Conclusion

Abstract

The narrative concludes by arguing that our understanding of poverty needs to be based on making more explicit the distinction between the behavioural and the structural variants. Some critics have questioned usage of the former because it tends to caricature the poor and blame them for their own social position. However, some key policy-makers as individuals and in groups do not necessarily engage in the sort of ‘victim blaming’ associated with the behavioural perspective. They hold the view that crime and poverty are a result of complex structural processes, mediated by the culture of individuals and communities that are attempting to cope with adverse material conditions. By emphasising a structural perspective on these phenomena, policy-makers highlight the extent to which they cannot address the problems of the excluded society without more help from central government.