This is the type of idealistic thinking that ends up destroying society. Crime and poverty are correlated, not causated. You can never totally eliminate crime without necessarily excluding certain demographics of people.
People have an overly simplistic view, which basically amounts to “I don’t understand why people commit crime, because I would never commit crime. Therefore, there must be some external factor driving people to commit crime! I’ll just eliminate this factor (in this case, poverty), and crime will disappear!”
Obviously this is not the case. There are many factors that are relevant to inducing crime, not least of which is personal choice and a lack of accountability. Culture (arguably the biggest), mental health, IQ, worldview, weak penalties/enforcement, and many others all contribute to crime.
The most immediate and effective way to deal with crime is to have clear policies, steep penalties, and strict enforcement. There are many ways to help treat the underlying issues, which can and should be pursued, without compromising on the laws and their enforcement.
Realistically, I’m talking mostly about IQ, but there’s many categories of demographics that correlate strongly with crime - specifically the bottom ~20%
> “I don’t understand why people commit crime, because I would never commit crime. Therefore, there must be some external factor driving people to commit crime! I’ll just eliminate this factor (in this case, poverty), and crime will disappear!”
This is super simplified, because you also need to have a unified society in it's values. If you have equality but one culture thinks he should be allowed to rape your girlfriend, you'll never have a stable crime free society.
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u/GuitarsAndFitness 3d ago
This is the type of idealistic thinking that ends up destroying society. Crime and poverty are correlated, not causated. You can never totally eliminate crime without necessarily excluding certain demographics of people.
People have an overly simplistic view, which basically amounts to “I don’t understand why people commit crime, because I would never commit crime. Therefore, there must be some external factor driving people to commit crime! I’ll just eliminate this factor (in this case, poverty), and crime will disappear!”
Obviously this is not the case. There are many factors that are relevant to inducing crime, not least of which is personal choice and a lack of accountability. Culture (arguably the biggest), mental health, IQ, worldview, weak penalties/enforcement, and many others all contribute to crime.
The most immediate and effective way to deal with crime is to have clear policies, steep penalties, and strict enforcement. There are many ways to help treat the underlying issues, which can and should be pursued, without compromising on the laws and their enforcement.