Jason L. Riley devotes his Wall Street Journal column to an explanation of why you can’t blame crime on poverty:
The belief that poverty is the root cause of crime may be popular, but it doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. For starters, most poor people aren’t criminals. In a previous era, when Americans were significantly poorer than they are today, crime rates were significantly lower. Crime during the Great Depression was lower than during the 1960s, a decade of tremendous economic growth and prosperity. In 1960 the black male homicide rate was 45 per 100,000. By 1990 it had climbed by more than 200% to 140 per 100,000, even though black average incomes by then were much higher, and the black poverty rate much lower, than 30 years earlier.
In a recently published book about criminal-justice reform, “Criminal (In)justice,†Rafael Mangual notes that this disconnect between crime and poverty continues today. Mr. Mangual writes that between 1990 and 2018, murders in New York City declined by 87%, a period during which the city’s poverty rate increased slightly. Black residents today “experience poverty at a lower rate (19.2 percent) than their Hispanic (23.9 percent) and Asian (24.1 percent) counterparts, who account for much smaller shares of the city’s gun violence.â€
I would phrase it a little differently: I don’t think that poverty is the sole cause of crime and maybe not its most important cause. What is?
Some of the crime statistics lower than Chicago’s enjoyed by major cities like New York and Los Angeles can be explained by those cities smaller percentages of black population. Maybe there is a “critical mass” for street gangs analogous to what was found in the Bakke decision. That would explain a 20% difference in homicide rates between Chicago and New York but not a 500% difference.
I think that Chicago’s political corruption and a far too cozy relationship between black gangs and Chicago politicians are a major cause. That corruption extends right to the police department. The implications of that are unsettling. It means there is no quick and easy fix and in particular not one that will be effected by Chicago politicians. They can’t even be solved at the ballot box, not with voter turnouts as long as we’re seeing Chicago’s crime problems need solutions from Springfield and Washington.
Family cohesion; a greater moral compass; more meritocracy versus manufactured equality now passing as “equity;†a higher regard for religion and integrity are some grounding mores acting as positive guideposts for societal behavior. Basically it’s been the devolvement of principled conduct and the acceptance of “bad ass†behavior as cool, the norm, and needing no accountability that, IMO, has resulted in more dissatisfaction and crime.
This is reflected in our questionable elections making people see voting as a useless ritual: in the defund the police efforts; criminals. Illegals and foreign entities being treated better than citizens or victims of violence living here. The push for ESG to alter our business practices, CRT to reset and transform our educational curriculum, gender displacement that creates biological confusion in our children, and the embrace of science that cannot be refuted or debated in the areas of climate change and vaccine mandates, without censorship or derision. People basically feel unhappy, disconnected, and denied a voice, especially since Biden’s domestic policies have taken root in this country.
1 Timothy 6:10
King James Bible
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Corporations are motivated by money. Politicians seek power. Both are at the helm of today’s many problems.