Crime rates and how they are effected by poverty is the topic of interest to me. The journal Crime and Social Justice put out an analysis of the correlation between these two things. The article, “Crime Rates and Poverty – a Reexamination,” dives into the issues surrounding this very topic. The study of the topic was carried out using existing previously collected data from the US census bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports. The two sets of data were then compared with one another in the efforts of searching for a correlation between the two. They tested for four different variables to represent poverty those being: low educational achievement, unemployment rates, and broken families. The study was designed to see specifically if violent and property crimes had a positive correlation with any or all of the four variables being tested. However, each variable was examined independently in order to see relationships between specific ones as well not just poverty in general. The researchers are suggesting that in the case of their study these variables “cause” crime and in that case they would like to make the argument that social interventions and actions could be used as a possible solution or to help begin to solve this positive correlation. The research did prove a positive correlation between all the variables and crime.  However they did find discrepancy in populations when testing for violent crime and therefore populations who commit violent and non-violent crimes are different socially. This combats the argument that social interaction may prove effective and leaves the discussion open for more debate and analysis.

Lieberman, Louis, and Alexander B. Smith. “Crime Rates and Poverty — A Reexamination.” Crime and   Social Justice, no. 25 (1986): 166-77. www.jstor.org.books.redlands.edu/stable/29766301.