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| Yes | 42% | 115 votes | Total: 273 votes | |
| No | 58% | 158 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesThe main factor in crime in the US is not due to poverty, but those who live in poverty are certainly punished far more than the wealthy are. The wealthy commit just as much crime as the poor. They happen to get away with it more. They commit crime due to the lust for power, and simple 'greed'.
The poor commit crime to survive, or to punish society for neglecting the needs and concerns of the poor. When the poor commit crime they face a life time of certain poverty and misery, after being sent to prison for outrageous amounts of time. The curse of being permanently labeled as a "felon," for non violent crimes, sets up a person to continue doing crime.
Our law makers see to it that every poor person who goes to prison, will struggle for life, or go back to prison. Petty crimes are built up into major ones by prosecutors who manipulate records, and dramatize lies as truths to juries.
Innocent suspects are intimidated and threatened by prosecutors, and detectives. They are coerst into taking a Plea Bargain, or face a worse fate. Taking a plea bargain is a good deal for a guilty person, but for one who is innocent, it becomes an emotional, and depressing hell for life.
Confessing to a crime one never committed is traumatic. Taking a guilty plea gives prosecutors a victory. They could care less if the person is innocent. They could care less if that person is punished for life by being labeled "guilty," for something they never did.
The wealthy, and those in authority ironically commit the same crimes, and even worse than those they punish. The wealthy and those in authority, give themselves a free pass from being convicted of any crimes. They give themselves immunity, as if they are better than the average person.
Our criminal system is a double standard one. Those who run it, believe the poor should do what they are told, and not do what the leaders do. Much crime would never be committed by the poor, if they were not so destitute, and oppressed. They most often commit crime out of desperation.
The wealthy are not desperate for basic human needs. Their reasons for what they do, somehow revolves around their lust, and love for power and more wealth. Their crimes are far more sinister then that of those they judge and convict, to cover their own sins.
The "love" of money is the root of all evil. When one has enough money to live comfortably on, committing crime becomes an act of evilness. Crime would not be so prevalent if poverty were curbed. Thousands of new prisons were built before welfare was dismantled from the poor. The authorities in control anticipated that desperate people would do desperate things to survive, and the prisons would be filled.
Prison is the largest industry in the US. Crime is a business for those in control to profit from. They are not going to put themselves in prison for their crimes. The poor are modern day slaves, who provide profits to the authorities.
Learn more about this author, Simonne Liberty.
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No
Poverty is a condition of a person's physical environment, not a description of their moral and ethical upbringing. Very often, a person lacking most in physical possessions and monetary stability is the person with the strongest sense of determination and desire to achieve something beyond their current station in life.
It doesn't take long to identify a person born to a higher social or financial station in life who has come to believe that the world owes him a living and a livelihood and who will stop at nothing to achieve what he believes is expected of him or what he expects of himself. A sense of entitlement can exist in those who have not had to struggle to achieve even the most basic level of self reliance in life. If granddaddy was a success and daddy was a millionaire, junior may lack the moral scruples to understand that hard work was the key to success.
While poverty can force a strong character into revealing itself in the determination to succeed against all odds, being well-to-do can allow a weak character to get soft and be willing to stoop at nothing to attain what he feels is his by virtue of his entitlement.
Money, or the lack thereof, is not the factor which turns an otherwise good person into a common criminal. There used to be a commercial on television that stated something to the effect of, "46% of all teenage drug users live in urban areas. Guess where the other 54% live?" This commercial was referring to the fact that suburban teens, those generally of higher economic status, were at least as likely, if not more so, to be drug users.
And so it is with crime. Sure, a ghetto youth steals a car, robs a convenience store, shoots the clerk and that is viewed as a result of his impoverished upbringing. What do you call it when a corporate executive with a six figure salary embezzles his company's pension fund and destroys the lives of hundreds of his employees? It wasn't poverty that drove him. It was greed and entitlement.
Many a strong woman living in poverty has devoted heart and soul to raising her children to be people of strong faith and solid moral character. That is a quality that cannot be bought and sold on the New York Stock Exchange. It has been said that you are not what you have, you are what you believe. Money can provide things, it cannot provide a moral compass for living.
People are driven to extreme behavior for many reasons. Occasionally poverty may drive a good person to commit an evil deed, as shown in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, when the main character Jean Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving child, but in the end, strength of character overcame all physical circumstances.
To say that poverty is the major factor in crime is the same as saying that wealth will yield only altruistic and kind people. History shows that to be false.
Learn more about this author, Leann Zotis.
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