# Is Any One Crime To Blame... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 7, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230 "2015-08-07T11:41:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/21 "2015-08-14T20:32:45Z")
Dang, missed the window! Here’s the post I made… it was under a thread about voting which had veered off into a racial issue and I became interested in any truth behind it and started to analyze and look stuff up. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17368890&postcount=45](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17368890&postcount=45) ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/22 "2015-08-14T20:46:28Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > many people are mixed-race these days. Not to mention increasingly fat. I think we’re just 110% now. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/23 "2015-08-17T01:23:06Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > If you’re making $10/hour, you don’t have a car. Really? I think you’d find that, in most of the US, a car is an absolute necessity if you wish to get to your $10/hour job. It certainly is where I live (a place where, I might add, $10/hour is considered doing exceptionally well). On balance, I have to say it’s a group of folks who aren’t particularly criminally inclined…which almost certainly exacerbates their poverty. I think I have to go with the harsh minimum sentencing laws on this one. Before I got the heck out of Dallas, every criminal jury panel I sat on involved a “third-strike” defendant. One of them, apparently, committed his aggravated assault with a cocktail fork. I don’t know how serious the assault really was (I didn’t get picked for the jury), but he was going down hard regardless (let’s face it, his conviction in a Texas court was practically a foregone conclusion). I’ll leave it to others to argue whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I was just annoyed that, as a prospective juror, the sentencing was pretty much out of my hands (and the judge’s, for that matter). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/24 "2015-08-19T20:54:51Z")
> [@inscrutable](#): > > Sure, we can see correlation between poverty and crime, but what’s the causation? > “I’m poor and black, so I’m turning to crime.” Where does this attitude come from, and why not “I’m poor and black, so I’m going to study hard, graduate from high school, and go to an Ivy League college for free” ? The attitude likely comes from the environment in which the person is raised. If you live in an area where only some people have high school educations, and practically nobody has a college education, how are you supposed to develop the motivation and desire to go off to college? All kids look up to some role model, and if that role model is someone who lives by their wits, you are inclined to grow up thinking that’s the way to get by. Especially if the gang-bangers are the flashy guys with the “bling” who provide the most tangible example of wealth in that environment. Ivy league? You might as well be talking about going to Mars. (Obviously, there are exceptions. I bet that those exceptions can point to some outstanding individual in their midst who showed them a better way. It is very hard to learn certain behaviors, or adopt a certain mindset, if you don’t have an example to follow) > [@](#): > > Yes, education is important, but can you really blame poverty-area teachers for the seeming lack of motivation in students? > Teacher quality has no bearing on whether or not you bother to memorize your multiplication tables and spelling/grammar rules. You’re right that teachers can’t be responsible for the motivation of their kids. But that’s the point - it’s the totality of the environment (i.e. gangs on the streets, gunshots and sirens at night, unpredictable amenities and living conditions, et al.) that impacts a kids’ desire to get a good education. If you live in an impoverished area, there are all sorts of conditions that make it harder for you to study and learn that those who live better never even have to consider. > [@](#): > > You can drive through a blighted area and correlate poverty with squalid living conditions. But wait a minute – it doesn’t cost anything to pick up the trash and pull the weeds in front of your house! We aren’t talking about living in dirty neighborhoods. We are talking about living in impoverished neighborhoods. Sure, they correlate. But the presence of trash or weeds isn’t causing the crime. Rather, it’s a symptom of the conditions that can lead to criminal behavior. > [@](#): > > Poverty and obesity is another match that I don’t understand: “They don’t have access to healthy food.” Really? Can’t find the time to take a trip to an actual supermarket once or twice a week? Much cheaper to roast a chicken for dinner and eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow than constantly eat fast food and junk from the mini-mart! There are “food deserts” in the U.S. where people don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Being poor often makes access to transportation suspect. And even if the person is near a supermarket, the ones in poor areas tend to be rundown and unpleasant. The choices are limited. > [@](#): > > I’m no right-winger, but I’m starting to agree with our Republican friends that it is Liberal attitudes and policies (aw, they’re just poor, downtrodden minorities and can’t help themselves…) that have created/perpetuated these conditions. Far be it for me to be the spokesperson for the “Liberal attitudes and policies”, but I don’t think programs designed to help the poor reflect an attitude that poor people “can’t help themselves” as much as “everyone in society - from poor to wealthy - are entitled to the benefits of our infrastructure.” The same way that an entrepreneur may seek out an SBA loan, or a first time home buyer may take out an FHA mortgage, so too should a poor person be able to get income or food assistance if they need and qualify for it. In each case, the nation as a whole is making an investment in an individual because, in the long run, it betters the entire country for that individual to be better off than they were before. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/25 "2015-08-23T05:08:23Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > There are “food deserts” in the U.S. where people don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Being poor often makes access to transportation suspect. And even if the person is near a supermarket, the ones in poor areas tend to be rundown and unpleasant. Lately, they’re also likely to be kind of nice _supermercados_ with a pretty good (certainly interesting) produce selection. Or Wal Mart, with the usual run of boring fruits and vegetables. It’s difficult to generalize. I admit that I don’t know the current inner-city situation. > [@](#): > > Far be it for me to be the spokesperson for the “Liberal attitudes and policies”, but I don’t think programs designed to help the poor reflect an attitude that poor people “can’t help themselves” It seems clear to me that anybody who gripes about excessive government largesse has never tried to squeeze any money out of the “welfare state.” In ain’t easy and, if you’re under 65, childless, and not demonstrably disabled (i.e. you can’t afford to see a doctor), there’s little, if any, help available in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/26 "2015-08-23T05:41:09Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > many people are mixed-race these days. I think that many people have been mixed-race since long before “these days.” What’s new is that many data collection systems (such as the census), have only recently begun to allow for two or more races to be identified for an individual. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/27 "2015-08-23T12:24:35Z")
There are very few Wal-Marts in the inner city. If you’re lucky, you’ve got a Save-a-Lot. If you’re not so lucky, you’ve got a corner convenience mart that has milk, bread, cigarettes, and malt liquor, and the milk and bread are about two weeks past date. ---
**Author:** ![Grim\_Render](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@Grim\_Render](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grim_Render)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230/28 "2015-08-23T19:23:21Z")
> [@qazwart](#): > > In Norway, the maximum sentence is 21 years. Its life here actually. 21 is the maximum time before burden of proof that you are still dangerous/not dangerous switches to the prosecution. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-any-one-crime-to-blame/727230.md?page=1)