What is Poverty, Youth Crime and Social Exclusion - Essay Example

The relationship between social exclusion, poverty and youth crime: Overview: “Man is a social animal. Without society he is nothing but animal. Yet many consider themselves 'self made'.” (Gupta, 2010 quoted in www.quoteworld.org). There is a very complex stream of ways in which man interacts with the environment and vice versa that affect both him and the environment in a number of ways. (Malik, 1997) noted that environment that includes and influences plants and animals also affects / influences humans. The world is advancing at a very fast pace. Cultures are changing. Languages are modifying. Behaviors are changing. And all this is happening because of the interaction between man and environment. This has caused a very significant impact on human psychology. With the rapid advancement in the fields of science and technology, man has realized that there is much to achieve in a limited time period. This realization of man is backed up by the inborn quest for power, fame and money. Accordingly man is doing all that would earn him a secure future and a high social class and financial status. This combination of demand and supply has given rise to various social abnormalities that were quite less to be observed in a technologically backward world of the past. These social evils include but are not limited to social exclusion of an individual, status consciousness, stress, anxiety and crime. There are numerous factors that interact in a number of ways to cause the moral degradation of the society in general and its youth in particular. Rather it is a chain of events that results in such a psychological setback. The following text will analyze how various social factors interact to cause the three main evils of social exclusion, poverty and youth crime and the link between the three terms will be justified. Besides, the following text will draw a critical analysis of the way the three terms have been linked by philosophers in the past. There is a very strong link between youth crime, poverty and social exclusion. It would be appropriate to define the terms of social exclusion, poverty and youth crime and compare the various definitions for these terms as identified by various agencies in the past, before making an in-depth analysis of the way the three social evils are bonded together. What is poverty, youth crime and social exclusion? (Dixon and Macarov, 1998) consider the “capacity to survive” as the least requirement to measure poverty, beyond that, it is much more than just poverty. Their definition of poverty is as follows, “In its narrowest sense this may mean nothing more than having the resources to purchase or grow sufficient food for oneself and one’s dependants.” (Dixon and Macarov, 1998, p.4). A lot of study has been conducted on poverty. (Lister, 2004) writes about poverty on page 1-2 of his book that if it holds a requirement to do something to reduce it, then the study of poverty is only valid if it succeeds to convince the society to change their attitudes. (Darrow, 1922) has defined crime in his book in the following words, “A crime is an act forbidden by the law of the land, and one which is considered sufficiently serious to warrant providing penalties for its commission.” (Darrow, 1922, p.4). Generally, any unethical act or deed that affects the society in a negative way or usurps the rights of the same falls under the category of crime. Youth crime in particular refers to the trend of committing crime in the youth of a society. The following definition of social exclusion identifies the potential social factors that result in social exclusion of an individual or a group of individuals: “an accumulation of confluent processes with successive ruptures arising from the heart of the economy, politics and society, which gradually distances and places persons, groups, communities and territories in a position of inferiority in relation to centers of power, resources and prevailing values”. (Estivill, 2003 cited in Pantazis, et al, 2006). In the above definition of social exclusion, (Estivill, 2003) has pointed toward poverty in an indirect way as one of the root causes of social exclusion because of the circumstances it puts its sufferers in. Though there is no discussion about youth crime in the above definition, but one should realize that the definition rightly depicts all major factors that ultimately lead to the transformation of a gentleman into a criminal. The terms are quite interrelated in that they mutually function to result in an abnormal exclusion of the individual from the society. The triangle of poverty, exclusion and crime: Critical analysis of the historical perspective: “Contemporary use of the term social exclusion was first employed in policy debates in France during the 1970s, amid growing concerns that certain segments of society were 'excluded' from the welfare state”. (Guildford, 2000 cited in Wilson et al, 2007). Since then, philosophers realized the existence of this abnormality in the social system and began to explore its causes and effects. As a result of an extensive research, various researchers, philosophers and educationalists came up with a triangular relation between poverty, social exclusion and crime. The poverty has been directly linked to crime a lot of times by a number of researchers. It is an established fact that people from lower class are seldom overlooked or mistreated in the society. A child from the lower social class when goes to school is looked down at by his mates. He does not manage to gain the respect and attention of his mates. As a result of that, he gradually starts to loose his / her interest in studies. Besides there are other factors that discourage the poor child from getting educated. Many times, he has to work along with his studies to finance his studies. This distributes his attention between the work and the studies. Lack of money accompanied with rude attitude of his mates ultimately force the poor student to choose not to study further. This excludes the poor student not only from his social circle but also from the education, and serves as a first step toward the development of social exclusion. Accordingly, he does not manage to get a job good enough to support his expenses. This develops a feeling of revenge in the psychologically tortured student, and he indulges himself in criminal activities not only to take the revenge from the society, but also to gain money that is his fundamental need. (Sen, 1983: 159 cited in Messina, 2009) does not hold poverty as a true reason of social exclusion. Instead, (Sen, 1983) refers to inferiority complex as the root-cause of social exclusion when he says that calling one poor is not rational if one can buy only one Cadillac a day in comparison to one’s friends who can buy two Cadillacs a day. The definition of poverty according to (Sen, 1983) is to not be able to afford food. Sen has adopted a very rational approach toward defining poverty and has tried to differentiate between spiritual and materialistic poverty. Through conducting an in-depth analysis of Sen’s argument, one gains the idea that poverty is indeed, a state of mind, and the same state of mind convinces an individual to isolate himself / herself from the rest of the society to escape embarrassment that he / she feels because of his / her inferiority complex. However, in the same report, (Messina, 2009) refers to the relationship between poverty and exclusion from another perspective that throws light upon the consequences of illiteracy. (Messina, 2009) notes that poverty gradually leads to exclusion, when one’s journey of education is hindered by the lack of finances. In such circumstances, one can not afford education and accordingly can not compete in the market among the educated lot to secure a good job. Thus one undergoes an exclusion from the “job market”. (Pierson, 2002, p.2) identifies a unique way in which the government takes social exclusion as a substitution for poverty in an attempt to spreading a message that not much can be done about it, since according to (Pierson, 2002) social exclusion in a way, “downplays the reality of poverty”. (Carlen, 1996 cited in Shaw, 1997) refers to the reasons of youth homelessness as social exclusion accompanied with an inappropriate judicial system that differentiates between the rich and the poor in deciding the punishments. It is evident from Carlen’s argument that he does not hold poverty solely responsible for the ultimate social exclusion. His argument revolves around the psychological disorders caused by the unfair application of law and judiciary employed in various countries in the world, which is just unacceptable to the youth of the present age, who believes in uniformity in the individuals’ rights irrespective of class or status differences. (Newburn and Shiner, 2004 cited in www.willanpublishing.co.uk, 2010) in their book further explain how social exclusion leads to psychological disorders and crime. According to them, the process is gradual and symptoms include bad performance and behavior in school, drug use and bullying. This two step process of poverty leading to social exclusion, and then social exclusion leading to crime is simplified even more by the famous saying of an old philosopher Antoninus who linked crime directly with poverty saying, “Poverty is the mother of crime”. (Antoninus, 121 – 180 C. E. cited in Watson, 2000). However, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) in the beginning of its formal speech in 2005 related crime and poverty in a dual way saying, “Crime was both the cause and consequence of poverty, insecurity and underdevelopment”. (UNODC, 2005). The argument of UNODC is also supported by a study conducted by (Farrington et al, 1986) who conducted a research to analyze the causes of crime and its trends in different social classes and people of different ages. As a result of their study, (Farrington et al, 1986) concluded that young people committed more crimes when they were unemployed compared to when they were employed. Besides, the study revealed that unemployment caused no increase in severe forms of crime like murder, drug abuse or vandalism. Instead, it led to increased reporting of theft and robbery. Thus, the study clearly spoke of the direct relation between poverty and crime. In contrast to Farrington’s findings, (Young, 2001) revealed another aspect how poverty and social exclusion can be related. In his report, (Young, 2001) mentioned that poor people often work longer than average people would do to earn a larger sum. Such continuous work of day and night breaks their connection with their friends and their society. As a result, such an overemployment causes their exclusion from their social circle. Again, these people work longer to overcome their poverty, proving its relation to social exclusion. Young’s approach toward the linking of poverty with social exclusion is very rational and uncovers a harsh reality of the poor workers who work day and night to make both ends meet and rarely get a chance to socialize with their family or friends. Conclusion: The above discussion about the link between poverty, social exclusion and youth crime does give a clear explanation of the fact that poverty is related either directly or indirectly to both social exclusion and crime. Although many times, one does not necessarily be poor to suffer from inferiority complex, yet some degree of poverty, materialistic or otherwise can not be denied in the one, since poverty is considered as a relative term. It is indeed the irrational thinking and disordered psychology that lands one into a state of social exclusion. Though such a mental disorder is often caused by a feeling of deprivation. The development of negative feelings and hatred in the socially excluded person inculcate a feeling of revenge in him and he ultimately indulges in criminal activities. Besides he tries to acquire all he has been longing for over the years, and can go to any length to achieve that. In view of all that is mentioned above, the link between poverty, social exclusion and crime is justified. Remedy: Laws and policies: In order to combat the evils of social exclusion, poverty and youth crime, various efforts have been made on both national and international level. A few laws and policies enforced to achieve eradication of these evils from the society are as follows: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) is a federal law of the United States of America (USA) that surfaced in 1996 and was meant to provide the poor with relief. The Act enforces policies which favor the poor people in terms of their employment, their children’s education and compensation as mentioned in (aspe.hhs.gov, 2004). Such efforts serve to eradicate poverty from the society. Accordingly the youth crime and social exclusion gets declined. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) passed in US in 1938 is a very big step against child labor. (www.dol.gov, 2010). The Act not only specifies that employees should be at least 14 years of age, but also specifies the number of working hours and job safety and suitability, which certainly goes in favor of the otherwise frustrated unemployed youth indulging in crime to make money. The employment laws in UK , 2007 have made an attempt to remove religious considerations in offering the jobs. (www.hrmguide.co.uk, 2010). This would play a very important role in eliminating the social exclusion of people belonging to a religion in minority in the UK, who would no more be judged on the basis of their religion. Likewise, various efforts are being made on national and international level in different countries to eradicate poverty from the society which is naturally linked with an elimination of youth crime and social exclusion from the society. References: aspe.hhs.gov, 2004. “The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996”. Available at: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/abbrev/prwora96.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Darrow, C., 1922. “Crime: Its cause and treatment”. Chicago. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=E5AHPVAvv_MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=crime&ei=an7RS6bIE4HMlQSwicDuCA&cd=3#v=onepage&q=what%20is%20crime%20definition&f=false. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Dixon, J. and Macarov, D., 1998. “Poverty: a persistent global reality”. London: Routledge. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=hLZLi0zSBacC&printsec=frontcover&dq=poverty&ei=aI7RS6m9L5XOlQSI75TiCA&cd=6#v=onepage&q&f=false. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Farrington D. P., 1994. “The Twelfth Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture”. Available at: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/farrington95.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Gupta, B. J., 2010. “Quoteworld.org”. Available at: http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/5825. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Lister, R., 2004. “Poverty”. UK: Polity press. Available at: http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=Sb12eKfpieYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=definition+of+poverty&hl=en&ei=lfTPS-mgE8W6rAeA4fHQCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20poverty&f=false. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Malik, K., 1997. “Man in relation to his environment”. Available at: http://ignca.nic.in/cd_05015.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Messina, L. L., 2009. “Poverty, social exclusion and delinquency: Criminological reflections on the Italian context”. SW&S News Magazine. Available at: http://www.socmag.net/?p=453. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Newburn, T., Shiner, M. and Young, T., 2004. “Dealing with Disaffection”. Available at: http://www.willanpublishing.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=1843920654. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Pantazis, C., Gordon, D. and Levitas, R., 2006. “Poverty and social exclusion in Britain: the millennium survey”. UK: The Policy Press. Available at: http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=o-H0J4BMWS8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=social+exclusion&hl=en&ei=0fjPS46-Acu9rAe3xK27Dw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20social%20exclusion&f=false. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Pierson, J., 2002. “Tackling social exclusion”. London: Routledge. Available at: http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=hoyUIdqKPB4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=social+exclusion&hl=en&ei=_J7RS-rDKce6rAekx93xDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=2&ved=0CDsQ6wEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Shaw, I, 1997. “International social work”. Sage Journals Online. 40 (3) pp. 363 – 368. Available at: http://isw.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/40/3/363. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2005. “General Assembly”. Available at: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/gashc3817.doc.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Watson, J., 2000. “Poverty and crime”. Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0OJX/is_4_24/ai_n25027536/. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Wilson et al, 2007. “Linking social exclusion and health: explorations in contrasting neighbourhoods in Hamilton, Ontario.(Report)”. Canadian Journal of Urban Research. Available at: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-179315118/linking-social-exclusion-and.html. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Young, J., 2001. “Crime and social exclusion”. Available at: http://www.malcolmread.co.uk/JockYoung/crime&socialexclusion.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. www.dol.gov, 2010. “Youth and labor”. Available at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/youthlabor/index.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. www.hrmguide.co.uk, 2010. “October 29 2007 employment law news”. Available at: http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/hrm/steele/october07-3.htm. [Accessed: 21 April 2010]. Read More