From the ancient civilization of Harappa and Indus Valley and the Mauryans to the modern day civilization; all but one thing has changed. This “one thing” is something which has always plagued the world and will continue to do so (by the looks of things). What we are talking about is not an external pathogen but a deep and internal power, one with a  potential of a billion atom bombs, something which will always prevail…Poverty. But what is Poverty?

In terms of economics, Poverty is a situation where the people are not able to procure the necessities for survival with their income. Moreover, it is a condition of helplessness and hopelessness and people living under his are considered poor.

But now the hot topic for discussion is whether poverty fosters crime or not. But in order to answer this question, we need to understand the relation between poverty and crime. We need to be aware of the facts from the positive and the negative sides; as they have always been the sides of the same coin. In our case; the sides are whether poverty fosters crime or not. A grim reality and to answer all these questions; we need to wade in deeper into this muck.

The question I pose will cause a dilemma in the minds of the reader; whether they should go with the present day facts or stick to their orthodox beliefs. And so this is my humble request to all; to please keep an open mind while reading.

Crime or criminal activities are any sort of activities which are considered dangerous, fatal, peace disrupting, a wrong deed or simply something which is considered inappropriate by the society and the law. Every day we read the newspapers and from those we can triangulate many different types of crimes. For example: burglary, murder, attempted murder, vandalizing public property, rape and even defamation and drug peddling.

Now to go on, we shall see what relation it has with poverty. The general mindset of the common man is as follows: people who are poor and born criminals, and they have nothing better to do than to steal from someone, cause troubles to someone, rape a woman, inject themselves with drugs and cause general nuisance. But what if I can prove you wrong? What if I can change this mindset of the people, starting form you? According to me, poverty and crime do not go hand in hand, they are just projected as such and I will be giving several arguments to validate the same.

For the first; let us see what causes crime. Crime is the poisonous fruit of desires, improper bringing up, low moral values, a psychopathic mind or simply the conditions one is raised in or the loose hand of a parent. We’ll start with the most appropriate one; desires; unfulfilled ones at that. Not only the poor; even the rich may have horrific desires. Where at one place, the desires for poor may include a proper life style and proper ling conditions, the ones for the rich may be simply pleasure, ecstasy or simply boasting to support their false ego. We see instances in the news of a poor person stealing money and a rich spoilt brat shoplifting or running off with a stolen car. Well, at this point; the rich and the poor are at ONE point each.

The second point we will be discussing will be a mixture of two very important points; an improper bringing up and the lack of moral values.

An improper upbringing is perhaps the reason behind most of the crimes. The children will follow and do what they see. This is the case with not only the poor; but the rich as well. If a rich person’s child sees him snorting drugs, smuggling, drinking, or even murder; he is sure to follow in the same footsteps. If a poor person’s child sees him looting from a shop or robbing someone or even murdering someone; he will grow up to become the same person. His mentality and mindset will develop as “My parents are right”. The thing on the contrary about proper manners is true as well.

If the children in the rich households are brought up properly, they will not indulge in crime and same is the case in the poor households. To substantiate this claim, I’d like to give the example of the famous pop star Justin Bieber who although from a rich family has been caught many a times shoplifting, smoking marijuana (commonly referred to as pot, weed or “bhang”).  In contrast to this; I happen to be acquitted with the son of a seamstress; who is one of the cleanest chaps I’ve ever seen.

There is another reason for crime as well, a psychopathic mind which experiences pleasure on hunting someone, killing someone, etc. Some do it for the sheer risk involved; others may do it to prove their “machoness” an fuel their false ego. These can be seen in both the poor and the rich households. One of the major crimes increasing is sexual exploitation of women and even domestic violence. The husband or the offenders in these cases do these only to prove their manhood. Many a times we may have heard of cases when some men raped a woman or a girl just because she didn’t reciprocate their advances or had insulted them the other day.

The forces at work are not the condition of being rich or poor. It is a mind whose sole interest lies In troubling others, one with a bad case of attitude or ego or one who does a thing for the thrill of it.

In the words of The Joker (Heath Ledger- The Dark Knight)
“I just do things. I’m like a mad dog racing after a car; who doesn’t know what to do if he caught one.”

Well If my count is right; it puts the score at FOUR each.
One point i.e. the loose hand of a parent has been discussed earlier indirectly but it is essential to discuss it again. As it is truly said:
“Spare the rod; Spoil the child”
it applies to both the rich and the poor people all over the world. If a parent stops, scolds, or hits his/her child the first time he shows a criminal implication; crime can be prevented to some extent. Say a child from a rich family pockets some money from his father’s wallet and if the parents dismiss it as childish behavior; they have actually paved the way for a future criminal. FIVE each now.

The thing to observe is that we saw that both the rich and the poor indulge in crimes but why is it so that the crime rates for the poor are the highest? I guess I can answer this question as well. For once; the poor MAYBE more prone to such influence because of their poor living conditions or they are likely to take up activities which may fill their stomachs; no matter how horrific. Or simply it could be because of the rich’s influence. They can shut their files and prevent themselves from being highlighted in cases; a privilege not available to the poor. This proves yet another expression:
“Money makes the mare go.”

Before proceeding; one thing I would like to clarify is that I don’t support the poor for committing crime to have two square meals. The fact just gets highlighted as the rich usually don’t indulge in crime for this purpose.

To conclude I would like to strongly support the fact that poverty indeed DOESN’T fosters crime. It is simply because of the conditions; the upbringing and moreover criminal implications as it is rightly said that:
“The future of a child can be determined when he is still in the cot”

Rich and poor both commit crimes and it is wrong that the poor born are branded as criminals. If we see, many people will now feel that their mindset was wrong and I shall be immensely happy if I influenced someone. To eradicate crime: the negative elements of society have to be targeted and not necessarily the poor and as I truly say: “A poor society is no necessarily a poor society.”