Poverty and Crime in America Essay -- poverty essay

Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor. The exact amount of poverty that exits in the United States are difficult to ascertain, since the manner in which poverty is measured determines the amount of poverty reported. The U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that there were about 33,100,00 persons classified as officially below the poverty level in 1985. Small children that live in low-income households, are vulnerable to a wide variety of problems, including poor nutrition, inadequate housing, substandard medical attention, lack of proper nutrition, and physical or emotional abuse. Adolescents from these backgrounds become part of cycle of low-income or unemployment. Black and Hispanic teenagers have particularly acute problems obtaining employment. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice recognized the role of poverty in producing delinquency and noted that the most serious forms of juvenile delinquencies are more prevalent between youths at the lowest socioeconomic levels. The fact that poverty is self-perpetuating is a documented fact. Criminal and delinquent activity may also be an accepted part of the total picture for deprived kids. It's h... ...lewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Laub, J, & Sampson, R. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: delinquent boys to age 70. The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Marcus, R. (2007). Agression and violence in adolescence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press. Raphael, J. (2000). Saving bernice. Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, Inc. Shover, N, & Hochstetler, A. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Smith, M. (2001). Sex without consent. NY: New York University Press. Thompson, W, & Bynum, J. (1991). Juvenile delinquency. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Wilson, H. (2007). Guns, gun control, and elections. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.