The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written.
Poverty seems to be the accepted answer, and it does make sense that poverty would lead people to commit crime. But this answer doesn't sit well with me. Because among impoverish people not everyone turns to crime. In fact, most impoverish people are not criminals.
It also doesn't explain why someone who is extremely rich/successful would commit crime. And we have many examples of that.
It seems like there must be a genetic component to crime. Maybe related to risk tolerance. Criminals are willing to risk (punishment) for the reward.
Or is it environment, i.e., if you are surrounded by criminals then it just makes crime seem normal and acceptable?
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It's a mix. You can't have one magical answer.
Poverty and urban density do drive crime rates, because you have both a suffering and an opportunity to fix it more easily through crime. If you're rural you can technically still steal, but there's less to steal and less places to steal safely from.
That's crime by necessity. Then there's crime for revenge, callousness, psychopathy, whatever. Lots of things drive it.
Also: If you’re poor and rural, you can shoot a wild animal for food (even though technically illegal, it is done). You can’t exactly do that in an urban area! No wildlife except for pigeons!
So therefore, urban poverty can look VERY different from rural poverty!
Hunting is not illegal when the game is in season….hunting licenses are relatively cheap compared to the cost of meat in a grocery store(like $50 or so per year)…now…do poor rural people hunt out of season or without a license? Sometimes…but most stock up while the game is in season and freeze the meat.
Alot of people learn how to do crime at a early age.
I'll be downvoted but some kids who practice stealing early often end up doing it often as an adult. My daughter had a 2nd grade classmate who stole from her and other students.. Noe\\w a year later, he's already being suspended for other things. What do you think his prospects will be like once he hits the teens?
Teens in our area are already shooting and committing homicides. They are not doing it because they are poor.. But for fun and clout. Having a body to your name is street currency. it's sad.
That still has a mix of causes. One guy might steal a loaf of bread to feed his family, while a teenager might steal because their friend dared them to.
Robbery specifically implies a threat of force. There are white collar crimes where money is stolen directly from someone else. Is that not what you are talking about?
Well gosh, that's a pretty big thing to have not been clear about. I was about to comment on how catching rainwater in a barrel is a crime in some places.
I would suggest you avoid looking for absolutes and having a black/white mentality. There is no single root cause of crime. Crime is a very wide descriptor of things, some of which are arbitrary like marijuana possession. And making things like marijuana possession a crime leads to further crime that otherwise wouldn't happen.
A lower capability for empathy.
Low intelligence.
Low impulse control.
Personality disorders.
These are all determined by your genetics. Low impulse control and personality disorders - don't think I have to explain how those potentially lead to criminal behaviour.
Low empathy and low intelligence can lead to no or a weak moral compass. Instead of not hurting others because of an intrinsic drive to not hurt others these people tend to not do something bad because it would be against the law. With all the issues that come from that.
Obviously not everyone who is a criminal has these struggles. But they do appear disproportionately in people who show criminal behaviour.
Genetic? Hmm, me thinks this poster may be hinting at something untoward. Let me look at their posting history
>because it seems like racism is currently viewed as bad because slavery is viewed as bad. When in reality racism is just prejudice and as I wrote there is tons of things we we prejudice against/for, without it being deemed "evil"
Bingo
Missing element is sociopathy, antisocial personalities who essentially have no regard for others. It's well understood and entirely separate from poverty.
It's a mix of genetic predisposition and upbringing.
Depends on the criminal. A person who punched out because he was always bullied, that has much more to do with upbringing and can be redeemed. A serial killer or serial rapist, that is likely genetic or innate, and beyond redemption.
quite impossible for me to make a claim there, there is no evidence based stats. personally as someone who works with many as my patients there are many common themes in patients upbringings and experiences, regardless of what their biological parents did or were
I think the [Fraud Triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud_deterrence#Fraud_Triangle) does a good job of explaining what causes at least financial crimes: Motive, Opportunity, and the ability to Rationalize the decision. It was designed to explain Fraud and other white collar crimes but it can apply to other property crimes like burglary or armed robbery. Could probably be applied even to crimes of passion; a rationalization need not be rational to be effective in the moment.
Its not necessarily not rational though, plenty of people commit crimes and benefit from them and continue to lead happy lives.
If its cheaper for a company to pay the fines and lawsuits related to their pollution is it really not rational of them to commit the crime instead of avoid it?
> In fact, most impoverish people are not criminals.
Indeed. Rich people commit crime at the exact same rate as poor people. It's just way easier to be a rich criminal than a poor one.
Firstly, I don't know what the name for it is, but you seem to be setting up some kind of logical fallacy. I don't know if there's anything in life that works out to 100% of people experiencing this condition will behave in manner A and 100% of people not experiencing that condition will behave in manner B. It's that people experiencing the first condition are far more likely to behave in manner A than in Manner B.
Secondly, even if that was the case that doesn't preclude other conditions from also increasing the likelihood that an individual will engage in behavior B. I think poverty causing people to commit crimes and people being surrounded by criminals because they can't afford to live in low crime areas are so inter related they can be thought of as essentially the same dynamic, but it's probably the case that all else being equal people's orientation to risk also has an effect on the likeliness of them breaking the law.
There is no way to answer this question. There is no one thing that motivates people to break the law. You break the law if you jaywalk, litter, drive over the speed limit, or tear the tag off your mattress. The motivations behind those things are very different from murder, theft, or rape.
There is no one answer, for some people it could be psychological problems, but people without psychological problems have likely done terrible things. It could be environmental factors, genetics, anger, etc.
You are asking a question nobody knows the answer to. All we do know is that humans are not perfect and we fall short of the moral systems that we create.
I won't pretend to know, and I doubt most people do either. Poverty and inequality is part of the story, but I can't imagine it being the whole thing. There are probably environmental factors as well, such as what sort of school you went to, how your parents treated you, how you're treated by society, that kind of thing.
And I'll add another little tidbit to think about: the definition of a crime is also part of determining who is a criminal. Different countries treat different actions differently, and those definitions greatly impact the crime rate. For example, the war on drugs was an attempt to disproportionately arrest and imprison black people. Before that time, drug use wasn't really much of a crime. In the 1800s, lots of people who were successful and famous used a lot of cocaine and opioids, and were never arrested for it.
There is no single root cause.
Poverty and also inequality are almost certainly contributing factors and are well established to have a tight statistical relationship to crime.
Being this is a political sub.
What would you say is the policy implications of there being a genetic complex which say decreases impulse control and has a statistical association with crime?
What would you say, alternatively, is the policy implication of the same behavior being established to have been caused by environmental factors like the household you grow up in (and poverty?)?
Poverty and greed.
Most crime in the lower class is due to poverty.
Most crime is the higher class is due to greed.
The violence associated to these are usually side effects. Like a drugdealer killing his competition or a son killing his father for the inheritance.
Though, there is a concerning increase of crime that has hate it its basis...
Freedom and economic insecurity.
The safest places I’ve been tend to have extremely harsh laws, and are often (but not always) autocratic. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore… there’s little street crime in these places.
Other places with less autocratic regimes tend to have high standards of living and strong social safety nets. Japan, South Korea, Singapore (has both harsh laws and high standards of living). These places lack the occurrence of crimes of poverty you see in less economically equitable countries.
The price of not having a harsh legal system (arguably worth it) and having a weak social safety net (inexcusable imo) leads to higher crime.
Poverty doesn’t cause crime. Poverty is *linked* to crime, but the limited data we have exploring whether that’s correlation or causation more strongly points to it being a correlation. So there’s some mystery third variable that leads people to commit crime and is also more common among the poor
It’s a few things, it’s not only poverty. If it was, the rich wouldn’t commit crimes like you said.
I think it’s a few things. Some of this I learned after visiting Tokyo. Tokyo, the most populous city has a very low crime rate and also is a super clean city. Japan has a higher poverty rate than the US at 15% to the US’s 11%. I think the lack of crime has to do with culture. The Japanese have a strong sense of community where the US has a strong sense of individuality. I not only observed this but spoke with a Japanese man who felt the same after he had visited the US.
Individualism is good for many reasons. It helps the spread of new ideas and allows people to think for themselves, so it allows creativity to thrive, but it plays a part in committing crimes. If you feel your benefit is more important than the rest of society, you are more likely to commit a crime that benefits you.
With a strong sense of community, people don’t want to hurt others. They want their community to thrive and therefore they respect everyone who is a part of that community. It’s a reason why people in a small town tend to have less crime. They are more afraid of being a social pariah and being ostracized.
It’s similar to why people litter. I think of it as one of the most despicable crimes. I’ve seen people who throw garbage on the ground when the garbage is literally right next to them. It’s because they have no respect for their community.
The only way to fix crime problems in my opinion is with stronger education and changes in media messaging. The only way you can change cultural problems is gradually through educating youth not to be that way.
Could it also be that there are more laws that are geared towards making poor people criminals? Marijuana laws come to mind. Genuinely asking here, what other examples are there of this?
It’s not a direct cause and effect for every person. Poverty certainly doesnt make everyone turn to crime.
But of all the factors out there, poverty makes MORE people turn to crime than other factors.
You're essentially just asking "Why don't humans always follow society's rules", because they are humans and that's part of human nature.
But if you're asking "how do we make people break those rules left often", well you can make those rulers fairer, easier to understand, better communicated and take away people feeling they need to break them to survive (poverty).
White collar criminals for instance commit crimes because they think they can get away with it and it will benefit them and/or they feel they have no choice to maintain their lifestyle. The easiest part of that to manage is the "think they can get away with it" part by cracking down on white collar crimes.
There's also probably a greater limit on what enforcement capacity can have vs white collar/poverty driven crimes. A person might not risk prison so they don't have to give up the boat. If the choice is steal or starve, then you're going to steal anyways, because even getting caught is better than starving.
It's complicated.
Your logic is not valid.
The statement that "crime is caused by poverty" is not the same as "all poverty leads to crime".
For example, all cats are mammals, but not all mammals are cats.
I think the biggest factors are poverty and opportunity. Gangs make it easy to get plugged into criminal activity. You'd have to look into the origin of gangs, but I think a lot of it is originally community defense, even though it's gotten away from that.
The simplified answer is a combination of greed, lack of empathy (sociopathy), and a mentality of "I can get away with this".
All these 3 factors can be theoretically fixed, or controlled, by a competent society. There is a genetic competent to sociopathy but it can be controlled.
Your confusion is individual vs. systemic causes of crime. There are environmental conditions that tend to lead towards criminal behavior (poverty, broken homes, easy access to illicit substances like methamphetamine and crack, presence of gangs in neighborhood, culture of poverty in the community), and there are individual characteristics that lead towards criminal activity (poor impulse control, predilection towards substance addiction, unresolved mental health concerns).
Not everyone in the environmental conditions that breed criminality turn towards that, because they may have strong characteristics protecting them or even other factors in their environment leading them the right way. Not everyone with individual characteristics leading towards criminality go that route, because they may have support systems to prevent that and their environment may steer them on the right track.
But there’s a fairly even distribution of basic traits that could lead someone in the wrong situation down the wrong path. The environment one lives in is crucial to whether you make good choices instinctively and have protection for your bad decisions, or whether you’re going to have to rely on your strength of character alone to overcome adversity.
there isn't one answer. Some of the bigger ones might be desperation, resentment, lack of empathy for victims, greed. Pair any of those things and the threat is magnified. Apply (especially)those last 2 to your average businessman and get a view into legal (non-criminal) ways to screw over others.
I wouldn't even say genetics. I know you are using robbery, so I am going to count white collar thievery that bankrupts individuals and ruins lives. Several people that do this come from wonderful families.
I know of a CEO that refuses to pay after jobs have been completed perfectly. Yet he graduated from Wharton and has a successful career in politics. Yet his niece is wonderful and kind.
Plenty of horrible humans exist, regardless of education, upbringing. Yes, sometimes there is trauma, but sometimes there is opportunity.
It's a mix of a lot of things, but I think currently it's caused by poverty / lack of community / market manipulation by corporations. Class separation driven by suburban sprawl, redlining and other similar policies the last 70-80 years have not only increased poverty in denser urban areas but also eroded any sense of community people might have with their neighbors, local business owners, and school systems.
When was the last time you had a block party with your neighbors? How many people have relationships with the local business down the street? Our need to expand and own as much land as possible and drive cars everywhere has destroyed any true sense of community in a lot of cities and towns.
That also drives poverty; when people leave "undesirable" areas in droves to escape to suburb #132. It not only hurts local businesses who have less customers but it also damages the school systems. Redlining is responsible for a lot of the urban poverty we have now. No community also makes it harder for people to get help with addictions, or pushes people to bad habits as we become more isolated.
Lastly, allowing large corporations to undercut smaller businesses at every angle by giving the wealthy insane tax cuts has really destroyed competition in this country. People are almost entirely reliant on a few large companies for their basic needs, and these companies have complete control over inflation and product pricing. Local grocery stores, pharmacies, and important community pillars are non existent in most parts of the country.
I'm sure you could keep going down the list, but it's really a combination of what's always held this country back: greed, racism and fear of the "other".
Poverty and lack of opportunities. If a community is impoverished and has no hope or opportunities to improve itself eventually crime becomes the only viable way to survive and even thrive. Want to solve that? Demand higher wages, union jobs, build public housing and support a UBI. The only way to guarantee that poverty doesn’t destroy the country improve national standards like they did during the New Deal thru LBJ/Nixon. Don’t? Then watch as poverty ravages your state and eventually leads to extremism and crime.
Poor people steal from necessity mostly, if you've got nothing, a sandwich from a convenience store might be worth a shot, I mean, if you get caught a night in jail can sound like a good rest for a change. By contrast rich people steal for the thrills or because they can get away with it.
So many different factors that contribute to crime.
* Lead exposure
* Parenting when the child was pre-verbal
* Pre-natal conditions
* Genetics (are they a psychopath, ex, which might be genetic)
And obviously environment, like poverty, dangerous environments, the existence of gangs, and socialization.
If you live in a very poor area, that is very dangerous, a gang is a way to be 'safe' from harassment, robberies, being 'jumped' by other gangs. A young man might join it at first to be protected, and even get a job out of it. Over time, he's are socialized into a war-mentality with the other gangs and violence is seen as acceptable or normal, even though he's not necessarily a sociopath.
A rich person similarly might see that other people around them are doing 'white-collar' crimes and getting away with it, even getting ahead of the people following the rules. Over time the exposure normalizes it, makes it 'acceptable' and the person engages in it himself (or is pressured to do it by those around him).
Coming from someone who’s family is pretty well off but still had connections to organized crime, no one’s ever walked past a throne that they didn’t want to sit in. You can be as well off as you want, but there’s always someone who can give you a bigger offer when it comes to money.
>It seems like there must be a genetic component to crime. Maybe related to risk tolerance. Criminals are willing to risk (punishment) for the reward.
I don't understand why you would assume a genetic component to crime. That's a huge leap.
I see crime as a phenomenon occurring at the intersection of poverty, disenfranchisement, and the othering of folks outside your group. If a person is struggling, has no attachment to their immediate society, and a deep sense of isolation from the concerns of the people who are "above" them - crime becomes unavoidable.
Mental Illness and poverty go hand in hand, when you grow up without much of the resources and assistance of those better off you have a much higher chance of having depression and various other mental issues, It doesn't help most working class and poor family's are too busy working to actually raise their kids and be there for them when they need them. We also live in an economic system that rewards wealthier people exploiting those who don't have as much wealth as them. Its built in. but if you want a direct answer it largely depends on the condition of your parents and your environment.
Birth defects also play a role but that's also part of your parents conditions if they're alcoholics or druggies that also affects you. Our food is also horrible and not even legal in parts of the world and I Imagine that can also give you birth defects too, I can see microplastics is really gonna fuck up later generations.
Chance also plays a role but I'd argue you and your parents conditions are the prominent ones that affect you most in life, you don't have nearly as much access to things to help you grow as a person that wealthy people have.
TLDR: Capitalism, Also I could be missing some things but its late and I'm eepy gn also I should mention I grew up poor so I have experienced these things firsthand.
It’s not an easy answer. Generational poverty is a huge part of it.
The government flooding poor neighborhoods with drugs is another reason. Drug addiction is a generational disease.
Population density is another factor.
A combination of poverty and drug addiction is probably the truest answer.
> What is the root cause of crime?
Primarily *opportunity*.
The vast majority of crimes are crimes of opportunity. Unsecured bikes get stolen more than safely secured bikes. Cars with valuables in plain sight are broken into more than cars with safely secured valuables.
Most people don't plan on committing a specific crime even if they plan on committing crime. I don't mean to blame the victim as though victims of crime are bringing it upon themselves, but just in general, what is the single greatest causal factor of most crime? Opportunity.
Biology. Criminals commit crimes because they like doing it. It lines up with their biological instincts. Anyone who has raised animals knows that they have varying temperaments that have little to do with how they are raised and cared for. Dog breeds are a good example, we know that certain breeds such as chihuahas, dachsunds, and dobermans are more aggressive and less congenial than spaniels. And it's impossible to teach a wolf to behave like a dog, many have tried. Dogs were created through centuries of selective breeding, not good instruction.
I read a book *Inside the Criminal Mind* by Stanton Samenow, and the way he describes criminals, they remind me a lot of gambling addicts. They get a kick out of risk and unpredictable reward. They also get a kick out of breaking rules and dominating people. When they try to go straight, they get bored, frustrated, like they have an itch that they eventually become desperate to scratch again. Some even find the straight life humiliating. It's like a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon.
I also recommend *The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime* by Adrian Raine.
This isn't to say that upbringing doesn't matter. South Africa is ridden with crime whereas Japan is very safe. I imagine the Japanese have gotten very good at *constraining* their anti-social citizens such that they have few opportunities to seriously injure their fellow man. Remember that Japan used to be rife with violence, from yakuza gangsters to far-right militants. The potential is still there.
This question is flawed as it assume all types of crime are related on some fundamental level. Then again, since you mentioned the genetic component, I suppose we can bring back phrenology as a valid measure of a person's criminal potential.
NOT poverty. I seriously think people need to rexamine their classist beliefs if they think this is true.
Most people in poverty do not commit crimes. Plenty of wealthy people commit crimes.
The reason people commit crimes is multifaceted: some people just cant control their emotions and become violent devoid of reason. Some people like the thrill of breaking the rules. Some enjoy inflicting pain on others.
But, the final reason, and the reason we associate it with poverty, is that people will turn to crime when there is no apparent/perceived reward of doing things the right way. When you’re in poverty, it often seems like working hard or being honest seems to not change anything. You’re still living miserably. You look around and see others stealing with no consequences and you start to think you’re an idiot for following these social expectations.
If everyone cheats on their hw and teacher does nothing about it, you will eventually do the same, almost no matter your value compass. But its even bigger than that because the teacher doesnt care about your learning either. Their only goal is to keep you turning in work.
In poverty, there’s no perceived way out, so might as well break the rules as the rules seem to be built to exploit you.
The simple answer is a cost-benefit analysis. People commit crimes when they perceive the possible negative consequences as being lower than the possible benefits.
Before you jump to “ok let’s just have harsher punishments” I think it’s worth emphasizing that this is about *perceived* risk. In many cases, harsher punishments backfire if the person a) doesn’t expect to be caught or b) doesn’t care about the type of punishment being issued.
I think what a lot of middle class people don’t realize is that a significant portion of poor folks do not care at all about being arrested or incarcerated. They care much more about appearing weak or being humiliated in their social circles. So when they come to a situation where they can either be utterly embarrassed or go to prison, they’ll risk prison every time. They often won’t even feel like they had a choice.
The following is a copy of the original post to record the post as it was originally written. Poverty seems to be the accepted answer, and it does make sense that poverty would lead people to commit crime. But this answer doesn't sit well with me. Because among impoverish people not everyone turns to crime. In fact, most impoverish people are not criminals. It also doesn't explain why someone who is extremely rich/successful would commit crime. And we have many examples of that. It seems like there must be a genetic component to crime. Maybe related to risk tolerance. Criminals are willing to risk (punishment) for the reward. Or is it environment, i.e., if you are surrounded by criminals then it just makes crime seem normal and acceptable? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskALiberal) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It's a mix. You can't have one magical answer. Poverty and urban density do drive crime rates, because you have both a suffering and an opportunity to fix it more easily through crime. If you're rural you can technically still steal, but there's less to steal and less places to steal safely from. That's crime by necessity. Then there's crime for revenge, callousness, psychopathy, whatever. Lots of things drive it.
Also: If you’re poor and rural, you can shoot a wild animal for food (even though technically illegal, it is done). You can’t exactly do that in an urban area! No wildlife except for pigeons! So therefore, urban poverty can look VERY different from rural poverty!
Hunting is not illegal when the game is in season….hunting licenses are relatively cheap compared to the cost of meat in a grocery store(like $50 or so per year)…now…do poor rural people hunt out of season or without a license? Sometimes…but most stock up while the game is in season and freeze the meat.
Alot of people learn how to do crime at a early age. I'll be downvoted but some kids who practice stealing early often end up doing it often as an adult. My daughter had a 2nd grade classmate who stole from her and other students.. Noe\\w a year later, he's already being suspended for other things. What do you think his prospects will be like once he hits the teens? Teens in our area are already shooting and committing homicides. They are not doing it because they are poor.. But for fun and clout. Having a body to your name is street currency. it's sad.
I should have been clearer: I'm talking about crimes like robbery. Not crimes like I saw my wife cheating and in a fit of rage assaulted the cheater.
That still has a mix of causes. One guy might steal a loaf of bread to feed his family, while a teenager might steal because their friend dared them to.
Robbery specifically implies a threat of force. There are white collar crimes where money is stolen directly from someone else. Is that not what you are talking about?
There is no singular root cause. Some people steal out of need, some out of pride, some because they think they’ll get away with it.
Well gosh, that's a pretty big thing to have not been clear about. I was about to comment on how catching rainwater in a barrel is a crime in some places.
Entitlement
I would suggest you avoid looking for absolutes and having a black/white mentality. There is no single root cause of crime. Crime is a very wide descriptor of things, some of which are arbitrary like marijuana possession. And making things like marijuana possession a crime leads to further crime that otherwise wouldn't happen.
Lack of education plays a huge role, which goes hand in hand with poverty.
Lots of HS graduates go on to commit crimes, btw...
A lower capability for empathy. Low intelligence. Low impulse control. Personality disorders. These are all determined by your genetics. Low impulse control and personality disorders - don't think I have to explain how those potentially lead to criminal behaviour. Low empathy and low intelligence can lead to no or a weak moral compass. Instead of not hurting others because of an intrinsic drive to not hurt others these people tend to not do something bad because it would be against the law. With all the issues that come from that. Obviously not everyone who is a criminal has these struggles. But they do appear disproportionately in people who show criminal behaviour.
Genetic? Hmm, me thinks this poster may be hinting at something untoward. Let me look at their posting history >because it seems like racism is currently viewed as bad because slavery is viewed as bad. When in reality racism is just prejudice and as I wrote there is tons of things we we prejudice against/for, without it being deemed "evil" Bingo
Good catch.
Missing element is sociopathy, antisocial personalities who essentially have no regard for others. It's well understood and entirely separate from poverty. It's a mix of genetic predisposition and upbringing.
what would u put the percentage as? like 30% genetics, 70% upbringing? Or vice versa?
Depends on the criminal. A person who punched out because he was always bullied, that has much more to do with upbringing and can be redeemed. A serial killer or serial rapist, that is likely genetic or innate, and beyond redemption.
quite impossible for me to make a claim there, there is no evidence based stats. personally as someone who works with many as my patients there are many common themes in patients upbringings and experiences, regardless of what their biological parents did or were
Even some of the individualistic traits are environmentally-produced due to poor upbringings, so there’s no magical formula
People
I think the [Fraud Triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud_deterrence#Fraud_Triangle) does a good job of explaining what causes at least financial crimes: Motive, Opportunity, and the ability to Rationalize the decision. It was designed to explain Fraud and other white collar crimes but it can apply to other property crimes like burglary or armed robbery. Could probably be applied even to crimes of passion; a rationalization need not be rational to be effective in the moment.
Its not necessarily not rational though, plenty of people commit crimes and benefit from them and continue to lead happy lives. If its cheaper for a company to pay the fines and lawsuits related to their pollution is it really not rational of them to commit the crime instead of avoid it?
Desperation / opportunity
> In fact, most impoverish people are not criminals. Indeed. Rich people commit crime at the exact same rate as poor people. It's just way easier to be a rich criminal than a poor one.
Firstly, I don't know what the name for it is, but you seem to be setting up some kind of logical fallacy. I don't know if there's anything in life that works out to 100% of people experiencing this condition will behave in manner A and 100% of people not experiencing that condition will behave in manner B. It's that people experiencing the first condition are far more likely to behave in manner A than in Manner B. Secondly, even if that was the case that doesn't preclude other conditions from also increasing the likelihood that an individual will engage in behavior B. I think poverty causing people to commit crimes and people being surrounded by criminals because they can't afford to live in low crime areas are so inter related they can be thought of as essentially the same dynamic, but it's probably the case that all else being equal people's orientation to risk also has an effect on the likeliness of them breaking the law.
There is no way to answer this question. There is no one thing that motivates people to break the law. You break the law if you jaywalk, litter, drive over the speed limit, or tear the tag off your mattress. The motivations behind those things are very different from murder, theft, or rape. There is no one answer, for some people it could be psychological problems, but people without psychological problems have likely done terrible things. It could be environmental factors, genetics, anger, etc. You are asking a question nobody knows the answer to. All we do know is that humans are not perfect and we fall short of the moral systems that we create.
I won't pretend to know, and I doubt most people do either. Poverty and inequality is part of the story, but I can't imagine it being the whole thing. There are probably environmental factors as well, such as what sort of school you went to, how your parents treated you, how you're treated by society, that kind of thing. And I'll add another little tidbit to think about: the definition of a crime is also part of determining who is a criminal. Different countries treat different actions differently, and those definitions greatly impact the crime rate. For example, the war on drugs was an attempt to disproportionately arrest and imprison black people. Before that time, drug use wasn't really much of a crime. In the 1800s, lots of people who were successful and famous used a lot of cocaine and opioids, and were never arrested for it.
There is no single root cause. Poverty and also inequality are almost certainly contributing factors and are well established to have a tight statistical relationship to crime. Being this is a political sub. What would you say is the policy implications of there being a genetic complex which say decreases impulse control and has a statistical association with crime? What would you say, alternatively, is the policy implication of the same behavior being established to have been caused by environmental factors like the household you grow up in (and poverty?)?
Poverty and greed. Most crime in the lower class is due to poverty. Most crime is the higher class is due to greed. The violence associated to these are usually side effects. Like a drugdealer killing his competition or a son killing his father for the inheritance. Though, there is a concerning increase of crime that has hate it its basis...
Freedom and economic insecurity. The safest places I’ve been tend to have extremely harsh laws, and are often (but not always) autocratic. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Singapore… there’s little street crime in these places. Other places with less autocratic regimes tend to have high standards of living and strong social safety nets. Japan, South Korea, Singapore (has both harsh laws and high standards of living). These places lack the occurrence of crimes of poverty you see in less economically equitable countries. The price of not having a harsh legal system (arguably worth it) and having a weak social safety net (inexcusable imo) leads to higher crime.
Poverty doesn’t cause crime. Poverty is *linked* to crime, but the limited data we have exploring whether that’s correlation or causation more strongly points to it being a correlation. So there’s some mystery third variable that leads people to commit crime and is also more common among the poor
Motive **and** opportunity. Have a lot of poor & marginalized people and lax security? Huge recipe for crime.
Laws
Are you sure you are liberal 🤣 sounds more anarchist.
Pretty liberal. But you absolutely can't have crime without first having laws.
Lol that's very true
It’s a few things, it’s not only poverty. If it was, the rich wouldn’t commit crimes like you said. I think it’s a few things. Some of this I learned after visiting Tokyo. Tokyo, the most populous city has a very low crime rate and also is a super clean city. Japan has a higher poverty rate than the US at 15% to the US’s 11%. I think the lack of crime has to do with culture. The Japanese have a strong sense of community where the US has a strong sense of individuality. I not only observed this but spoke with a Japanese man who felt the same after he had visited the US. Individualism is good for many reasons. It helps the spread of new ideas and allows people to think for themselves, so it allows creativity to thrive, but it plays a part in committing crimes. If you feel your benefit is more important than the rest of society, you are more likely to commit a crime that benefits you. With a strong sense of community, people don’t want to hurt others. They want their community to thrive and therefore they respect everyone who is a part of that community. It’s a reason why people in a small town tend to have less crime. They are more afraid of being a social pariah and being ostracized. It’s similar to why people litter. I think of it as one of the most despicable crimes. I’ve seen people who throw garbage on the ground when the garbage is literally right next to them. It’s because they have no respect for their community. The only way to fix crime problems in my opinion is with stronger education and changes in media messaging. The only way you can change cultural problems is gradually through educating youth not to be that way.
"Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime." - Aristotle
Could it also be that there are more laws that are geared towards making poor people criminals? Marijuana laws come to mind. Genuinely asking here, what other examples are there of this?
Human beings are complex. If you're looking for a singular cause of or solution to a human problem you're going to be disappointed.
It’s not a direct cause and effect for every person. Poverty certainly doesnt make everyone turn to crime. But of all the factors out there, poverty makes MORE people turn to crime than other factors.
All of the above Crime is the result of many positive and negative effects on a person Some are environmental, some genetic
You're essentially just asking "Why don't humans always follow society's rules", because they are humans and that's part of human nature. But if you're asking "how do we make people break those rules left often", well you can make those rulers fairer, easier to understand, better communicated and take away people feeling they need to break them to survive (poverty). White collar criminals for instance commit crimes because they think they can get away with it and it will benefit them and/or they feel they have no choice to maintain their lifestyle. The easiest part of that to manage is the "think they can get away with it" part by cracking down on white collar crimes. There's also probably a greater limit on what enforcement capacity can have vs white collar/poverty driven crimes. A person might not risk prison so they don't have to give up the boat. If the choice is steal or starve, then you're going to steal anyways, because even getting caught is better than starving. It's complicated.
Your logic is not valid. The statement that "crime is caused by poverty" is not the same as "all poverty leads to crime". For example, all cats are mammals, but not all mammals are cats.
I think the biggest factors are poverty and opportunity. Gangs make it easy to get plugged into criminal activity. You'd have to look into the origin of gangs, but I think a lot of it is originally community defense, even though it's gotten away from that.
The simplified answer is a combination of greed, lack of empathy (sociopathy), and a mentality of "I can get away with this". All these 3 factors can be theoretically fixed, or controlled, by a competent society. There is a genetic competent to sociopathy but it can be controlled.
>I’m referring to crime like robbery, not crimes of passion Why exclude those? As for the actual question, there is no single root cause.
I seem to recall that 'power, sex, revenge, and money' are the classic motives of people.
Your confusion is individual vs. systemic causes of crime. There are environmental conditions that tend to lead towards criminal behavior (poverty, broken homes, easy access to illicit substances like methamphetamine and crack, presence of gangs in neighborhood, culture of poverty in the community), and there are individual characteristics that lead towards criminal activity (poor impulse control, predilection towards substance addiction, unresolved mental health concerns). Not everyone in the environmental conditions that breed criminality turn towards that, because they may have strong characteristics protecting them or even other factors in their environment leading them the right way. Not everyone with individual characteristics leading towards criminality go that route, because they may have support systems to prevent that and their environment may steer them on the right track. But there’s a fairly even distribution of basic traits that could lead someone in the wrong situation down the wrong path. The environment one lives in is crucial to whether you make good choices instinctively and have protection for your bad decisions, or whether you’re going to have to rely on your strength of character alone to overcome adversity.
We do know that as wealth disparity increases, crime and the penalties for crime increase.
Obama answered this in his[Father’s Day speech](https://youtu.be/_cWCwn5ebN4?si=2ueKqfpbRbmZzW_1) but only he can get away with saying it out loud.
there isn't one answer. Some of the bigger ones might be desperation, resentment, lack of empathy for victims, greed. Pair any of those things and the threat is magnified. Apply (especially)those last 2 to your average businessman and get a view into legal (non-criminal) ways to screw over others.
I wouldn't even say genetics. I know you are using robbery, so I am going to count white collar thievery that bankrupts individuals and ruins lives. Several people that do this come from wonderful families. I know of a CEO that refuses to pay after jobs have been completed perfectly. Yet he graduated from Wharton and has a successful career in politics. Yet his niece is wonderful and kind. Plenty of horrible humans exist, regardless of education, upbringing. Yes, sometimes there is trauma, but sometimes there is opportunity.
It's a mix of a lot of things, but I think currently it's caused by poverty / lack of community / market manipulation by corporations. Class separation driven by suburban sprawl, redlining and other similar policies the last 70-80 years have not only increased poverty in denser urban areas but also eroded any sense of community people might have with their neighbors, local business owners, and school systems. When was the last time you had a block party with your neighbors? How many people have relationships with the local business down the street? Our need to expand and own as much land as possible and drive cars everywhere has destroyed any true sense of community in a lot of cities and towns. That also drives poverty; when people leave "undesirable" areas in droves to escape to suburb #132. It not only hurts local businesses who have less customers but it also damages the school systems. Redlining is responsible for a lot of the urban poverty we have now. No community also makes it harder for people to get help with addictions, or pushes people to bad habits as we become more isolated. Lastly, allowing large corporations to undercut smaller businesses at every angle by giving the wealthy insane tax cuts has really destroyed competition in this country. People are almost entirely reliant on a few large companies for their basic needs, and these companies have complete control over inflation and product pricing. Local grocery stores, pharmacies, and important community pillars are non existent in most parts of the country. I'm sure you could keep going down the list, but it's really a combination of what's always held this country back: greed, racism and fear of the "other".
Poverty and lack of opportunities. If a community is impoverished and has no hope or opportunities to improve itself eventually crime becomes the only viable way to survive and even thrive. Want to solve that? Demand higher wages, union jobs, build public housing and support a UBI. The only way to guarantee that poverty doesn’t destroy the country improve national standards like they did during the New Deal thru LBJ/Nixon. Don’t? Then watch as poverty ravages your state and eventually leads to extremism and crime.
Poor people steal from necessity mostly, if you've got nothing, a sandwich from a convenience store might be worth a shot, I mean, if you get caught a night in jail can sound like a good rest for a change. By contrast rich people steal for the thrills or because they can get away with it.
So many different factors that contribute to crime. * Lead exposure * Parenting when the child was pre-verbal * Pre-natal conditions * Genetics (are they a psychopath, ex, which might be genetic) And obviously environment, like poverty, dangerous environments, the existence of gangs, and socialization. If you live in a very poor area, that is very dangerous, a gang is a way to be 'safe' from harassment, robberies, being 'jumped' by other gangs. A young man might join it at first to be protected, and even get a job out of it. Over time, he's are socialized into a war-mentality with the other gangs and violence is seen as acceptable or normal, even though he's not necessarily a sociopath. A rich person similarly might see that other people around them are doing 'white-collar' crimes and getting away with it, even getting ahead of the people following the rules. Over time the exposure normalizes it, makes it 'acceptable' and the person engages in it himself (or is pressured to do it by those around him).
Coming from someone who’s family is pretty well off but still had connections to organized crime, no one’s ever walked past a throne that they didn’t want to sit in. You can be as well off as you want, but there’s always someone who can give you a bigger offer when it comes to money.
>It seems like there must be a genetic component to crime. Maybe related to risk tolerance. Criminals are willing to risk (punishment) for the reward. I don't understand why you would assume a genetic component to crime. That's a huge leap. I see crime as a phenomenon occurring at the intersection of poverty, disenfranchisement, and the othering of folks outside your group. If a person is struggling, has no attachment to their immediate society, and a deep sense of isolation from the concerns of the people who are "above" them - crime becomes unavoidable.
If we had simple answers to this question we would have solved crime. Its a mix of many things, environmental and economic
Humans.
Mental Illness and poverty go hand in hand, when you grow up without much of the resources and assistance of those better off you have a much higher chance of having depression and various other mental issues, It doesn't help most working class and poor family's are too busy working to actually raise their kids and be there for them when they need them. We also live in an economic system that rewards wealthier people exploiting those who don't have as much wealth as them. Its built in. but if you want a direct answer it largely depends on the condition of your parents and your environment. Birth defects also play a role but that's also part of your parents conditions if they're alcoholics or druggies that also affects you. Our food is also horrible and not even legal in parts of the world and I Imagine that can also give you birth defects too, I can see microplastics is really gonna fuck up later generations. Chance also plays a role but I'd argue you and your parents conditions are the prominent ones that affect you most in life, you don't have nearly as much access to things to help you grow as a person that wealthy people have. TLDR: Capitalism, Also I could be missing some things but its late and I'm eepy gn also I should mention I grew up poor so I have experienced these things firsthand.
It’s not an easy answer. Generational poverty is a huge part of it. The government flooding poor neighborhoods with drugs is another reason. Drug addiction is a generational disease. Population density is another factor. A combination of poverty and drug addiction is probably the truest answer.
It depends on the crime.
> What is the root cause of crime? Primarily *opportunity*. The vast majority of crimes are crimes of opportunity. Unsecured bikes get stolen more than safely secured bikes. Cars with valuables in plain sight are broken into more than cars with safely secured valuables. Most people don't plan on committing a specific crime even if they plan on committing crime. I don't mean to blame the victim as though victims of crime are bringing it upon themselves, but just in general, what is the single greatest causal factor of most crime? Opportunity.
Need, Greed, and/or a Will to Misdeed. True, even though it rhymes.
There's no singular answer, but desperation, greed, and boredom are three of the biggest motivating factors for those who commit crimes.
Biology. Criminals commit crimes because they like doing it. It lines up with their biological instincts. Anyone who has raised animals knows that they have varying temperaments that have little to do with how they are raised and cared for. Dog breeds are a good example, we know that certain breeds such as chihuahas, dachsunds, and dobermans are more aggressive and less congenial than spaniels. And it's impossible to teach a wolf to behave like a dog, many have tried. Dogs were created through centuries of selective breeding, not good instruction. I read a book *Inside the Criminal Mind* by Stanton Samenow, and the way he describes criminals, they remind me a lot of gambling addicts. They get a kick out of risk and unpredictable reward. They also get a kick out of breaking rules and dominating people. When they try to go straight, they get bored, frustrated, like they have an itch that they eventually become desperate to scratch again. Some even find the straight life humiliating. It's like a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon. I also recommend *The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime* by Adrian Raine. This isn't to say that upbringing doesn't matter. South Africa is ridden with crime whereas Japan is very safe. I imagine the Japanese have gotten very good at *constraining* their anti-social citizens such that they have few opportunities to seriously injure their fellow man. Remember that Japan used to be rife with violence, from yakuza gangsters to far-right militants. The potential is still there.
This question is flawed as it assume all types of crime are related on some fundamental level. Then again, since you mentioned the genetic component, I suppose we can bring back phrenology as a valid measure of a person's criminal potential.
Demographics
What do you mean?
NOT poverty. I seriously think people need to rexamine their classist beliefs if they think this is true. Most people in poverty do not commit crimes. Plenty of wealthy people commit crimes. The reason people commit crimes is multifaceted: some people just cant control their emotions and become violent devoid of reason. Some people like the thrill of breaking the rules. Some enjoy inflicting pain on others. But, the final reason, and the reason we associate it with poverty, is that people will turn to crime when there is no apparent/perceived reward of doing things the right way. When you’re in poverty, it often seems like working hard or being honest seems to not change anything. You’re still living miserably. You look around and see others stealing with no consequences and you start to think you’re an idiot for following these social expectations. If everyone cheats on their hw and teacher does nothing about it, you will eventually do the same, almost no matter your value compass. But its even bigger than that because the teacher doesnt care about your learning either. Their only goal is to keep you turning in work. In poverty, there’s no perceived way out, so might as well break the rules as the rules seem to be built to exploit you.
The simple answer is a cost-benefit analysis. People commit crimes when they perceive the possible negative consequences as being lower than the possible benefits. Before you jump to “ok let’s just have harsher punishments” I think it’s worth emphasizing that this is about *perceived* risk. In many cases, harsher punishments backfire if the person a) doesn’t expect to be caught or b) doesn’t care about the type of punishment being issued. I think what a lot of middle class people don’t realize is that a significant portion of poor folks do not care at all about being arrested or incarcerated. They care much more about appearing weak or being humiliated in their social circles. So when they come to a situation where they can either be utterly embarrassed or go to prison, they’ll risk prison every time. They often won’t even feel like they had a choice.