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Correlation between Poverty and Crime: A Review of Literature
Isaiah De Santiago
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
Poverty has been a dilemma that many Americans are faced with for many years now. It can lead
to many different other issues like poor health and even higher crime rates. There is no doubt that
poverty leads to poor health because people wouldnt be able to afford good health care but
many people have a hard time grasping that poverty and crime are also linked. This literature on
review will inform the reader about the different aspects of poverty and how it can cause higher
crime rates. Studies and reasoning will contribute to the persuasion that poverty can lead to
crime.

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Correlation between Poverty and Crime: A Review of Literature
Poverty is a state or condition where people are extremely poor and lack the proper
support that they need to live a healthy lifestyle. Poverty is something that exists all over the
world and many people would agree that its a terrible way to live because it can affect many
other things. There is no doubt that poverty can affect the health of a person. People living in
poverty tend to experience more health problems than people not living in poverty because they
simply cant afford to have good healthcare. This definitely affects children because they are
most likely going to be missing a great deal of school if they are constantly sick. Poverty can
also lead to a high amount of stress and even homelessness, but there still is something else that
many people debate whether poverty has anything to do with or not.
There is a debate as to whether there is a correlation between poverty and crime. Most
people would agree that the two are linked because it would make sense that people make the
decision to rob places because of the lack of money. However, there still are many other people
out there that would disagree about the correlation. In order for people to think that there is no
correlation between poverty and crime, then there must be another cause. This is when certain
questions about crime and especially poverty need to be answered. Some people might ask
questions like:
Is there a correlation between poverty and crime?
Are there other causes of poverty and crime?
How does poverty still exist if there is government help?
What other solutions are there to put an end to poverty?
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This following review on literature will: discuss whether there is a correlation between poverty
and crime, provide statistical data to prove whatever the answer may be, discuss any other causes
of poverty and crime, inform about why poverty exists, and discuss any possible solutions to
poverty.
Is there a correlation between poverty and crime?
Before coming up with solutions on how to reduce crime rates, people need to figure out
the causes. One of the causes that many people bring up is poverty. The reason why many
believe that poverty causes crime is because people that are living in poverty need to make ends
meet somehow which is why they lean toward stealing. There are necessities for human beings
like food, water, shelter, and health, and people living in poverty may not be able to acquire
these necessities. This is why they begin robbing places for money or stealing food from the
grocery store. They basically have no other choice. This reasoning becomes even truer when
these people have children to feed and take care of. When these people are committing crimes
they are just doing what they need to do to live, but that still doesnt mean that its okay. A man
by the name of Christopher Spencer had this exact opinion but went on to say that poverty is
caused by the unequal distribution of wealth (2012). Spencer stated that, Poverty breeds
crime and in the process of the manufacturing of poverty, here comes the violence, here comes
the insanity, here comes the drug epidemic, here comes the deadbeat dad syndrome and, last but
not least, here comes the steel enclosed prison society (2012). He strongly believes that poverty
is definitely the leading cause of crime and says that, a crime that leads to a crime needs to be
addressed; also the parallax needs to be destroyed (Spencer, 2012).

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Figure 1



Maurice Ward shares the same opinion as Spencer and describes the relationship between
poverty and crime as intimate (Ward, 2013). He even mentions how governments that are
trying to build a countrys economy have to deal with crime.
Yes, the reasons and explanations previously given seem to be a valid argument as to
why there is a correlation between crime and poverty, but there still are many others that would
argue otherwise. A man named Richard Cohen made the argument that there is no correlation
between the two as crime rates have been down despite a recession. He doesnt like that people
who commit crimes are referred to a victims just because they are poor. He even says that once
people realize and accept the truth that crimes arent caused by poverty, criminals will lose
what status they still retain as victims (Rubin, 2010). Another reason from a different source
explains that crime rates are high because children lack morals. Based on a Cambridge
University study, the main cause of adolescent crime is the lack of morality (Daily Mail
Reporter, 2012). In the study, young people were asked about their attitude toward crime and the
final results showed that, A lack of moral compass, rather than the opportunity to commit crime
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or social background, was revealed to be the most important factor in youths breaking the law
(Daily Mail Reporter, 2012). However, when a group of students from the University of Texas at
El Paso were asked if morality played a bigger role in crime than poverty, the same number of
students (23.08%) answered yes and no. The other 53.85% of the students said that they were
unsure.
Are there other causes of poverty and crime?
Since most of the evidence and reasoning shows that there more than likely is a
correlation between crime and poverty, some people might then begin to wonder what the cause
of poverty is. One of the factors of poverty is unemployment. Maurice Ward stated in an article
that since the 1970s, studies in the US pointed more and more at the link between
unemployment, poverty and crime (2013). Of course, this makes complete sense because if
people are constantly unemployed then theyre not generating money which eventually will lead
to poverty. Another factor that contributes to poverty and crime is education. Research has
shown that education tends to reduce crime, well at least violent crime. On average, the more
time a youth spends at school the less violent he/she will become (Ward, 2013). This is true
because schools are meant to help children develop god social skills. If children learn how to
properly live in society at an early age then they more than likely wont grow up to be so violent.
Also, following the right path has a lot to do with how educated a person is. In this case, the
right path would be going to school and graduating. A young child or teenager might not want
to follow the right path if they see that their mother or father is unemployed even if they
graduated from high school or college. That type of mentality is bad to have because a better
education is always beneficial in one way or another.

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Figure 2






As you can see on Figure 2, there definitely is a connection between education and
poverty. The bar graph clearly shows that families who attained a higher education had a lower
percentage of poverty rate than families that had a less than high school education. This graph
also proves that the previously mentioned right path really is the way to go for children and
that education does play a major role in how successful their future will turn out.
How does poverty still exist if there is government help?
A questioned that is frequently asked is how poverty exists in the country even when
there is government help. This is a good question but it seems as if people have the wrong
interpretation as to what government help really is. As opposed to what many might think, the
government just doesnt give out money for any reason. If someone wants some type of financial
assistance from the government then they would need to submit an application so that it could be
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evaluated to see if they meet the requirements to actually receive financial help. Some types of
financial help that most people are aware of are food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Welfare.
These types of assistance are also the ones that have to do with poverty the most but even with
this help put into place poverty still effects the country. Some people think that the government
helps out a lot and others say otherwise. Regardless of what people are saying, The United
States generally provides its citizens with a lower level of government support for health and
human services than most developed European nations (Gorman, 2003).
With the way the economy is set up, the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to
benefit from economic or political policies (Shah, 2013). What this means is that the people
who are already rich are the ones benefiting from the structure of the economy. A large portion
of money is being accumulated by the wealthy people, or as Allan Johnson refers to them, the
elite. This means that the rest of the money, which is relatively small when compared to the
large portion that the wealthy receives, has to be divided among the rest of the population
(Johnson, 1997). This ridiculous structure greatly effects millions of people and their families as
they are trying their hardest to make a decent living and barely making enough money to make
ends meet. Figure 3





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As Figure 3 shows, there is a higher percentage of wealthy people than poor people that
stated that they were helped by the then current economic policies.

What other solutions are there to put an end to poverty?
When coming up with solutions on how to put an end to poverty, the first thing that needs
to be looked at is education since that is one of the leading causes of poverty itself. Some say that
there still isnt enough education being offered. It would be good if tax payers could invest more
money so that more free education could be provided to people, but that would be a difficult task
to ask for since many people would not want to invest their hard earned money on something
like that. As Maurice Ward mentions, it is odd that people are more willing to pay for prisons
than schools. He even talks about how countries and states are questioned when attempting to
invest in youth education. Ward states:
And finally, why does a state, county, or city (school district) have to be sued or forced to
finally invest into the education of its youth, but rarely ever question building another
prison to house the youth we know will be coming if we continue to not provide an
adequate intervention to these youth at an early enough age to all collectively reap the
benefits of supporting youth to become successful adults.
This statement does seem to be strange to most people because shouldnt more free education be
offered so that children can become more educated and not grow up to live in poverty and
commit crimes? If education is the root problem of poverty and crime then that dilemma should
be tackled. It makes more sense to invest in schools instead of prisons because if more people are
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educated then less people would need to be placed in prison. In a survey that was conducted for
an English class at the University of Texas at El Paso, 5 of 13 students shared the common
answer that education should be invested in and be cheaper so that its more accessible for people
living in poverty. The education of todays children should be the main focus because they are
the future. If people want poverty to come to an end then something should be done.
Figure 4







Figure 4 reveals that many children living in New York are living in poverty. Some cities
like Rochester, Syracuse, and Schenectady have a percentage of higher than fifty of children
whose lives are affected by poverty. This isnt a good thing at all. If this bar graph only gives
information about the cities of New York then this is just a little section out of an entire country.
There still are 49 other states with many other cities, big and small, that are affected with
poverty.

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Conclusion
Poverty has been looked at as a cause of crime for many years now and its hard to deny
the reasoning behind it. Other people can keep denying that statement but that still doesnt mean
that poverty should be ignored. What people cant deny is that there are other causes of poverty,
and if poverty is leading to crime then whatever it is that is causing poverty needs to be resolved.
Its terrible that poverty still exists in America because people come to this country to live a
better life. Yes, there is governmental help put into place but its only for special circumstances
and its not enough help to actually put an end to poverty. One thing that was mentioned that
causes poverty is the lack of education. Research shows that people who are less educated tend
to grow up to live poor. One way to resolve this issue is to invest more money for free education.
Until people realize that this is something to really look at and invest in, poverty and crime will
continue to corrupt the country.

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References
Gorman, T. (2003). Wealth and poverty. Retrieved from
http://www.infoplease.com/cig/economics/government-role.html
Johnson, A. (1997). Why is there poverty?. Retrieved from
http://www.agjohnson.us/essays/poverty/
LV Times Staff. (Designer). (2013, February 06). Connection between education attainment and
poverty rate [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://lvdailytimes.com/2013/02/06/lv-mora-
santa-rosa-school-district-election-results-lack-of-students-may-provoke-eastwest-
merger.aspx
Poverty is not an excuse for crime as morality is the biggest factor, claims cambridge university
study. (2012, June 24). Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2163974/Poverty-excuse-crime-morality-biggest-factor-claims-Cambridge-University-
study.html
Rubin, J. (2010, June 01). Poverty doesnt create crime? who knew?. Retrieved from
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knew/
Shah, A. (2013, March 24). Causes of poverty. Retrieved from
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Spencer, C. (2012, August 18). Violent crime analysis: the cause is poverty. Retrieved from
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Tobin, M. (Designer). (2010, July 22). Who's been helped by economic policies? [Print Graphic].
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U.S. Census Bureau. (Designer). (2011). Virtually half of the children in upstate new york's
largest cities lived in poverty in 2011 [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from
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action
Ward, M. (2013, October 12). Poverty and crime. Retrieved from
http://www.nationaldialoguenetwork.org/poverty-and-crime/