Poverty and Crime Relationship - Report Example

Poverty and Crime Relationship Poverty and Crime Relationship Poverty and crime has always had an unmistakable relationship which has existed not only in the human society but also in the human psychology. This relationship is intimate about which many experts have been discussing from around the world. Many of the socialists describe poverty simply as the reason for crimes. This means that developing countries will most probably have a high crime rate because of the poverty. The World Bank and UN have ranked crime as the biggest hindrance in the development of a country. The relationship between crime and poverty force the governments to deal with both the issues together in their efforts to develop a country. With the analysis of this relationship between crime and poverty, it can be seen that they are linked in many twisted ways rather than a straight forward one. One aspect shows that in a society where crime already exists, poverty will tend to rise. It may be because of poverty that youngsters engage into criminal activities to earn their living, but as the crime rates increase, the businesses become uncertain causing unemployment levels to rise and economic instability. This is observed at all levels of the market whether it is national, municipal, regional or neighborhood. For instance, a business in a ghetto would rarely been seen as it is not regarded to be a good idea at all (Serr, 2006). There may also be many international large-scale institutions where crime is accused in the form of corruption and fraud, not because of poverty but because of greed and lust for power. Whenever crimes of such kind exist in large institutions, they hinder the development of the business, society and nation. Crime has the tendency to ignite a vicious cycle which would cause unemployment and lower growth in the economy. With such a situation, people are left with two options: to benefit from the illegal, criminal ways of income or by searching for legal and rare sources of income. The strong connection between poverty and crime is also evident through their geographical concentration in the same area which shows that wherever you find poverty, you will find crime there too. The issue of poverty tends to be connected to many other issues as well including illness and crime. This idea is not a new one as it has been stated in the Bible that God judged the kings of Israel by their treatment of the poor. Also that Jesus favored the company of the poor against the rich and powerful. In the years following the Christianity perspectives, the poor were regarded as lazy people who would not pick themselves up and the older concept that the poor were closer to God had vanished. In accordance to this perspective that the poor were lazy and usually refused to accept hard work, it was argued that the poor would choose crime as their easy way out. The idea that the poor are lazy and thus avoid hard work is supported by the argument about welfare. Many socialists argue that it is the welfare because of which poor people do not go out to work and earn their living. Welfare in the modern world has become an incentive for the poor to not work. The idea of welfare which was been originated by the Queen Elizabeth’s poor laws in England motivates gives the poor people a reason never to work because they have no objectives. In addition there are various other explanations of the statement that poverty is in a close relationship with crime (Serr, 2006). Poverty leads too many other problems and issues as observed, such as malnutrition, low intelligence, illiteracy and resentment, and these are the factors that ultimately lead to crimes. Severe malnutrition can cause many people to undergo brain damages which may have a lifelong effect on the increased crime rates because of the at-risk populations. Living in severe conditions and lacking the exposure to a society, many of the people struck by poverty get involved in criminal activities. This may be because of the psychological disorders that they develop and start thinking negatively about everything around them. However, this is an indirect relation between crime and poverty. If the relationship is looked at very closely and straight forwardly, then it can be assessed that money is simply the reason why poor people would involve in crimes. Many of the poor people are unable to work because of factors such as laziness, illiteracy, malnutrition, psychological issues and so on and eventually involve in activities that allow them to earn in an easy way such as street crimes, bank robberies, and others. The biggest evidence of this relationship in the history is the discrimination against the blacks in America. Because of that discrimination many blacks were not allowed to work or go to school, hence adopted other ways of survival such as crimes (Serr, 2006). After a generation being involved in such activities, the black communities are now stereotyped as criminals. Their children had grown up seeing difficulties and illegal ways of getting out of them thus they adopted the same. Not only the blacks, the families and neighborhoods that have been hit by poverty since generations tend to spread the psychology that without engaging in such activities survival is difficult. And so the relationship between poverty and crime exists because of the need for money, and psychological trait which has been developing since generations. However, this means that the societies that have a higher poverty rate should have higher crime rates as well. Moreover, the crime rate should be higher at the times of economic depression while lower at the times of improved economic conditions. Crimes discussed here are not only the ones related to money, there are many other crimes too in which the poor people tend to engage such as rape or murder. These are crimes in which any person can be indulged whether rich or poor but the reason why a higher rate of these crimes are done by poor people is because of their standards of living, literacy rate and psychological constraints. Since the literacy rate and standard of living is low, these people do not understand what is right and what is wrong. They do not know why these activities are illegal and what would be the consequences of being caught. Their whole lives have been spent running away from people who mistreat them and becoming socially challenged. On the other hand there are also many people who know what they are doing is wrong and what the consequences of this wrong would be, but they still engage in these activities because of their psychological disorders. These people develop the psychology of treating and harming people the way in which they themselves have been treated all their lives. These people do not have any soft corner because of the immense number of difficulties they have been facing and thus become insensitive about other’s pain or suffering (Serr, 2006). Thus, the relationship between poverty and crime is an interesting one. At times because of crimes on large scale, business markets are disrupted resulting in higher unemployment and poverty rates. On the other hand it is because of poverty and the issues associated with poverty that crimes are committed. Poverty and crime form a vicious cycle which is overall harmful to the entire society, nation and world. The governments, education institutions and socialists shall rise to handle the matter and control this intimate relationship between poverty and crime. It is very important to control these issues because they have the power to destroy the social status of a society completely. References Serr, K. (2006). Thinking about Poverty. London: The Federation Press Read More