The influence of low quality education and poverty on criminal activities

Abstract

Mention the word "criminal" and everyone will turn a blaming finger on poverty. The society has been convinced that crime is a problem amongst the poor. However, we cannot absolutely link the poverty to crime. There are other related factors that contribute to the high crime rate such as a high level of unemployment, locality, age, and population density. Eliminating the effect of all these factors would help to determine the real statistics of crime resulting from poor people. This paper, therefore, aims at proving the statement that fewer educated people who live below the poverty level are more likely to commit criminal activities than people who are more educated and live above the poverty line. Controlling other factors, we can then determine the percentage of illegal activities that poor-quality education people and poverty account for.

Theoretical Argument

High poverty levels mean that children from these backgrounds can only afford inferior education. Considering the world perception today on matters of being educated, if you do not acquire the proper knowledge you are hopeless to be poor. The youths in these impoverished homes, therefore, count on low-quality jobs and role models. Research has it that they end up being idle in the streets with gangs. Within a short duration of time, they are forced to adopt the group's life and start perpetrating crime. Low education, therefore, can be seen from this perspective as a promoter of increase in crime rate (Newburger, 2013. P. 301). However, an alternative interpretation may be given to the same that the gang life is as a result of poor upbringing and not necessarily low-quality education.

Poverty is a source of distress and emotional illness due to daily life struggle. Poor people find it easy to obtain what they can hardly acquire legitimately by committing violence. Further, use of force can even earn them more goods and, therefore, end up practicing crimes such as street knifing and armed robbery that are the common crimes. These people have low opportunity cost of crime compared to the rich and hence may not fear the consequences of such acts. The benefits these actions yield by far outweighs the risk of being caught. Even in the case where one is jailed they will again come back to the same habit of criminal activities since they have no stable families or money. According to OSullivan(2009, p. 436) with other factors held constant such as morals, it is factual to say that poverty increases the crime rate.

Crime always follows the needy because, after the jail sentence one can hardly secure a reputable job due to the criminal records. The lacks of opportunity in life will in due time cause them to go back to the crime related acts. This results into a vicious cycle of bad records track down to the fathers at their youthful age. In accordance with statistics, more than half of those in jail had been shown to be earning less than $10,000 per year before they resulted in crime. Poverty accounts for more than fifty percent of the money lost in an economy and youth from lower class bracket commits crime four times more than those in the middle class.

An unfortunate delinquent kid is more exposed to crime than a kid from a well of family. This is a result of variation in the population constituents. These children may at times are expelled from school due to lack of funds and hence turn to other ways of making ends meet. Normally, the adolescence groups are the principal crime offenders. Poor people are also associated with non-religiousness and weak family cohesiveness. These cultural factors within the poor are a cause of crime since personalities with no right morals do not care about the interests of others.

Tightly populated areas with low living standards and inadequate housing have been reportedly shown to promote levels of crime. The better part of this population constitutes of people who are in their early twenties who are undergoing hard times and need to redefine their future. Mental illness among the population resulting from distress is the sole catalyst to occurrence of such acts as robbery (Miller et al. 2015). Consistent lack of basic needs prompts these actions in a bid to secure clothing, food, and other necessities. Crime perpetration is acceptable in the community of the poor, and it requires less expertise to undertake the risk. Their living places are more of a congregation of the needy people and have access to little if no government services such as security and civil education.

Conclusion

Although this paper may not have been so coherent on all causes of increased crime rate, the studies have shown that there is a notable correlation between the quality of education, poverty levels, and the criminal activities. There is enough evidence that a reduction in poverty can significantly impact on the crime rate. Therefore, the hypothesis stated at the start of the paper holds. However, deep research is recommended to draw the line between other causes of increased crime rate, low-quality education, and poverty.