“Poverty Is the Mother Of crime”

In recent years, the number of crimes committed by youngsters and teenagers is increasing in

the major cities throughout the world. About 182,000 cases of serious violent crimes committed by

youth aged between 12-17 were reported in the U.S in 2016. This is only in U.S which is the superpower,

the most developed country of the world and has all the resources they need for everyday life. The facts

and figures to read about the other countries of the world are much worse than U.S. They are mind

blowing that are not only to read but need 100% of attention to be tackled.

There are hundreds of causes of crimes. A few important ones are :

1. Victims of unfair ruling and the correction system.

2. Politics

3. Drugs

4. Depression and other social mental disorders

5. Family conditions

6. Regionalism

7. Racism

8. TV violence

9. Overpopulation (the major and important one)

10. And poverty (the major and important one)

Our topic here is to only discuss “poverty” and how it correlates with various crimes.
We first define here poverty and crime. Poverty is the economic situation of a person or family

that he cannot fulfill his every day needs and satisfy the minimum range of requirements for

life sustainability while crime is an action and omission which constitutes an offence and is

punished by law.

Poverty is caused due to the following reasons which in turn causes crime:

1. Unemployment, low wages, low productivity

2. Disability, old ages

3. Parent families, large number of dependent members in a family

4. Low level of education and training

5. Military conflict and forced migration

The famous quote “Poverty is the mother of crime” is of “MARCUS AURELIUS”. Crime

exists, because people wants to something they do not have, and are not willing to obey the

law(s) on the books to get it. How poverty does it. It reduces the things poor people have

available to them, thereby offering far more things for poor people to desire, and much more

desperation and motivation to get it as they cannot find anything that can legally get them out

of such situation. Therefore poor people commits a crime more than those who are not.

Statistics shows that poor areas are more crime stricken than the richer ones. So it is much

safer to assume that most of the crimes start out as a crime out of necessity.

Not all the times, poverty can be blamed and said that poverty is the mother of crimes.
Rich people also commit a crime due to their wealth as they think that their huge amount of

wealth can hide what he do illegal. So we can say that crimes are not entirely associated with

poverty as it have also involvement of rich ones. Some of following examples will clearify this

idea.

1. Adolf Hitler:

Adolf Hitler was a rich person as he was born in a rich family. When he got power, he

finished all his opponent jews as they claims that he did the world biggest holocaust

incident which means that this crime has no relation with poverty.

2. Kim Jung Un:

Kim Jung Un is also known as Europe and US declare him the biggest terrorist as his cruelty takes

so many lives of North and South Korean people. Kim Jong was also a rich person so it proves

that every time it is not the poverty.

But these examples are like a drop in bucket of water. It means exceptions are always there.

Too many problems in a society that make a person angrier and look to solve. Too worse economical

situation in the country and lack of work places especially for young ones create financial issues

which in turn create the thoughts and actions of crime. No guarantee and help from government to

poor people leads to misunderstanding, where the only way out they find is to commit crimes.

As a fact, crime begins from childhood. As a rule, if child was born in poor family, there are more

chances that he or she will indulge in illegal activities and commit crimes. Now in modern day world,

there is the propaganda of luxery like big house , cars, beautiful girl or a boy, drugs like alcohol for

refreshment etc. So when he see these things and think that his parents cannot afford it, he become

motivated and desperate to get these things by any mean and thus he gets astray. He then start
drugs trade, kills innocent people for money, kidnap, steal anything he want and many more crimes

he does very easily.

The crimes committed by teenagers are considered as cruelest. Because this is the stage where a

person can turn into a good one or bad one. An example here is how a child can turn into a biggest

criminal. In year 1949, a child was born. He was son of failed businessman. The child learn nothing

except an unparallel desire to make money. He started his career by stealing small gravestones and

selling them to local smugglers at only 14 years of age. With time, he started selling counterfeit

diplomas. From a smaller crime to bigger one, he started the drug trade at the age of only 26. In the

early 1980s, he became the world’s largest drug dealer selling 70 to 80 tons cocaine each month.

Through illegal means, the poor child grew into one of richest man of his time and one biggest

criminal in the history of the world. He was “Pablo Escobar” and the world remember him as the

“king of cocaine”.

This is just one example otherwise the world is full of such examples.

Poverty leads to the biggest crime of today’s world and that is terrorism. When a person is poor, he

has no fear because he has nothing to loose. So he start terrorist activities in order to produce his

fear and terror among the people and get a reward for that from an organization. He then starts

killing and blasting religious places like masjid, church, etc and schools and madrassas in the name of

religion.

Poverty leads to illiteracy because how a poor person will support all the requirements needed for a

proper education when he has nothing. So then he come in the eyes of enemy, as he will do the

illegal activity more easily than that person who can understand all the scene. And the enemy paid

them as he demands and then slowly and gradually he become a biggest criminal.
Conditions of Pakistan is most worse and hence the crime ratio. According to a report, about 4 out

of 10 Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty. A report found that about over two third of people

in FATA (73%) and balochistan(71%) live in poverty. Poverty in KPK stands at 49%, Gilgit baltistan

and sindh 43%, Punjab 31% and Kashmir 25%. The crime statistics in Pakistan only in 2016 are as

there were 677554 cases of various kinds of crimes in all provinces.

These things to not happen in future needs a permanent solution. Every country has its

problems and level of poverty. Aristotle said : “Poverty…a source of disturbance and crime”. It

means that little problem become a huge problem if nothing is done to prevent it. Therefore a right

policy of the state will be able to eliminate poverty and hence there will be no crime in future.

The best solution I think is the quality but free education. A quality education reminds the man

his social status, his responsibility for his family and country and and most important how he has has

to tackle all the difficulties he may suffer in near future. By getting a proper education, he gets a

proper job due to which he become protected from illegal activities. But the quality education again

needs educational reforms which can be done by the government. Because a poor person cannot

support the requirements needed like clothes, bag, shoes, books, admission fees. So the help from

government is must. Other initiatives are proper collection of zakat, tax etc and the positive

approach from media will help to eliminate poverty and hence the crimes.

In short, poverty create inferiority complex which leads to frustration, anger towards an

individual, society or country and hence results in such problems and crimes which hamper the

progress of a nation toward a better future.