I doubt that crime is a matter of poverty. Rather, it's something else, that manifests as both poverty and crime (and addiction etc.). For example, if you have a community that was devastated when an entire industry they relied on (e.g. manufacturing, coal mining) died, you're going to have a lot of societal turmoil, that will cause both poverty (people don't have jobs) as well as breakdown of families (children see their parents as useless and don't listen to them, parents are depressed or addicted and don't take care of their children), which will lead to young generation turning to crime.ffj wrote: ↑Mon Sep 04, 2023 10:12 amA good start would be to stop with the romanticism for whatever you thought a previous generation or current population possessed/possesses. Poor people stick together because they have no other choice and sometimes a positive side effect is that it brings them closer together and they protect one another. But the highest murder rates are also in poor populations. Also crime in general.
"Pure" poverty, on the other hand, such as one that can for example be seen in least developed regions of rural India, does not cause crime. Anyone who's been in regions that are "just" poor (and not also victims of wars, communism or other terrible dictatorships or other factors which break down communities) will tell you that they're relatively safe and free of crime.