The Link Between Poverty and Crime

His interest wasn’t so much why someone deviates but why the rates differed dramatically from one society to another. Merton also changed the concept to where there is an apparent lack of fit between cultures norms, about the apparent lack of success and the appropriate goals to achieve them. He believed the United States puts more emphasis on success, and anomie –strain becomes the explanation for high rates of deviant behavior in the U.S. compared with other societies, and also an explanation for the distribution of deviant behavior across groups defined by class, race, and ethnicity. The U.S., in fact, Merton sees as an example of a society in which success goals (often defined primarily in monetary terms) are emphasized for everyone in the culture, and people are criticized for not performing to their best ability.

What would you do if you saw your family malnourished, struggling to stay afloat? Studies show that people living in poverty are more likely to commit crimes if the outcome of the crime will provide

All individuals have the ability to conform to the rules and norms of society. Merton’s Strain Theory suggests people feel strain when they are unable to attain society’s goals and/or beliefs. Then, because they are not able to appropriately achieve these goals in the way society says to, some will do so by committing criminal behaviors. This theory also explains, in society there are

Crime is the product of the social structure; it is embedded in the very fibres of society. In this essay, I aim to explore different theories as to why crime exists within society and how we as a society therefore construct it. Crime is a social construct; it is always in society and is on the increase. It is inevitable. Where does it come from? It comes from legislation, from the making of laws.

So far, both theories are able to explain the crime inequality observed insides neighbourhoods; however, when it comes to explaining the difference in crime rates between neighbourhoods with similarly low levels of poverty, social disorganization theory is not able to fully explain why such difference may occur, as it places a greater focus on the internal dynamics of the neighbourhoods than on the external contingencies (Peterson & Krivo, 2010, p. 92). Based on Table 4.5 of Divergent Social Worlds: Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial DivideI, minority low-poverty areas have roughly two and a half times more violence than their white counterparts (Peterson & Krivo, 2010, p. 88). Social disorganization theory insists that residential instability (percent of those who owns and percent of those who rent) , population heterogeneity (internal differences, including ethno-racial differences), poverty (percent of those who live in poverty), income, deteriorating neighbourhood, and population loss (percent of those who leave due to deterioration) are mechanisms that leads to the absence of informal social control and increases social disorganization, causing the loss of control over youths who then hang out at spontaneous playgrounds and form gangs with delinquent traditions that get passed down through cultural transmission. If such was the case, then one would expect neighbourhoods with similar and comparable local conditions to have similar average rates of crimes. However,

In this essay, the comparison between and contrast between strain theory and labelling theory. The essay will start with the key features of each theory and then it will go into the main comparison of the two theories. It will go into to detail on the similarities and differences between the two theories. Strain theory is the theory developed in 1938 by Robert K Merton. It’s the theory that society puts pressure on people to achieve socially accepted goals. Labelling theory is the theory that the public act in the way that society has labelled them, which gives negative connotations towards that person. Both the theories, judge crime on the type of people and how they have been deemed, both theories try to explain crime from social perspectives.

One of the biggest problems we have is crime, poverty, and race. Crime never seems to go away, and it tends to affect certain areas more than others. When a community is plagued with crime then everyone starts to look at the community that it is affecting, the housing in the area and the race that is mostly affected or committing the crimes. This can create a domino effect, because the citizens are scared, victimized, and they begins to worry more about how they will be able to protect there family and if anyone cares what is happening in their community. Therefore, within this report we will examine statistical data from different areas and see if there is a trend with a particular group, race, or city and compare the data so that we can gain a better understanding of the collection of this data and make suggestions if at all possible on way to improve the data once it has been reviewed.

Crime has always been a shadow upon societies image, these learned behaviors can be seen in all shapes and sizes, in the cities, in the streets and even in homes. The media has controlled the image of what is perceived as crime. But what truly stalks the streets at night, is it the sadistic men who care so little about human dignity they travel from coast to coast sexually assaulting women?

Merton established other forms that an individual might respond such as conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion these explained an individual goal and the access to the means. This can either present a negative or positive outcome. For Merton these responses to deviance show how society strains people hence the name of the strain theory. The strain theory can lead to the triggers of feeling s that can become rage and defeat by society which can lead to a result in crime. The prodigious of society can caused an individual to engage in deviant behavior. These deviant behaviors are not society real and norms. This can explain why people engage in cat fishing.

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.

Almost half of the 83,000 people in prison ran away from home as a child and cannot read as well as an 11 year old. Almost 30 per cent have been through the care system and similar proportions were homeless before entering prison.

Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor.

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.

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