. Even though crime is committed at all walks of life, one can still pose a question to know if crime is more likely to be committed by people with low income that those with high income.

Crime and criminalization are dependent on social inequality Social inequality there are four major forms of inequality, class gender race and age, all of which influence crime. In looking at social classes and relationship to crime, studies have shown that citizens of the lower class are more likely to commit crimes of property and violence than upper-class citizens: who generally commit political and economic crimes. In 2007 the National Crime Victimization Survey showed that families with an income of $15000 or less had a greater chance of being victimized; recalling that lower classes commit a majority of those crimes. We can conclude that crime generally happens within classes.

The causes of crime seem to be indefinite and ever changing. In the 19th century, slum poverty was blamed; in the 20th century, a childhood without love was blamed (Adams 152). In the era going into the new millennium, most experts and theorists have given up all hope in trying to pinpoint one single aspect that causes crime. Many experts believe some people are natural born criminals who are born with criminal mindsets, and this is unchangeable. However, criminals are not a product of heredity. They are a product of their environment and how they react to it. This may seem like a bogus assumption, but is undoubtedly true.

This book attempts to conduct research in order to extend the field of criminology, not any other matter. Sutherland was attempting to bring attention to an area of criminal behaviour that criminologists had not previously studied. At this time, theories of criminal behaviour placed a large emphasis on poverty being the cause of crime or on other social conditions and personal traits which

A violent crime occurs every 23.5 seconds in the United States of America. Even though crime has been at a low during the past decade, violence is still prevalent in today’s society. Most of these crimes happen in places that are socio-economically disadvantaged. There then is the debate of whether violent crime is associated with environments struck with poverty. There is a correlation between violent crimes and poverty because of the unemployment rates in major cities, the culture of poor areas, and drugs.

Personal income, which is of course is lower for people in poverty, can increase crime since greater wealth means an increase in benefits to thieves and robbers. Many times things like a lower social class, normally a reflection of personal income, can cause a person to commit crimes in order to improve their social standing (Taylor, 2006).

Crime and poverty often seem to go hand in hand in the modern world, or so is the perception. With poverty rates edging higher this is even more important in our modern day. The unemployment rate is one of the key indicators of the health of our economy. The standard of living for most people falls greatly once they have reached the poverty rate, which makes people live nervously, frantically, and gives greater incentive for them to commit a crime possibly just to get by. In 2007 when the major economic recession took place, the unemployment rate started to rise steadily, peaking at an annual average of 10% in 2009, which was 5% higher than the average the four years prior.1

Although most people look at poverty and crime as two different social problems, they are interconnected in our society. Wheelock and Uggen (2006) made five core arguments in the article Race, poverty, and punishment: The impact of criminal sanctions on racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequality. This article discusses how crime, poverty, and punishment are all connected. Understanding each of the five core arguments allows someone to grasp how this interconnection of social problems affects society.