Whenever there is a political discussion about crime, why are the root causes of crime always overlooked?

Question

From personal experience, I know that whenever people talk about crime and how to prevent it, they never talk about how poverty is the root cause of most crimes. Researchers have already confirmed the obvious, which is that that children born in very low income households are far more likely to commit crimes than children born in steady, middle-class homes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalized_abortion_and_crime_effect

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=174508

That being said, why do most people (especially Republicans and other right-wing Americans) tend to exclude that bit of information when talking about crime?

Answer 1

Thus you are saying that the root causes of poverty are strongly linked with the root causes of crime.



"The Real Root Causes of Violent Crime: The Breakdown of Marriage, Family, and Community"



•Over the past thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise in families abandoned by fathers.

•High-crime neighborhoods are characterized by high concentrations of families abandoned by fathers.

•State-by-state analysis by Heritage scholars indicates that a 10 percent increase in the percentage of children living in single-parent homes leads typically to a 17 percent increase in juvenile crime.

•The rate of violent teenage crime corresponds with the number of families abandoned by fathers.

•The type of aggression and hostility demonstrated by a future criminal often is foreshadowed in unusual aggressiveness as early as age five or six.

•The future criminal tends to be an individual rejected by other children as early as the first grade who goes on to form his own group of friends, often the future delinquent gang.



•Neighborhoods with a high degree of religious practice are not high-crime neighborhoods.

•Even in high-crime inner-city neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable homes do not become delinquents. By contrast only 10 percent of children from unsafe, unstable homes in these neighborhoods avoid crime.

•Criminals capable of sustaining marriage gradually move away from a life of crime after they get married.

•The mother's strong affectionate attachment to her child is the child's best buffer against a life of crime.

•The father's authority and involvement in raising his children are also a great buffer against a life of crime.

Answer 2

I think that it is a mix of both irresponsibility and poverty. Not every person that is poor will commit crimes. Even some that do are doing it for needs. It is one thing to steal radios and quite another thing to steal food because they are starving. Some people living in poverty aren't getting what they need and have to find it elsewhere. I also think that alot of them irresponsibility comes from poverty. People that were dealt a bad hand to begin with and have parents that are into drugs and they have no one to turn to feel like no one else will take care of them and no one cares about them so why should they care about anyone else. This becomes a generational issue where these people who do not care about anyone else are breeding more people that feel this way. Welfare is the problem if you ask me. Welfare allows these people to have better things than some working class families and they just manipulate the system causing more and more people that do not work and live off the government.



That is not to say that people who are not poor do not have these issues. I bet it goes on more than we would think where a kid is raised in a middle class family where dad is at work more than he is home and mom is an alcoholic. The difference is that the kid in middle class does not have to steal to get the things he needs. These are the kids that are into drugs and committing suicide.

Answer 3

If the root causes of crime where poverty, how come we just went through the bank crises where we; the american public were ripped off by well educated people that thought only about there avarice ways? Excuse me but what I see as the big crimes in this world are committed buy the politicians and clergy. Self serving in money and sex and lying about both, and your biggest concern is some dude stealing hub caps. Get real and look at this country for what it really is! This country is full of liar's and thieves, and the biggest thieves are the ones that run this country! Wake up and pay attention!

Answer 4

It isn't poverty. It's a cultural thing.

Lack of parenting, lack of taking responsibility and the welfare state brought about by left-wingers.



Billions of dollars have been shoveled in to inner-cities with welfare, food stamps, Sec 8 housing, free cell phones, and free health care. Has it improved anything? No.



Besides, there aren't many people in this country that actually live in poverty.

They may live under the poverty line for this country, but they are far better off than most.



$100 sneakers, cable t.v. and beat-up luxury cars are abundant in these areas.



Many people around the world behave MUCH better, with much less.



Claiming poverty is the cause of poor behavior is extortion. That's how welfare started. 'Give them money or they'll commit crime.'



Shut down the welfare system and force people to take responsibility for their actions.



EDIT: It may hurt initially, but people will soon realize they can't rely on the government. They won't have children they can't take care of.

If hurting those families already addicted to welfare would be your only objection, you could close it down through attrition.

Still give handouts to those already feeding off taxpayers, but eliminate any new charity cases.

Eventually, those people will fall off the welfare rolls.



You could even do a one-time lump sum payment and then shut down welfare.





That way, taxes get lowered and people will then be free to donate to charity VOLUNTARILY, instead of have money confiscated by the government, which gets halved by bureaucracy, then handed out to people who don't work.

Answer 5

Ditto to Mel2430. But here's an additional insight (a summed up version):



A lot of it comes down to sense of entitlement. Think about it. Not the entire population of crooks are poverty-stricken. Tom Petters? Wall Street crooks (legalized thievery), George W. Busch (war crimes), Martha Stewart? Goldman-Sachs? AIG. Professional athletes. Film stars...



The only difference is that the wealthy crooks get less time, IF they're prosecuted at all (most likely let off due to their power of celebrity and / or financial contributions to politicians).

Answer 6

And also the fact that criminals are mostly total bastards.



That'd probably lose them a few votes.