Poverty Study

The first source is a research project that was done in Boston. The researcher is taking aLook at poverty and crime in a new way. Most of his research in based on surveys, which he conducted on prison inmates where he finds that there are over 2,000 white inmates and only 147 black inmates. He says that crimes such as arson, vandalism, and destruction of property, cannot be associated with poverty because there is no relation between poverty and that type of crime. Morse says, “There is no reason to believe that a poverty stricken individual is more likely to vandalize property”. Morse also says that crimes such as theft and robbery should be linked to poverty because they are related to income. Morse attributes most violent crimes to moral lapses and not to poverty.In the second source Luis says that it is not poverty that causes crime but it is the “personal choice” of the criminal. Luis says, “Some people will commit a wrong no matter what” he also talks about “white-collar crime that goes uninvestigated, un-prosecuted and under-punished” this statement insinuates that people that are more “well off” don’t get prosecuted as much as people in poverty. His main thesis is that it doesn’t matter what your social class is but the most important factor is your moral standing on crime.According all of my research poverty does not cause crime. It is the personal choice of the criminal. Persons who have more money can afford better lawyers and can usually get away with more criminal acts. Police officers “target” poor people and expect them to commit more crimes. These facts are the possible reasons for the criminal data to show that people in poverty have a higher crime rate. The data that most studies are based on doesn’t account for the fact that people who are not in poverty don’t get prosecuted as much. The studies also don’t attempt to measure the external factors of poverty such as stress. The number one factor that cuases stress in most people’s lives is money, if a person is in poverty they don’t have any money, therefore they will have a lot more stress in their everyday lives. Another factor that I didn’t see in my studies is under-employment; the fact is that under-employment can be a great factor in causing poverty.I tend to agree with the sources that I studied, because I used to live in poverty. My mother was a single parent; she worked 3 jobs and only made enough to provide food for my family. We didn’t get Christmas presents or any other material things that we didn’t need. I remember those years of my life and none of my siblings or I never committed any crimes, nor did my mother. The reason that we didn’t resort to crime is that it was against our morals; we didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do. Therefore, I believe that it is a person’s set of morals that determines their likely hood to commit a crime and not their social class.SourcesMorse, Ryan. “Primary Research.” The Relationship Between Crime and Poverty in Black Antebellum Boston. 11 May 2006. African-Americans in Antebellum Boston. 10 Oct 2006 <http://www.primaryresearch.org/bh/research/morse/index.php>.Luis. “Blogd.” [Weblog Poverty and Crime] 02 Dec 2005. 12 Oct 2006 <http://www.blogd.com/archives/001571.html>.