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104
CRIME AND POVERTY
by Edward I. Koch
EVER since Cain slew Abel, explanations for the dark side of human nature have been put forward.
They have varied with the era, usually reflecting the philosophical bent of the time, and different eras will
5
sometimes have differing facets of the same explanation to explain away the evil in men's hearts. The 17th-
century belief that people were said to be possessed by demons who forced them to deviate from socially
acceptable behavior is a claim not unlike the psychiatric canons of our time that excuse liability for crime
10 by attributing deeds to uncontrollable «sociopathic» factors buried inside the personality. A current belief
has its roots from the end of the 18th century, when justification for criminal behavior was found in the
economic relationships that existed then-and have always existed — among the classes in social and political
15 organization. The impact of Marxism in the 19th century, which held that the central force in human history
is economic determinism, gave tremendous weight to the argument that much crime is committed and
justified because of the inequality in the distribution of wealth.
20
I believe those who assert that individuals commit crime because of poverty have essentially a
sentimental view of human nature. To me, this is another way of saying that the criminal is the victim and
25 not an enemy of society. It resembles the argument that those who commit crime suffer from pathology that
eliminates freedom of choice and free will from the makeup of such persons. In other words, responsibility
and accountability for one's acts are not to be required. Poverty or sickness is the criminal agent, and the
malefactor is merely the passive surrogate of these unfortunate conditions.
30
I think that average people read these claims with amazement, if not astonishment. I know I do. They
know, of course, with the weary resignation of those who are being condescended to by the elitists, that
crime is traceable to the greed, cruelty, and selfishness of men and women who are not fundamentally
35 different now than in Cain's time. They know that, in the face of the changing claims for the wrong men
have done throughout history, the only thing that hasn't changed is man himself and that the explanations for
wrongdoing merely reflect the current problems of a particular society.
40 They also know that civilization has, through its social and, more importantly, moral institutions, shaped
and refined behavior so that social life is, on the whole, considerably less barbarous than it was in eras past.
However, the instinct to pillage and victimize will always be there, in individual crimes committed by
faceless man in dark places and by awful men in public places like the Hitlers and Stalins of our own time.
To look for the causes of crime in some eternal condition, on the theory that elimination of the condition will
eliminate crime, is illusory.
50 When I recently stated at a panel discussion of mayors of large American cities that there is no substantial
correlation between unemployment and crime, a number of the mayors insisted that I was uninformed and
flying in the face of an obvious reality. Putting aside the overwhelming evidence from theological, ethical,
55 and philosophical sources that locates crime in the heart of man and not in his stomach, I meant by the term
«correlation» to show that there exists no persuasive analytical study or data that established a nexus
between crime and poverty. The key point for those who wish to fly in the face of common sense and
60 experience and insist that such a relationship exists is that there no no viable research study that effectively
supports their position. Simply put,it can not be proven.The most definitive study to date, a five-volume
report issued by the United States Department of Justice in 1981, analyzed juvenile crime from 1973 to1978.
65 The data came from the National Crime Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau. Sixty thousand
households embracing 136,000 persons were interviewed periodically and asked to describe the age, sex,
and race of those who committed crime against the households or members of the fami lies being studied.
70 The report found virtually no relationship nationwide between economic conditions and adult or juvenile
crime, as measured by unemployment statistics, the consumer price index, and the gross national product. In
75 fact, in some instances, the survey demonstrated a negative, rather than positive, relationship between
unemployment and crime.
While unemployment declined in 1977 and 1978, crime rates increased dramatically. When normal
seasonal fluctuations in crime and economic indicators were taken into account, the Justice Department
80 found that «none of the economic indices has any effect on the rate of offending.»