The Association Between Crime and Poverty - Essay Example

Poverty and Crime: Linkages, Fallacies, and Viable Remedies

Introduction

Poverty and crime possess very intimate relationship that experts have described from all angles. According to Hinton (2016), the World Bank and United Nations both rank crime and poverty high on the list of hurdles to the development of countries. Governments that are making efforts to deal with the impacts of poverty are additionally faced with the issue of crime as they develop their nations’ society and economy. It is evident that crime hinders organizations from prospering by generating volatility and uncertainty at macro and microeconomic. This is true in industries of all magnitudes, regional, national, municipal and even neighborhoods. The essay, therefore, explores the relationship between poverty and crime with detailed information on how the two are linked, their fallacies in addition to the practical remedies imperative in this case.

Body and Development

Linkages

Crime is prevalent everywhere in multinational forms since there is a connection between poor people and rates of crime. High rates of crime plague many nations and have detrimental effects. Crime hampers standards of living and the quality of life. There is a potentially vicious cycle of poverty, crime, and unemployment. Predominant criminal operations erode employment opportunities and are worsened by increased rates of unemployment. Crime increases the cost of operating businesses, therefore, affecting entrepreneurial activities and the business climate of a nation (Pare & Felson, 2014). Crime might drive out domestic and foreign investments thereby reducing the availability of skilled workforce and productive labor. Because of lack of resources and safety nets for the poor in various countries, crime has extra costs for such people. As a result, the poor are not able to mitigate the resulting productivity loss thus affecting their livelihood.

It is vital to shade light on the endogeneity issue arising because of the possibility of mutual casualty between crime and poverty. Oliver (2016) addressed matters focusing on crime deterrence variables such as expenditure on the police force. Activities by the poor are often criminalized since they cannot influence criminal regulations compared to the wealthy. Such cases lead to high correlations between crime and poverty. In cases where the criminal justice framework is subject to similar occurrences, then poor people will get convicted in high numbers than the rich on similar underlying acts. Pare & Felson (2014) note that high crime rates characterize regions of the world with poor people. The relationship between poverty and crime appears to be based on the perception that people with less of what they need will want to satisfy their needs from property not belonging to them and therefore the increase in crime rates. Unemployment is also one of the major links between crime and poverty. People not employed often do not have the resources to fend for themselves (Hinton, 2016). Since they cannot survive without the basic needs, they turn to crime.

Fallacies

Fallacies are mistaken beliefs, often those founded on unsound argument. There are various fallacies relating crime to poverty, and many conceptions are based on developing nations. Rich people across the world believe that crimes are only enacted by the poor because they lack assets and resources to cater for their needs. This is fundamentally not the case because crime rates in some developed nations are also on the rise. It is also fundamental to note that crimes are not only confined to the poor because various rich individuals around the world are involved in elevated crimes not because they lack the essential requirements (Pare & Felson, 2014). There is also a delusion that some people are poor because they made bad choices and are therefore involved in crime. Some people believe that poverty is the root cause of crime and terrorism in many parts of the world. This notion is baseless because there are no facts and figures to prove that.

Zhao, Feng & Castillo-Chavez, (2014) note that people during the 1950s were poorer than the current times and rates of crime during those times were lower. Also, the rates were much lower during the Great Depression compared to some later eras. This is an indication of a correlation but not an entire causation. The majority of similar characteristics prompting individuals to remain poor are additional traits that promote crime by the same individuals. Nonetheless, where one finds a correlation, it should be identified which way the direction of causation assumes. Many people who share such sentiments believe people are involved in crime because they are poor. There are numerous reasons why people are taking part in wrongdoing. Some people around the world participate in crime because of pleasure and revenge among other reasons.

Viable Remedies

There are numerous ways to reducing rates of crime and poverty levels in the world. The first initiative is addressing unemployment and education. Public strategies aiming to restructure the labor market to address structural unemployment have positive influences on economic growth and income levels. Reducing levels of unemployment should be core to breaking cycles of crime and poverty and reinstating some level of social harmony (Hinton, 2016). There are various other initiatives in the form of education in prison that provides real diplomas that should be implemented to help assimilate ex-convicts in the community and decrease recidivism. The major barrier to this form of program is the dilemma of providing free education to convicts while some law-abiding people lack the facilities to pay for such.

Zhao, Feng & Castillo-Chavez, (2014) contends that offering education and treatment to drug addicts is highly less costly compared to pure and simple long-term confinement. Also, governments should build an efficient welfare system. Increased degrees of welfare assistance are majorly related to crime reduction. This aspect might appear contentious to some people, but it is not. On the same note, nations that assimilate social welfare, such as the United States in their battle of poverty assert it has been useless disdain because of the fact that the combat was not accurately fought. Consequently, the outcomes are prejudiced and strategies purely ineffective due to lack of monitoring and enhancement of the distinct policies executed. Failure does not entail wrongly-calculated ideas but entails an upgrade of the systems. That is the manner in which people learn. (Pare & Felson (2014) contend that fighting poverty and crime should be elongated social justice strategy. Welfare assistance has been disproportionately lower in the US compared to any other country where similar policies operate better. Many at times, poorly formulated welfare strategies have hurt the very perception on welfare. Consequently, many nations have abandoned welfare policies to decrease crime and poverty. Moreover, Hinton (2016) revealed that the relationship between poverty and crime reduction and welfare is indisputable in numerous instances.

Conclusion

The essay thus evaluates the association between crime and poverty with comprehensive information on how they are related, their respective fallacies as well as the concrete remedies essential in this case. Often, rates of crime are related to poverty in some parts of the world. This is because people without the vital requirements in life turn to violence and other forms of wrongdoing for satisfaction. Poverty and crime might be related, but the former is not the ultimate cause of crime. The paper provides two remedies to reducing crime and poverty namely developing an efficient welfare framework and addressing the levels of education and unemployment. People earning salary might not be involved in crime since they can cater for themselves. Educated people, on the other hand, have the necessary brain power to determine ways of survival and do not necessarily have to be involved in crime. Addressing poverty levels in a country simplifies business operations and therefore a progressive economy.