Violent Crime: An Intersectional Analysis

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.

In the article, “Choice within constraint: An explanation of crime at the intersections,” Stacy De Coster and Karen Heimer attempt to explain crime by using intersectionality. This explains a topic by connecting different social categories such as race, gender, class, etc. The authors provide several examples of different “intersections” of these categories to explain crime and motivations to commit crime. Initially, the authors describe the ideas of “hegemonic masculinity… competitiveness, independence, rationality, and strength” and “hegemonic femininity… dependency, passivity, purity, and weakness”. Studies determined that people who believe these are the characteristics of each gender will use resources available to live this way. Conversely,

Researchers at one point or another presume the idea that having low income is a contributing factor to committing crimes. It is either based on experience or our surroundings that we challenge this idea. It based on information by

Individuals who are unsuccessful can become alienated from mainstream society and become involved in criminal activity. Inequality is also theorized to have a negative effect on social controls which can be a mechanism for crime control. Inequality has been shown to have a significant effect on property crime (Chiu & Madden, 1998). Previous research has identified inequality by the population in a region earning less than half of the median income (Ehrlich, 1973). Even when holding effects such as family composition, poverty, and race constant, violent crime is still greatly impacted by inequality (Kelly, M., 2000). These individuals that face social inequality face greater incentives and pressure to commit crime especially property

In the article "Race, Poverty and Punishment: the Impact of Criminal Sanctions on Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Inequality," authors Wheelock and Uggen (2006) explore the connection between racial and economic disparages and the statistics regarding crime and punishment of those members of the population. Researchers have long reported the connection between the lack of privilege in circumstances of birth and uprising and the likelihood of being involved in crimes at a later age in life. Particularly, people who start to commit crimes earlier in life will be more likely to get involved in more serious crimes later one. The earlier the exposure, the less fazed a person is by acts of violence perpetrated by others or by themselves. With this in mind, the researchers argue that when deciding the appropriate punishment for criminality and criminal behaviors, their upbringing and socioeconomic history should be taken into account

A pervasive theme in sociology and criminology has always been that law violation is linked to the individual’s position in the social structure. (Tittle, 1983) Poverty and crime have had a long-term relationship because of the perception and stereotyping of poor people and the crime. The society is classified into three social classes; the high, the middle, and the low class. The high class is for the rich

The argument in which this paper is intended to argue is that those individuals who live in poverty have a greater chance at committing crimes than those who do not. There are many possible factors and reasons as to why people who live in poverty can commit more crimes that those who do not and this essay will attempt to explain that. The independent variable for this argument would be the poverty that individuals have to endure and live through, while the dependent variables are crime rates in that neighborhood.

The general idea of the Criminal Justice system in the United States is that everyone be treated equal despite race, ethnicity, sexuality, and class. However, social class must be taken in consideration when examining criminology and criminal justice. It is often viewed as a crucial factor that influences individuals to commit a crime. A person’s social status structures “social interactions”, as every role has a specific behavior that is associated with it as well as power. Within the “hierarchical organization of social statuses” people have access to certain resources, wealth, and education that sometimes controls the outcomes that it occurs. The class you are born in usually determines what crimes are committed though everyone is capable of doing the same crimes, some crimes are more accepted. Those who are in a lower class are more likely to do a blue collar crime while someone in a higher class commits a white

Social control crime is one of the three sociological viewpoints of contemporary criminology. Sociologists believe that an abiding social rule is generated and maintained by relationships with people and institutions - family members, friends, schools and work. In short, crime and bad behavior can occur when personal and social relationships are flimsy or easy to break. As social security increases, the cost of individual’s crime also rises a lot. In the book of The New Jim Crow mentions that poor black people is easier to get to be violence, drugs and criminal because they are usually living in the gutters (Alexander, Michelle. 2012).

The relationship between social class and crime has been up for debate for years and years and probably is the most controversial topic in criminology. Particularly, there have been an even bigger debate as to whether crime is predominantly in the lower-class or if its in all levels hierarchy. The focus and purpose of this research paper is to explore the relationship between social class and crime and how social inequality can affect jail time or sentencing. However, class is difficult to define and while those who are convicted of a crime tend to be working class, middle class people commit crime and some working class are not criminal. The link between any social group and conviction rates is more complex than it seems (Nakhaie, Silverman,

A phenomenon called “disproportionate minority contact” is a name for the overrepresentation of racial minorities in the criminal justice system relative to their population percentage in society. The justice system affects African Americans more than Europeans Americans by six fold and five times more African American males spend time in jail than European American males (Fix 2015). This is one of many evidences that support the argument that the criminal justice system is reproducing social and racial inequality.

Why are crime rates higher among some social groups than the others? Are some groups more prone to crime, or are they in situations more conducive to crime? Many factors can influence a person to commit a crime, but is there a common trait that leads people down the road to actually committing a crime. Some traits that can influence criminal behavior are: Families, Economic status, Gender, Race, and Age.

This is a non-exhaustive literature review of research published between 2006 and 2016. It relies primarily on peer-reviewed literature published within the discipline of sociology, but also draws upon studies related in other disciplines such as criminology and psychology. The studies in this literature review focus on violent crime in the U.S. Many studies in this review discuss how some sociological variables can influence crime for better or for worse. This literature review will discuss the relationship between violent crime and the following five themes: race, religion, gender, income, and immigration.

Violence is one of the biggest problems in the United States, having consequences that affect not only one but multiple individuals at a time. Crimes, such as robberies from a bank, not only affect the bank company being stolen from but the people that kept their savings in these banks. Many ask questions to find out whether or not a person, residing in America, and their economic status interconnect with the number of crimes being committed. When trying to find out whether this is really true, researchers have to take on the perspectives of both teens and adults. Along with these perspectives, researchers have to collect data possible from all sources possible to find the correlations between poverty and crime/violence. Subsequently, the factors

According to Nelson, poverty’s outcome on crime explanation has multiple reasoning’s, here are a few. One out of three families is not only considered to be living in a poverty status class, they are living below it. Racism plays a large role when it comes to crime being affiliated with poor. For instance, when racism plays a part with minorities it can influence the wage you will receive, and the type of job you will be allowed to have. To my understanding white privilege can also have a part in crime being related to being poor. Being denied what they think should have been granted to them but was not, so they feel they have the right to take it causing some kind of burglary status. This is really