In this day and age, most people can collectively agree that commiting crimes is bad. However, despite this, there are still a large group of people who commit crimes. Some people suggest that poverty is what motivates these individuals. However, I believe this belief does not fully capture the scope of what causes people to break the law. In this essay, I shall discuss my opinion on whether or not poverty’s the sole motivator for criminals.
On one hand, it is true that people who live in poverty disproportionately commit most crimes compared to those of a higher social status. The more poor you are, the more desperate you will likely find yourself in. Especially when a person lacks any stable source of income or cannot meet basic social needs, they’re likely to turn to crime. In addition, it’s worth noting that when a person falls into poverty, their morals can begin to ‘degrade’ as they enter into a state of desperation if they remain financially crippled for long enough.
However, believing that poverty alone is the reason why fails to take into account other factors such as educational level, upbringing and lingering trauma. People who lack a proper moral compass—either due to a belief that you have to do whatever it takes to survive in their upbringing or simply because of a lack of awareness—will take no issue in pillaging others belongings or committing crimes. A poor person with proper morals is much less likely to commit crimes than a well-off person with no morals at all. Moreover, the term ‘crime’ is far too broad of a term to link its roots to poverty. For instance, both murder and tax fraud count as crimes and yet those in poverty are only likely to commit the former.
In conclusion, linking poverty to committing crimes is true to some extent. However, there are many confounding factors that complicate agreeing with it.