Crime, poverty and social welfare are undoubtedly related to one another
however, it is quite complex to really assess that relationship on a deeper level.
Generally speaking, crime is the result of envy that comes from poverty. This is
the reason why disadvantages and underserved communities usually have high
crime rates. The probability for some people to steal other people’s property is
higher because they cannot afford certain things. Some scholars argue that
"criminal patterns of behavior among the "underclass" will persist even when economic
conditions significantly improve” (Hannon, 1998) and this because social welfare
programs have failed time and time again. Social welfare programs usually don’t have a
tangible goal. The idea for government to create programs is not the real problem. The
main problem is that they don’t offer the disadvantaged communities with sustainable
solutions which leads them to remain in the same state of poverty. Matter of fact, former
president Lyndon B. Johnson engaged into a fight against poverty which he called “War
on Poverty”. “The U.S. Census Bureau has just released its annual poverty report. The
report claims that in 2013, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor. Remarkably, that's
almost the same poverty rate as in 1967, three years after the War on Poverty started”
(Rector, 2014) this shows that war of poverty was a bad policy mainly because it really
did not create sustainable jobs for the disadvantage people. If I were a policymaker, I
would emphasize creating job opportunities for the poor and facilitate access to their
jobs and anything that can prevent them from being able to get to their job regularly. I
would limit welfare programs to certain amounts of time for fully able bodies.
Hannon, L., & Defronzo, J. (1998). The truly disadvantaged, public assistance, and
crime. Social Problems, 45(3), 383–
392. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.1998.45.3.03x0197o Links to an external site.
Rector, R. (2014, September 23). The War on Poverty: 50 years of failure. The Heritage
Foundation. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-
family/commentary/the-war-poverty-50-years-failure Links to an external site.
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