Poverty Affects the Basic Rights of People - Essay Example

? Crime and Poverty First Middle initial and Number and Prof. First and of lecturer November 3, Poverty has been identified as a global issue and can drive any person affected by it, to the edge of desperation. The Copenhagen declaration at the United Nation’s world summit on social development described poverty as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information” (Oracle ThinkQuest, n.d., p.1). People may find themselves in poverty because of natural disasters, unexpected expenses due to medical reasons or reduced access to resources. However, fact remains that there is sufficient resources in the world for everyone. For e.g., there is enough food in the world such that each person may receive at least 4.3 pounds of food each day (Poole-Kavana, 2006). This includes two and a half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, a pound of fruits and vegetables and another pound of meat, milk and eggs. Therefore, the important issue is that many people around the world do not have access to this resource because they are too poor and have limited means to buy this food. This disproportionate distribution of resources among people is supported and maintained by social institutions. Social Institutions Contribute to the Problem of Poverty Social institutions define the social values of a society. In America, the dominant social values include success, productivity, leadership and efficiency. Therefore, businesses and governmental regulations are focused on achieving excellence and profit. However, in this process they create and perpetuate poverty as they marginalize small businesses and the poor. In the following pages, four major social institutions and their contribution to the issue of poverty have been examined in detail: Government: There is a huge divide between the affluent rich and the weak poor as governmental operations and decisions typically favor the rich than the poor. The poor who live in remote areas find it extremely difficult to avail programs developed to benefit them due to issues like inadequate staffing in governmental offices, lack of proper communication regarding the availability of the program and complex application process. Again, the multiple decision making centers are the federal, state and local government levels make it difficult for the poor to avail the benefits of these programs as it often gets diluted, changed or sabotaged when implemented. Economy: The capitalist economy also favors the rich as it allows concentration of wealth. The poor find low paying jobs with few or no benefits while the rich enjoy high paying jobs with several perks and benefits. The economy also guarantees that a certain percent of the population would remain unemployed or earn wages below the national poverty level. In a recent study, Talukdar (2008) revealed that the poor pay substantially more than the rich for the same consumer goods and services. Family: The poor typically have large families, the demands of which lay considerable burden on the breadwinners. Children who live in poor families often exhibit low intellectual achievement and high school drop out rates. With minimum parental guidance and intellectual stimulation, the issues of drug and alcohol abuse, divorce and violence exacerbate the problem. Education: Family patterns significantly affect the educational achievement in children. Parental involvement in school activities has been found to be more among the high-income families than poor families (Lauer & Lauer, 2010). Children from poor homes have very low educational expectations and typically study in schools that do not have adequate facilities in terms of teachers and resources. All of these factors reflect the low access to economic opportunities among the poor. Poverty Affects the Basic Rights of People Clean air, basic sanitation, food, clothing, shelter, health and education are some of the basic rights of people. However, a life of poverty means that these basic needs are unfulfilled and the fundamental human rights are violated. The rich receive good education and find high paying jobs with competitive benefits package, while the poor can barely get a decent education or employment and therefore, they remain poor. Again, people who are rich and successful are recognized and rewarded for their achievements while the poor never have an opportunity to develop and exhibit their talent and therefore they remain poor. Women and children are especially vulnerable in these situations. Consider a situation where a family of four is living below the national poverty level in a highly unsafe and unhealthy inner-city community where drugs abuse and violence is common. They use food stamps to get their supply of groceries from a store and make use of any governmental or charitable programs for their food, medical service and clothing requirements. The two children go to a public school which has been sending frequent notices to the parents regarding their poor performance in academics. The parents have no time to spend with their children as they are busy trying to provide for their family by working at a gas station and as a construction worker. One parent suffers from asthma but has to continue working despite ill health. The chronic stress associated with living in poverty and the demands at school affects the children’s concentration and memory thereby affecting their ability to learn. At some point, they may even contemplate dropping out of school. The pressures at work and demands at home are equally stressful for the parents and result in frequent arguments and domestic violence. This downward spiral of living in poverty seems to have no end as the basic human rights to safety, health, education, food and clothing are violated. The struggle to barely survive in such a challenging environment can drive people towards crimes. Conflict theory: Poverty vs. Crime The conflict theory emphasizes the influence and control of social institutions in creating and perpetuating poverty. It is based on the view that, “the fundamental cause of crime are the social and economic forces operating within the society” (Greek, 2005). Based on the ideas of Karl Marx, the theory states that there are two categories of people – the elite or capitalists and the working class or poor. The elite are the rich and powerful who have everything they need while the poor are those who struggle to make their ends meet. Therefore, there is constant conflict and competition between the rich and the poor within the society for the limited resources. The rich fear the poor because they think that if the poor are lifted up, the rich will have to share the resources, power and influence with them. On the other hand, the poor feel stigmatized and bitter. The conflict theory explains that crime occurs because the poor are not able to achieve their social goals as they do not receive adequate educational or job opportunities. Both the rich and poor want to succeed, but the opportunities to achieve success are available mostly to the rich. Access to good schools and high paying job opportunities are closed to the poor. More opportunities are available as one goes up the economic ladder (Herman, 1995). Inability to attain good education or a decent job leads to frustration and feeling of failure. The poor often resort to crime to overcome this frustration and achieve something in life. Again, social institutions like the criminal justice system and criminal law operate in a manner that favors the rich and denies the rights of the poor. The poor are often involved in crimes like robbery, murder and assault, while the rich typically commit more of the non-violent crimes like fraud, bribery, inside trading, forgery and embezzlement. The structural systems are such that the rich are able to afford expensive lawyers and get out of the legal proceedings quickly while the poor are left helpless. The middle class also favor the rich since they don’t want to be associated with the poor. This is the reason why street crimes and petty crimes committed by the poor are punished very severely while the large scale financial scams and business crimes are treated more mildly. E.g., a poor who breaks into a house and steals a computer may receive longer sentence than white collar crimes that involve fraud and stealing millions of dollars through illegal business practices. These illustrations reveal that poverty perpetuates crime. They demonstrate the flaws within the structural institutions that support the rich and avoid the poor. In fact, in the current society, the structural institutions tend to generate crime. Underscoring, this major flaw in the system, Herman (1995) states that, “by blaming the individual for a crime, the society is acquitted of the charge of complicity in that crime” (p. 102). Strength and Weakness of Conflict Theory The strength of conflict theory is that it emphasizes power and how it influences interactions between the affluent and the disadvantaged. It also highlights that the relationship between the rich and the poor are influenced by the fact that the resources are limited. The weakness of conflict theory is that not all interactions between the affluent and the disadvantaged can be or should be analyzed in terms of conflict of interest or influence of power. Conclusion In conclusion, the disproportionate distribution of resources between the rich and the poor is supported and maintained by social structures and institutions. This disparity results in poverty which in turn perpetuates crime.? References Greek, C. E. (2005). Conflict. Florida State University. Retrieved from http://criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/conflict.htm Herman, N. J. (1995). Deviance: A symbolic interaction approach. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press. Lauer, R. & Lauer, J. (2010). Social problems and the quality of life. Mc-Graw Hill. Oracle ThinkQuest. (n.d.). A dollar a day: poverty overview. Oracle ThinkQuest. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00282/over_whatis.htm Poole-Kavana, H. (2006). Hunger: myths and realities. Rehydration Project. Retrieved from http://rehydrate.org/facts/hunger.htm Talukdar, D. (2008). Cost of being poor: retail price and consumer price search difference across inner-city and suburban neighborhoods. Journal of Consumer Research, 35(3), 457-471. Read More