Criminal Law - Poverty, Urban Core and Crime

[POVERTY, URBAN
CORE AND CRIME]
2020
University
Student Credentials

Criminal Law 1
Can it be said that poverty and crime in the urban core is a social construct? If it is,
then how, why?
Social Construct in general sense is the voice of the humans or the opinions as in regards with
the community as a whole. Concerning the issue of crime and violent actions in general, are
at large a result of a social construct or the result of a human interaction in itself. Now there
are various societal factors that affect the mentality of people in general that make it
adaptable for people to ignore crime for starters or even adopt them as a part of day to day
activity. There has been a constant rise in violent activities like the gun violence which is a
voluntary crime or a criminal activity that one choses or opts for. There are several factors
that tend to assist with people’s minds to take such actions. These can include poverty,
discrimination, racism, revenge, unemployment, uneducated people and several other aspects
that tend to affect people and influence them in the direction of violence (Akers & Jennings,
2019).
There are several theories that define or talk about all the issues involved or the ones that
affect the individuals as such towards violence, the one that shall be discussed below is
Sociological Theory in detail to get to know about the revolving aspects that affect the
individuals and result in them taking such decisions. This theory states that there are various
society related issues that lead to a person to become tempted to take such steps. When
individuals do not have a permanent job or basic education that can provide such jobs, they
tend to channelize towards activities that are not productive or have a criminal nature (Akers
& Jensen, 2017).
Since, there is economic lack, in order to survive; individuals find it easier to resort to
criminal activities that lead to public harm. These kinds of activities then turn into a revenge
game when harm is caused to individual parties hence leading to gangs being formed or as

Criminal Law 2
such. Apart from this, there are areas like the urban core of Chicago that are seriously
affected and areas where no political or specific actions are being taken by the authorities
whatsoever the situation is. The situation currently in the city of Chicago is a perfect example
of a socio economic situation that gives rise to criminal behaviour. The situation as such there
is a result of people living in poverty, constant unemployment as well as constant fear of
being gunned down someday (Chicago Tribune, 2017). All of the factors here that have
damaged the young generation as such are external, while, the intention of individual is
something that needs to be focused upon. There is easy availability of weapons, arms and
other ammunition, there is availability as such in almost every other state but it is more
related to mental state of the individuals (NBC News, 2019). People have been traumatized
of the killings that have already taken place, in order to recover from that there is no
assistance from the authorities in these areas. Even the work by law enforcement officers is
not enough in these aspects. All these law enforcement people can do is punishing, while this
does not resolve the issue here. The theory majorly focuses upon how society affects these
individuals or people in general that leads them to conduct criminal activities (MSNBC,
2018).
This theory that makes Sociological speculations attest that wrongdoing is the typical reaction
of a naturally and mentally ordinary individual to social conditions that are irregular and
criminogenic. As indicated by this hypothesis, criminal conduct is ordinary educated conduct,
that the learning happens in a procedure of relational correspondence with others, that it
comprises essentially in the learning of thoughts regarding whether laws are to be complied,
and that the learning of criminal practices is resolved fundamentally by the degree of the
individual's contact with others who themselves participate in criminal practices. This theory
is solely controlled by various aspects such as the social surroundings, how people react or