It seems an incontrovertible fact that human beings often like simple answers to simple black or white questions. To deduce that poverty causes crime is one such example of this facile black or white thinking. The reality is that most conundrums come in various shades of grey. There are many hypothesised aetiological factors in the causation of criminal behaviour, and poverty may be included in the mix. However it would be an oversimplification to state that poverty alone is criminogenic, and this essay will examine the reasons for this statement.
Let us not forget either that the actual definition of crime is still somewhat contested and ambiguous.
In Dubai, moral transgressions such as kissing in public are considered to be crimes punishable by incarceration. In this country a pensioner pet shop owner was electronically tagged for the heinous crime of selling a goldfish to an under age customer! Indeed since 1997 more than three thousand new crimes, including the aforementioned goldfish crime and swimming in the Titanic ship` s hull, have been created by over zealous officials. Passengers have even been punished with hefty fines for getting off train stops too early. Never since the days of Cromwell has a Parliament been so legislatively active. This has resulted in justified criticism from the Law Commission (CL&J 2010).
Given the arbitrary nature of the definition of crime (Christie 2004), as well as the privileged status of those who define it, this essay will proceed to delineate the relationship between poverty and crime.
The subliminal association between poverty and crime may have had its roots in the word villain which derives from the medieval word “vilein”. In the 1300`s the vileins were low born rustics that served their masters. They were poor farm servants. This association of the poor with villainy continued with the novels of Charles Dickens such as Oliver Twist. The vivid portrayal of the characters Fagin, and his gang of impoverished London pickpockets, depicts the very dire poverty of early Victorian times. In those days poor children would often walk barefoot being unable to afford shoes. Indeed it is only recently that all children in our country can now afford shoes, be they rich or poor, due to the abundance of cheap manufactured goods. The very real need for the basic necessities that drove Fagin` s gang are no longer a driving force for petty crime.
Yet despite this fact there is still a plethora of criminal activity and the yardstick for the definition of poverty may have been moved higher. In certain sub cultures poverty may now be defined as not having the latest and trendiest trainers. The desire for status in the lower echelons of society may certainly lead to criminal acts to acquire the status symbols of wealth. However this desire for status is prevalent right across the board in every stratum of society. Therefore it would be inaccurate to ascribe poverty as being the sole progenitor for the genesis of crime. Criminals come in all shapes and sizes and from every strata of society. Status driven acquisitive crime has been discussed in many studies including those on corporate or workplace crime. The term “white collar crime” refers to this type of crime and was first coined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939.
At the time this was a very new and exciting concept as it had previously suited the wealthy genteel Edwardians to look down upon the impoverished criminal classes. This enabled the ruling elite to exert control over the proletariat rabble and thereby protect their financial interests. This idea of inherent privilege was also examined at length in the radical works of Marx and Engels (Marx & Engels 1848). Karl Marx felt that wealthy capitalists exploited the lower classes. It suited the elite plutocracy to label the poor as bad. Law is the normative structure of the dominant group (Sellin 1938). A label of delinquency may conveniently stereotype sub cultural groups in the community, but the result of this prejudice could be an unhelpful self-fulfilling prophecy (Becker 1963).
The seminal study by Edwin Sutherland helped bring about a shift and a change of perception. Criminals it seems could be ordinary and hardworking respectable individuals who dress smartly for work in a white collar shirt and a neat suit. They attract little attention since they are legitimately at the scene of the crime in contrast to a trespassing house breaker. As well as the individual acting alone, the company as a separate entity can act in a criminal way (Box 1983). Sutherland discusses criminal acts by American utilities companies such as General Electric in his book on white collar crime (Sutherland 1983). Clearly these sharp business practices are motivated by greed rather than need. Indeed since white collar criminals are in employment they cannot use the excuse of pressing poverty for their actions.
A more recent case of corporate crime was the Enron scandal that erupted in 2001 in America that involved power cut malpractice with utility companies. Enron was a hugely successful company and listed by Fortune Magazine as being the most innovative company from 1996-2001. Enron employed a creative accountant, Andrew Fastow, who used numerous tricks to hide Enron` s liabilities. This seemingly robust company encouraged investors to buy shares in a company that was in fact hiding huge liabilities.
The dishonesty of Enron was not confined to its creative accounting techniques. Enron had given large donations to the political campaign of a Californian Senator, Phil Gramm, who was duly elected. In return he passed legislation in 2000 to deregulate electricity commodities. This was beneficial to Enron who owned many power utilities. Following the legislation California had 38 serious rolling blackout power cuts. These were engineered by Enron to maximise profits. Any one power cut can seriously endanger life since power is essential for hospitals. This wholly unacceptable behaviour of corporations has been discussed by Stephen Box who asserts that one is seven times more likely to be killed by corporate negligence than a common street criminal (Box 1983). A concerned whistle blower came forward in 2001 (BBC News 2002). Investors rushed to dump their shares. A white knight rescue attempt by another company failed and Enron filed for bankruptcy. Many of the company directors were jailed for fraudulent practices including Ponzi schemes which pay off investors using other investors` money.
A high profile case in the U. K. was that of the Polly Peck Company. This large concern was owned by tycoon Asil Nadir. He allegedly fleeced investors of millions of pounds and then fled the country to escape justice. He has recently returned to face justice, hoping that the current Government will assist a once generous Tory donor. The SFO have been preparing a case against him (Gammell 2010). This still wealthy tycoon has been tagged and must obey a strict curfew in his penthouse apartment.
The list of financial scandals is so enormous that it seems clear that there is a link between money and crime. However the link with poverty seems rather tenuous in most cases. One may speculate that some of the perpetrators of outrageous financial crimes might have suffered extreme deprivation as children resulting in poor self control (Gottfredson & Hirschi 1990).
Is it possible that tycoons such as Asil Nadir originate from a humble impoverished background that sowed the seed for later offending behaviour? The experience of childhood poverty may impel the actor along a path way of extreme avarice. Certainly many successful business folk often hail from humble origins. Maybe one should feel pity for corrupt fraudsters such as Asil Nadir who is currently bemoaning the lack of sunshine in his London apartment. The simple pleasures of life such as a walk in the sunshine on a beautiful spring day are entirely free. So much unhappiness results from the pursuit of material goals when much of our contentment arises from being with loved ones.
However this truism is often lost in the pursuit of material goals sometimes known as chasing the “American dream” (Cullen 2004).
Since the 1930`s Americans have become increasingly prosperous and lived in nice homes. This comfortable and secure lifestyle certainly embodies the personification of the American Dream. This concept led to some criminologists proposing the idea of feelings of strain being experienced by those who were unable to achieve this successful lifestyle (Agnew 1992). This concept became known as “strain theory”. This mismatch between culturally assigned goals and legitimate means to achieve these aspirations was initially popularised by the sociologist Robert Merton (Merton 1938, p.672).
There is no doubt that human beings have an innate tendency to want to “keep up with the Joneses”, to coin a popular phrase. This has been recently been corroborated by recent psychological research. Studies at Warwick and Cardiff Universities have shown that people feel happiest when they know that they are wealthier than most of their friends and neighbours, regardless of actual sums of money or assets involved (Boyce et al. 2010). In other words much life style satisfaction is deemed to be relative to the assets owned by others. Satisfaction does not seem to be a function of absolute wealth; only the realisation that your wealth is ranked above others. This finding indicates that people are fundamentally competitive.
This finding lends some weight to the theory of strain experienced by those at the bottom of the pile. Does this uncomfortable sensation lead to criminal behaviour in order to redress the balance? This may indeed be the case in certain instances. Equally people may be driven to acquisitive crime purely to become top dog and remain at the zenith of the material hierarchy. Karl Marx felt that wealthy capitalists exploited the lower classes in order to remain at the top of the metaphorical pecking order (Marx 1859; 1904). This exclusive situation is very much present in society today (Chambliss 1975; Young 1999).
Today many wealthy capitalists endeavour to do this by employing canny accountants to give advice on ways of avoiding paying taxes to the government. Numerous tax havens exist such as the Cayman Islands and this has recently received a lot of media attention in the light of austerity budgets. Ordinary hard working tax payers are becoming increasingly angry about flagrant tax avoidance. There is a militant organisation called UK Uncut that protests against tax avoidance by companies such as Top shop (BBC News 2011). Rather embarrassingly for David Cameron, the boss of Top shop, Philip Green, was recently employed by him as an image consultant.
The wealthy donor to the Conservative Party, Lord Ashcroft, was also exposed as hiding all of his assets offshore. The fact that he donated huge amounts of this ill gotten loot to the election campaign is especially galling. Furthermore a recent report by the respected Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown that the draconian austerity cuts are being disproportionately shouldered by the poorest sector of society (IFS 2010). This is manifestly unjust and the electorate is becoming increasingly restless with the Coalition government as recent street demonstrations have shown.
The general public is also very disenchanted with the behaviour of avaricious bankers who have been rewarding themselves with huge bonuses despite the collapse of many banks through mismanagement. This behaviour is beyond the comprehension of most ordinary mortals who are having moral panics (Cohen 1973;0020Garland 2008). Several high profile banks have collapsed recently. These include Northern Rock, which precipitated the first run on a bank for decades. In America at least twenty eight banks collapsed including Lehman Brothers in 2008.
What on earth is going on here one may ask? Many say that the bankers gave out too many NINJA loans in America, NINJA being the acronym for no income, jobs or assets. This was known as the sub prime loan crisis. There is no doubt that bankers have been behaving recklessly in order to earn their sales commissions. Indeed these days a bank manager is required to be a good salesperson rather than a conscientious accountant. It was reported in the Wall Street Journal that 279 banks have collapsed since 2008 (Smith & Sidal 2010). To add insult to injury greedy bankers such as Fred Goodwin have not only brought the Royal Bank of Scotland to the brink of destruction but have handsomely remunerated themselves with millions of pounds in bonuses. No wonder that he earned the nickname Fred the Shred! He was ridiculed and pilloried in the popular press for weeks.
This is not just a recent phenomenon as it happened in 1995 to Barings Bank in Singapore when Nick Leeson became carried away with his investment strategy. Maybe Leeson and the other bankers were impelled by youthful creative testosterone to act in this way (Kanazawa 2003).
It has been calculated by the National Audit Office in 2009 that each and every family in this country will eventually pay in the region of forty thousand pounds for the bank bailout. Yet what do the shareholders now get for their unwilling investment? It appears they receive little in the way of gratitude from the rescued banks as they continue to reward themselves with huge bonuses while refusing to lend to small businesses.
Many bankers are exhibiting signs of anti social or sociopathic behaviour. They are in effect behaving like psychopaths or “snakes in suits” (Babiak & Hare 2006). While many human beings behave in an altruistic manner there is a small sub group that appear to be motivated entirely by self interest (Hare 1993). The term psychopath was coined by Hervey Cleckley in his textbook which analysed the behaviour patterns of people without scruples or conscience (Cleckley 1977). Psychopaths are described as being endowed with superficial charm, glibness, supreme self confidence and self belief. They do not hesitate to walk over others to get what they want. The profile of a psychopath perfectly describes that of many greedy bankers. Their behaviour may also be explained in terms of Game Theory or the Prisoners Dilemma. Game Theory shows how mutual co-operation or altruism will benefit both parties moderately (Poundstone 1992). However if one person only cheats then he may emerge as the supreme victor at the complete expense of the other non-cheating participant. This cheating behaviour might be more prevalent in those with few emotional ties or bonds to a community (Hirschi 1969).
This has led some social scientists to speculate that there may be an evolutionary niche for such selfish behaviour. In others words successful psychopaths may have evolved in society via a process of natural selection and so we see them everywhere today in the guise of rich bankers, politicians and businessmen. A check list has been designed to detect these traits that include lack of empathy, callousness and supreme narcissism (Hare 2003). Maybe would be bankers should be made to take the PCL test to ascertain latent psychopathic tendencies?
It would appear then that the desire for material gain rather than poverty per se is often a driving factor in devious behaviour. It may also be the case that this type of egotistic behaviour may have evolved through natural selection of survival of the fittest. Natural Selection would have also favoured altruistic team building cooperation and a desire for social order (Axelrod 1984; Tyler 2011).
Evolutionary theory supports the premise that hunters with attributes of ruthlessness, fearlessness, and aggression, would be more likely to survive. These attributes are often tied up with criminal behaviour. Aggressive and territorial behaviour may be selected for as survival mechanisms (Ardrey 1966). In the same way acquisitive behaviour may also have been selected for. Greedy humans are just like squirrels gathering their nuts and acorns for the long hard winter months ahead. Unfortunately the squirreling tendencies of bank managers tend to lead to the collapse of major financial institutions!
Are their any cases of serious crimes being committed directly as a result of poverty? Yes there are indeed such crimes. There is one such example that springs to mind that has received wide media coverage. This is the tragic case of a honeymoon murder that took place in South Africa in 2010. The Shrien Dewani case involved the murder of a bride by several hit men who were paid a few thousand pounds each to dispatch the bride. There were several witness reports to the effect that the murderers came from extremely impoverished families in Cape Town. Following the murder these previously poor young men were seen splashing money around, buying rounds of drinks and parading brand new trainers.
Clearly they had received a large sum of money and the likely source was a disenchanted husband. These young African men were persuaded to commit a heinous crime because of their background of extreme poverty. The husband was from a very wealthy background and one can only speculate as to his motive. It seems a dreadful waste of a human life for a paltry sum of money, but to these poor men from Cape Town, one thousand pounds is a sum they could have only dreamed of. These men had grown up experiencing hunger and deprivation according to reports from neighbours. This case clearly shows how poverty may lead to a serious crime being committed.
The recent case of the sea faring, adventuring Chandlers kidnapped by Somali pirates also indicates that extreme poverty leads to criminal acts. Somalia is a very poor country and pirates are often perceived as local heroes as they attempt to redistribute wealth in a modern day re-inaction of a Robin Hood scenario. The pirates have successfully extorted millions of pounds in ransom money from huge cargo liners. Fortunately for the Chandlers their story had a happy ending when ransoms were paid despite protestations by the Government that deals were never brokered with criminals or hostage takers. Their fortuitous release in November 2010 may have been facilitated by a desire to bury bad news as it serendipitously occurred around the time of the student protest riots!
During his election campaign David Cameron spoke a lot about crime and how he felt it could be prevented by strong family support networks. This idea has some merit and the way that urban communities function to promote or to prevent crime was originally studied by the Chicago school (Shaw & McKay 1942). Communities where several generations of family members contentedly co -exist are clearly going to be more cohesive and integrated than those which consist of a high transient population (Braithwaite 1989). For example, here in Wales there are many Council housing estates where several generations of family members have been placed next to each other by helpful local authorities. This benign policy will probably lead to a reduction in crime as relatives look out for each other and support their families.
However George Osborne is intending to make life miserable for these poor families with his ill thought out policies on social housing. The Tories are proposing a raft of draconian measures aimed at the lowest echelon of society. They have categorically stated that there will be an end to a council house for life. From now on families will be moved around every few years at the caprice of the heartless Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer. This foolish policy will certainly not help lower the crime statistics either. It will lead to distress and fracture previously happy communities. It flies directly in the face of their stated policy to support family ties and may lead to anomie. Anomie was a term coined by the sociologist Emile Durkheim who studied societal norms and suicide (Durkheim 1893; 1951). Anomie refers to feelings of malaise and disengagement with society. This current political Cabinet consists of many plutocrat millionaires.
Furthermore the recent expenses scandal of these Right Honourable gentlemen highlights the fact that those who are currently making the law are also breaking the law! Many Members of Parliament and Peers of the realm have been inflating or fiddling claims for rent on properties they actually own. It seems that many politicians were involved but only a few have been singled out to be prosecuted. The wealthy politicians owning moats with duck houses are certainly not driven by poverty to offend.
What did these embarrassed culprits give as their excuse? Most of them blamed the “system” for encouraging their dishonesty. Lord Taylor said in his defence that “Peers regularly fiddled their expenses day in and day out” and he was encouraged to claim for a second home that did not exist. This recent scandal highlights the fact that dishonesty cuts right across the board of every social class stratum. The higher echelons are no more honest than the lower echelons. These Peers of the realm felt that they were somehow above the law. Their cultural conduct norms conflicted with the electorate` s expectations (Sellin 1938). Some of the culprits tried to claim parliamentary privilege as a defence. This type of behaviour was discussed in Reiman` s book “the rich get richer and the poor get prison” (Reiman 1984) which showed how many powerful culprits escape justice for their crimes.. This dishonest behaviour may cause the public to question the legitimacy of current laws made by politicians. This perceived illegitimacy might lead to extralegal behaviour and defiance of the law (Tyler 2006).
Is there a link between rising unemployment and rising crime levels? Such a statistical link would certainly lend support to the theory that poverty leads to rising crime. In 1993 the Home Secretary Michael Howard gave a speech rubbishing the link between unemployment and crime. He was quoted as saying “We will have no truck with trendy theories that try to blame crime on socio economic factors”. An economist working at the time for the Institute for Public Policy Research showed a trend for most criminals to be unemployed (Dickinson 1993). This finding lends some support to the hypothesis that poverty may lead to crime. This link between unemployment and crime may also lend support to routine activity theory which states that an easily available opportunity is paramount for the commission of crime. An unemployed person may have more free time. Playing the Devil` s Advocate one might deduce that “the Devil makes work for idle hands” and apportion blame accordingly. Disadvantaged youth may turn to crime due to negative parental and school expectations leading to a self fulfilling prophecy of failure (Merton 1968). This ascribing of crime to the less affluent classes is deserving of censure by a radical criminologist (Quinney 1977). It seems to be the case that the less privileged criminals are more likely to be targeted by police via stop and search and therefore apprehended more often (UK PoliceOnline2010). A large school of thought believes that poor parental supervision is to blame for much of delinquent behaviour (Wilson 1980; Sampson and Laub 1990).
If poverty were the sole driver of crime one would expect that as standards of living improve so crime rates would decline. This does not occur partly because as standards of living improve the goal posts of success are continually set higher up. The definition of poverty is also somewhat arbitrary and it is a relative rather than an absolute concept. According to routine activity theorists the propensity to criminal behaviour is normal and not driven by poverty, but by opportunism and an easy target (Cohen & Felson 1979; Clarke & Felson 1993; Felson 1994). This theory may explain why recorded crime rose during the last century as prosperity grew bringing more opportunities. The recent drop in crime may similarly be explained by the increasing use of security devices such as alarms (Farrell et al.2008). Routine activity theory also sits well with the incidence of occupational and corporate crime where temptation is ubiquitous (Punch 1996 p.213). In other words every one of us, whether rich or poor, is inherently criminal and when an opportunity presents itself we will easily succumb to temptation.
A worrying type of crime that may have links to poverty is that of terrorism. Radicalised jihadist extremism, may have its roots in anomie. There may be disengagement with the community that is exacerbated by poverty. Although many terrorists are motivated by political ideology and religious belief, there has been a noted link with deprivation in recent cases. Many radicalised home grown terrorists are from deprived areas. This realisation led to the last Labour Government to invest money in Muslim community projects. The Prevent Violent Extremism Fund gave £86 million to local community groups in the hope it would deter many from becoming terrorists (Beckford 2008). The Quilliam Foundation is also monitoring the new threat of radicalisation occurring inside prisons (Quilliam 2009).
Is there an example of a city where crime levels have gone down rather than up and if so what lessons may be gleaned from this? Yes there is indeed an interesting example of this happening and it is known as “the great American crime decline” that took place in New York the 1990`s. This unusual event shows that crime does not inevitably rise in modern societies. The event has attracted the attention of many criminologists (Zimring 2007) keen to deduce the epidemiological causative factors of crime.
There were many hypothesised reasons for the great American crime decline. Here is a brief synopsis of the reasons given by academics. Firstly there was the demographic reason of there being fewer young people in New York. Young people tend to commit most crimes. Some theorists hypothesised rather distastefully that this was due to less unwanted children born due to abortion law changes in the 1970`s (Rosenfeld 2004).
Police numbers were increased by 7000 implementing an incarceration binge that locked up nearly two million by 1998. There was geographical crime hotspot mapping (Brantingham & Brantingham 1991).There was also a zero tolerance to minor misdemeanours such as graffiti and vandalism, by Mayor Rudy Giuliani. This initiative was known as “broken windows” policing after the authors of an article on urban crime (Wilson & Kelling 1982).
Finally there were very favourable prevailing economic conditions at the time. The latter finding certainly lends some support to the theory linking crime with poverty. Statistics also show that those living in areas of poverty are more likely to be victims of crime themselves (Pantazis & Gordon 1997; 1998).
Are there any crimes where poverty is clearly not a causative factor? Yes indeed there are many that fit this criterion. .Numerous State sanctioned crimes exist as typified by lucrative British arms deals with Libya and political genocide in Yugoslavia. Other crimes are those fuelled by jealousy and lust, known by the French as crimes passionnels. Violence is far more common than one supposes and may be partly explained by our evolutionary hunter survival instincts (Buss 2005). Thrill seeking may motivate some offenders (Samenow 1984; 2004).Various theories for genes predisposing to violence such as the MAOA gene have been put forward (Ferguson & Beaver 2009). These genes coding for mono amine oxidase can result in a very “short fuse” and lawyers in America have been using this defence to exonerate their clients for their violent behaviour. These genes could have been selected for via natural selection as originally discussed in the Origin of Species (Darwin 1872 a). Aggression is facilitated by natural hormones such as testosterone, which is essential for hunting. Feelings of irritation may be exacerbated by physiological factors such as hunger or hypoglycaemia. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view since hunger would trigger the aggressive hunting urge.
Social learning theorists believe that criminal or aggressive behaviour may be learnt via differential association with peers (Sutherland 1937) or via imitation (Bandura et al 1963). Other theorists believe that inherent personality factors such as extraversion, rather than introversion lead to a propensity to commit crime (Eysenck 1970). Aggression may also result from frustration caused by prevention of reaching a goal according to the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Berkowitz, 1969).
Most crime is committed by adolescents and this may be due partly to the fact that their brains are still maturing according to neurocognitive studies (Giedd et al 2005). MRI scans show the prefrontal lobe is still maturing. This may explain adolescent antisocial behaviour and egocentrism (Elkind 1967).The pre frontal lobe is needed for executive self control to curb impulsive behaviour. Our brains contain neural structures in the limbic system that elicit aggressive behaviour when stimulated. Sometimes these structures become abnormally stimulated as a result of chemicals such as anabolic steroids even a limbic brain tumour. Testosterone is also much higher in adolescents. Testosterone is a natural steroid. It facilitates muscle growth typical of the mesomorph body type lending support to the somatotype theory (Sheldon 1940).The very presence of limbic brain structures implies that we are hard wired for aggression. Nature red in tooth and claw has become a truism for the evolutionary process of survival of the fittest and gene preservation (Darwin, 1872; Dawkins 1989).
Human beings evolved to compete for resources and so these instincts need to be kept under control. The hunting instincts of prehistoric man may be compared to the competitive urges in modern man. These competitive urges may motivate acquisitive crime. Like a prehistoric hunter modern man may metaphorically “go for the kill” to seal a business deal. In a sense we have come full circle here in proposing a link between innate aggression and the urge to achieve material success (Kanazawa 2004). Failure to achieve success may result in angry strain and delinquency (Agnew 1992:52) or even homicide (Braithwaite 1979).
To conclude then, it appears that the urge for financial gain, status and hierarchical advantage motivates much of human behaviour and this may lead to transgressions of the prevailing laws in the particular jurisdiction. These infractions are more likely to occur when an individual feels less attached to the social norms, according to social bonding or control theories. Crime is an ambiguous concept so maybe one should embrace the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. The prevalence of crime is distributed across all social classes and it would therefore be wrong to accept the ruling class hegemony and wholly ascribe poverty as being the sole driver of crime. Words:-4500
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With some people have a bill cover insurance to rely on in case of unemployment, some people don't. That is one of the reason why some people resort to committing crime.
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