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Restoring the Crime-Poverty-Class Inequality Link

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Social Censure and Critical Criminology

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Abstract

In a deservedly popular book about why people commit crime, Gash (Criminal: The truth about why people do bad things, Milton Keynes: Allen Lane, 2016) argues that the notion that poverty is the real cause of crime is a widely held myth. In his view, the supposed relationship between crime and poverty is held to be spurious because crime rates are said to have dramatically declined whilst poverty and inequality has soared. In contrast, the chapter argues that we need to go beyond narrow income poverty and financial need as sole motivators of criminality to understand that it is prolonged and intensive poverty experiences that expose sufferers to long-term forms of chronic anxiety, insecurity and an inability to influence things when and if they go wrong. It is these longer-term psychosocial effects that greatly increase the exposure of individuals to a series of risks making delinquency and criminal victimization more likely.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, England

    Colin Webster

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  1. Colin Webster
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Correspondence to Colin Webster .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom

    Anthony Amatrudo

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Webster, C. (2017). Restoring the Crime-Poverty-Class Inequality Link. In: Amatrudo, A. (eds) Social Censure and Critical Criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95221-2_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95221-2_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95220-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95221-2

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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