The social and economic environment of individuals influences their behavior. The economic status of people determines their social class and the manner in which they get their basic needs. People with steady income get basic things and other luxuries because they can afford them. Poor people have to strain in order to sustain their basic needs (Rekker et al., 2015). Sometimes, they have to go for days without sustaining the basic human needs. It is because they do not have a stable income to provide for their daily requirements. Basic needs are fundamental part of humanity and a person will do everything possible to get them. Nobody can survive without food, clothing and accommodation. An individual might go to an extent of committing a crime in order to survive (May, Keith, Rader, & Dunaway, 2015).
Crime is a social problem both rural and urban societies face. In urban contexts, criminal activities are prevalent. Poverty levels are linked to the high rates of crime in various social contexts. Many urban areas comprise of the high-class communities and the low-class people who live in the cities’ suburbs. The latter class barely struggle to survive. On the other hand, the high-class has everything that would make their lives comfortable. They have property, business premises and many things that the poor cannot afford (Paternoster, Bachman, Bushway, Kerrison, & O’Connell, 2015). Seeing these things and the kind of life rich people lead motivates the poor to commit crime in order to acquire them.
According to Rekker et al. (2015), crime provides an opportunity through which the poor can get material commodities that they are unable to acquire through legal means. Consequently, they are induced to engage in criminal activities such as shoplifting and robbery. The social and economic challenges the impoverished people face daily have severe effects on their physical and mental lives. For them, the gains of committing crime outweigh the potential risks involved. They have little to lose when they are apprehended and incarcerated compared to the wealthy people (Braithwaite, Dasandi, & Hudson, 2014). Such a situation explains why poverty increases the rate of crimes in a social context.
The rational choice, as a theory in criminology, can be used to explain how poverty contributes to criminal activities in the society. The theory uses three actors to develop the criminal behavior models. These include rational actor, predestined actor, and victimized actor. In this context, the rational player chooses to engage in a criminal act that can be prevented through severe punishment (Paternoster et al., 2015). The predestined actors do not have control over their affinity to commit crime. The environment in which they live encourages them to commit crimes. The victimized player refers to a criminal who is a victim of social and economic discriminations.
The social conflict theory is another concept explaining the way poverty contributes to delinquency. It argues that urban conditions such as high rate of unemployment, poor housing policies and socioeconomic status increase crime rates. As people struggle to meet their fundamental needs, criminals choose the easiest approach to obtain those things regardless of the repercussion. Therefore, delinquency is an expression of individuals’ conformity to the lower social status (Braithwaite et al., 2014).
The strain is a theory used in criminology to posit that the society, especially in urban areas, set certain standards they expect people to achieve. As a result, poor people succumb to social pressures as they strive to live according to the expected standards (May et al., 2015). Impoverished people lack the means to meet the established goals. The strain causes delinquency among the people living in urban cities. Because of the pressure, which affects low-class physically and psychologically, many of them are motivated to use illegal means in order to meet the social expectations (Rekker et al., 2015).
References
Braithwaite, A., Dasandi, N., & Hudson, D. (2014). Does poverty cause conflict? Isolating the causal origins of the conflict trap. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 33(1), 45-66.
May, C., Keith, S., Rader, E., & Dunaway, G. (2015). Predicting adolescent fear of crime through the lens of general strain theory. Sociological Focus, 48(2), 172-189.
Paternoster, R., Bachman, R., Bushway, S., Kerrison, E., & O’Connell, D. (2015). Human agency and explanations of criminal desistance: Arguments for a rational choice theory. Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology, 1(3), 209-235.
Rekker, R., Pardini, D., Keijsers, L., Branje, S., Loeber, R., & Meeus, W. (2015). Moving in and out of poverty: The within-individual association between socioeconomic status and juvenile delinquency. PLOS ONE, 10(11), 1-17.