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How Poverty is The Main Cause of Crime

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Published: Dec 16, 2021

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  • brooklyn eagle. (2019,October 15). New York's most desperate caught up in 'crimes of poverty'. Retrieved from https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/10/15/new-yorks-most-desperate-caught-up-in-crimes-of-poverty/
  • Ginni Correa. (2020,june 18). Addiction center. Retrieved from https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/low-income-americans/
  • OSAC. (6/18/2019). Venezuela 2019 Crime & Safety Report. Retrieved from https://www.osac.gov/Country/Venezuela/Content/Detail/Report/b0933dac-4154-4dc2-89c1-160ca3b2c4c2
  • Tom Mack. (3 JAN 2020). Leicestershire live . Retrieved from https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/man-stealing-metal-feed-family-3699993

Should follow an “upside down” triangle format, meaning, the writer should start off broad and introduce the text and author or topic being discussed, and then get more specific to the thesis statement.

Provides a foundational overview, outlining the historical context and introducing key information that will be further explored in the essay, setting the stage for the argument to follow.

Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

The topic sentence serves as the main point or focus of a paragraph in an essay, summarizing the key idea that will be discussed in that paragraph.

The body of each paragraph builds an argument in support of the topic sentence, citing information from sources as evidence.

After each piece of evidence is provided, the author should explain HOW and WHY the evidence supports the claim.

Should follow a right side up triangle format, meaning, specifics should be mentioned first such as restating the thesis, and then get more broad about the topic at hand. Lastly, leave the reader with something to think about and ponder once they are done reading.

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an argumentative essay on poverty is the cause of crime

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Can it be Argued that Poverty is the Root of Crime

It can be argued that poverty is the root of crime; however, this theory is often contented. The root of crime cannot be entirely as a result of poverty although poverty plays a significant role in crime. In countries or regions with high levels of crime, the majority of people are poor. Poverty makes people to engage in crime in search for a better life. There are however, rich people who steal and engage in different crimes.

There are no specific reasons why people engage in crimes but poverty has been seen to be the root of crime. Poverty is not a condition of preference, it is the weight carried by people who live in lack. It is easy to hide wealth but poverty cannot be hidden. Fundamentally, I concur that poverty is the root cause of crime. Poverty brings about desperation thus, pushing people into crime. It is easier to engage in crime when one is poor; being in lack makes people do the impossible. Some people engage in crime because they fear being poor (George 1020, p. 27). The rich do not want to be poor and the poor do not want to remain poor and so due to the fear of poverty, people engage in crime. Basing on these, it can be argued that poverty is the root of crime.

History has confirmed that in reality, there is a direct connection between crime and poverty. Theories try to explain how people choose to commit a crime, their thoughts regarding the benefits and the dangers, why some commit crimes not considering the consequences, and why others never engage in crimes regardless of their desperate circumstances. This is referred to as criminology. All through history, scholars have attempted to elucidate what brings about a typical social behavior, as well as crime. Efforts to prevent bad deeds revert-to pre-historic Hammurabi Babylon's Code that took place 3,600 years ago. Later in the 17th century North America colonists believed crime and sin to be similar (George 2010, p. 36). They said evil spirits haunted people who did not comply with the social norms or obey the set rules. To uphold social order in the community, individuals who showed rebellious and disruptive behavior were dealt with swiftly and habitually unsympathetically.

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By the 21st century, criminologists examined wider range of aspects explaining why people chose to commit crimes (Harris 2006, p. 7). These comprised of biological, mental, societal, and economic factors. Typically, an amalgamation of these factors is behind an individual committing a crime. There are other reasons why people commit crimes like greediness, antagonism, jealousy, vengeance, or conceit. Some individuals choose to commit a crime and cautiously plan their steps beforehand to increase benefits and lessen risks. When doing this, they are making choices regarding their conduct. Some people even prefer a life of crime than that of having a regular career, believing that crime takes home greater returns, approbation, and pleasure at-least until they are incarcerated.

The desire to acquire wealth like money or luxurious possessions causes property crimes like thefts, aggravated burglaries, professional crimes, and auto larceny. The desire to have control, vengeance, or command brings about brutal crimes like killings, physical attacks, and rapes. These aggressive crimes normally happen on impulse or spontaneously when emotions run wild. Property crimes are normally planned beforehand. Marxist criminological theory states that crime is the outcome of structural inequities that are intrinsically linked with capitalist economic schemes. Even though Marx wrote very little on the subject of crime, philosophers have depended on his economic theory to give a basis for a critical theory of criminal behavior (Ostrovsky 2005, p. 46).

Marx deemed that all through history, human civilizations have comprised of two classes of people; those who have the authority to make rules that ought to be followed by everyone, and those who do not have the possession or the political influence to say anything concerning the made rules. Marxist criminologists say that a society where people, because-of their position in the capitalist scheme, are capable of accumulating large amounts of riches and possessions, and some cannot, is building itself up for criminal conduct. There are so many theories explaining why people engage in different crimes. Many theorists have argued that poverty is the root cause of crime. In 2007, a study carried out by the U.S. Government Accountability Office confirmed that people living in regions where poverty is profuse had lesser choices in life (Henderson & kambon 2009, p. 107).

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People living in indigent regions are more likely to have unfavorable health problems because of exorbitant health-care, dangerous behavior, and the lack of information. Those experiencing poverty are also more likely to undergo through healthy conditions because of being nearer to free ways and manufacturing buildings that are not normally accepted in high-income regions. There is also a note worthy chronological rise in property damage that matches the joblessness rate all through American history. The cruelty of poverty frequently goes hand-in-hand with the rate of committed crimes. Levels of crime are mostly in poverty-stricken regions. There are not the only regions with people committing crime but a significant number come from these areas. It is important to understand that all kinds of people commit crimes and not necessarily the poor but studies have shown that high levels of crimes are experienced in poverty-stricken regions.

Poverty brings in extreme anxiety and this anxiety leads people to crimes like robbery, rape, physical injuries, and murder. People murder for money and material possessions. Even though it can be argued that poverty is the root cause of crime, the society has a false impression concerning this theory. Crime is frequently committed by the poor but not all poor people commit crimes. Crime has been established in poor areas because people experiencing poverty want to live a better life just like anyone else. Poor people undergo many frustrations and they end up solving their problem with another problem. Some physically attack others for money and their possessions. Life is extremely hard for poor people and their desire to upgrade their life leads them to greater problems.

People are doing whatever they can to live an abundant life, that is why poverty is largely the root cause of crime. Poverty is living in lack and no one even the rich, wants to live in lack. The fear of poverty brings about greed and the desire to acquire more riches, this greed brings in crime (Otto Ford 2008, p. 78). Many people want an easy way out of their poverty life and they do not want to work. To them, stealing is an effortless thing and killing someone for their money is not a big deal. Many people living in poverty stricken areas do not have proper education and no knowledge on the consequences of their behavior. Many engage in behaviors without realizing what they are putting themselves through. Wiping out poverty should be an objective to many political leaders even though this problem cannot be resolved at once. Poverty is encouraging so many crimes thus, putting people’s lives at risk. Government should distribute wealth equally, come up with advanced economic policies and a great dedication to solve this problem and controlling crimes that goes with it.

Radical and Marxist criminology stresses on power disparity and structures particularly those associated with class, as major aspects of crime, fairness and law (Miguel 2009, p. 67). Poor people feel that they are being deprived of their rights and so they choose to fight back and engage in crimes. When the government distributes wealth unevenly, they create war on their ground. People tend to retaliate whenever they are treated unfairly. Some of these people commit crimes to get the attention of the government. Conflict theory states that the basic causes of crime are the socio-economic forces in today’s society. Poor people feel left out and so they fight for their rights through crime because justice and law are not in favor of them. The society has created social classes thus creating boundaries among people i.e. the poor and the rich.

These classes are fighting each other. The rich want to get richer and may involve stealing the little from the poor and the poor on the other hand, seek to have a better life. Control theories take a differing approach compared to other criminology theories (DeKeseredy 2003, p. 38). Instead-of asking what makes people engage in crime, they question why the majority of people do not commit crime. Generally, control theorists say that there is no problem clarifying why individuals commit crime because all people/humans go through inherent human flaws, which makes them incapable of resisting temptation. These theorists focus mainly on controlling aspects that are wrecked or absent in the criminals’ qualities and personalities. If these controlling aspects are thought to engage the society in any way, as-with the sociological ideas that customs are internalized, then this theory is believed to be a social-control theory, and is mainly a social-bond theory. The majority of control theories, nonetheless, are a merge of psychiatric, mental, and sociological notions. 

In conclusion, poverty and crime go hand- in- hand but the society should not over generalize ideas. Some people think that all poor people are criminals and social climbers. Even though poverty is linked with crime, some poor people are descent and they live a straight forward life. Poverty makes people engage in crimes in search for a better life, many feel that they are being denied their rights and so they choose the easy way out. Therefore, Poverty can be argued as the root cause of crime because the poor want to live a better life while the rich fear being poor. These two groups of people engage in crimes so as to run away from poverty.

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Ielts essay # 1399 - poverty is the reason behind most crimes, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, some people think that poverty is the reason behind most crimes., to what extent do you agree or disagree.

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Stanton E. Samenow Ph.D.

Law and Crime

Crime causes poverty, a reversal of the conventional wisdom.

Posted December 24, 2014

Social scientists and public officials have long identified poverty as a “root cause” of crime or, at least, as a significant “risk factor.” Such a causal linkage was made by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 A.D.), who declared, “Poverty is the mother of crime.”

During the 1960s, Attorney General Ramsey Clark emphasized that the United States government needed to combat crime by improving the deplorable conditions under which impoverished people were living. What followed was a plethora of social programs aimed at doing just that. Although many citizens benefited and improved their lot in life, crime remained an intractable problem.

What may not be apparent is that crime causes poverty .

Consider the costs of establishing and operating a small business in a rundown inner city neighborhood. An entrepreneur saves for years and finally amasses funds sufficient to establish a hair salon. She has paid for schooling to learn the skills to become a beautician, and she has honed them working for other people. Now she can rent space, purchase supplies and a stylist’s chair or two, and begin fixing women’s hair in her own shop. By careful management of her finances, she is able to invest additional sums in her business and expand the services she offers. A break-in and robbery occur, setting her back enormously. While awaiting costly repairs, she loses revenue and customers every day. She has to spend additional sums to tighten security. Having had a small profit margin as she struggled to maintain her salon, she now slides into the red or may not be able to re-open at all, thus losing the source of her livelihood.

Consider what has transpired in inner city areas rocked by social unrest. It can take years, even decades, for businesses to return to neighborhoods that were burned and looted. Such was the case during the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C., following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Recently, damage occurred to businesses in Ferguson, Missouri after a grand jury did not indict a white police officer for killing a young black man.

It is not peaceful protestors who threaten the livelihoods of small business owners. It is criminals who seize upon an opportunity when there is social disorder. In the name of a cause, they strike -- destroying property belonging to fledgling entrepreneurs. Having begun to emerge from poverty, these merchants are plunged back into it when criminals demolish overnight what they have worked so hard to build.

Stanton E. Samenow Ph.D.

Stanton Samenow, Ph.D. , an expert in criminal behavior, was the author of many books including Inside the Criminal Mind .

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How Poverty Influences Crime Rates

In the 1993 science-fiction movie Demolition Man, a rebel named Edgar Friendly is leading a rebellion against a society that has discovered complete bliss. The only problem is that if you don’t fit in with that society, you don’t get to eat. So in a fine dining experience at the local Taco Bell, we see Friendly’s group stealing food to eat.

In today’s society, we see people in poverty often acting the same way. Stealing food from take-out counters, violating loitering laws, and influencing the crime rate in other ways is something that is directly linked to poverty. There will always be crime, but urban crime tends to always be located in high poverty areas.

How does poverty influence crime rates? The answers may actually surprise you.

Poverty Isn’t Just About Having a Lack of Resources

The effects that poverty has on crime can be explained in multiple ways. For starters, there is a higher rate of untreated mental illness that is in populations struggling with poverty compared to wealthier populations. Now most people who struggle with a mental illness will never commit a crime, but there are some types of severe mental illness which increase the risk of an individual committing a crime.

Untreated severe mental illnesses are particularly significant when looking at links between poverty and homicide. On the other end of the spectrum, those who are mentally ill are also victimized by violent crime at much higher levels than the general population.

Yet despite these facts, the number of beds at mental health hospitals and treatment facilities are lower in the United States today than they were in 1850.

But a mental illness isn’t the only link that there is between poverty and crime. Being in poverty often leads to high levels of stress. An overwhelming desire to meet certain basic needs becomes the highest priority. Over time, if those needs cannot be met, then some individuals will commit robberies, burglaries, and other forms of them. It can also lead to violent acts, though in the mind of the perpetrator, the actions are seen as a method of self-defense.

Poverty also creates fewer opportunities, some of which co-exist with mental illness and a lack of being able to meet basic needs. If an individual is struggling with an untreated mental illness, then it is difficult for them to hold down an employment opportunity. Without a job, it is difficult to find money to meet basic needs.

A lack of resources also creates inferior educational opportunities for households in poverty, some actual and some admittedly perceived. Yet the perception of a lack of education is enough for individuals in poverty to create self-fulfilling prophecies regarding their future. Because they believe there aren’t good quality schools out there, then there aren’t good quality jobs out there. People feel the need to fight for themselves.

This leads to the creation of gangs and gang affiliation. Then the cycle continues to perpetuate itself again and again. Crime is simply a means to an end. It’s a way to obtain what is needed without a legitimate means to do so because it seems like there isn’t a legitimate opportunity to avoid crime.

It’s a cycle that feeds upon itself. And often the prize of a successful crime outweighs the risk of being caught, which further increases the crime rate in areas of poverty.

Isn’t Poverty a Reflection of a Person’s Choices?

In a free-market society, a common belief regarding poverty is that each person is responsible for their own circumstances. It’s a stereotype that has fed more stereotypes, such as the idea that drug and alcohol use is more prevalent amongst households in poverty. It is true that one of the risk factors for drug use is poverty.

The same is true for alcoholism. Yet the stereotype is that the risk factor not only applies to everyone in poverty, but that everyone is struggling with some form of addiction. If they could only get a job, they would be fine.

And since drug use and public alcohol use is often illegal, these activities then contribute to the local crime rate.

In reality, the problem comes back to the stresses that occur when a household or individual is living in poverty. Not being able to have a basic need met, like knowing when your next meal will be or what it will be, can lead people to a breaking point. They seek out any relief that they can find. Many times, that relief ends up being in a bottle or a needle.

Stress relief also involves risky decisions to alleviate, if but for a moment, what poverty is placing upon an individual. It’s the reason why risky sexual encounters are accepted in poverty-stricken areas. That brief monetary reward is enough to purchase another fix that can help someone forget where they are. Then they repeat the behavior because the reward of forgetting is worth the risk of future health problems or getting caught.

Greater Socioeconomic Gaps Also Encourage Greater Crime

Setting all stereotypes aside, poverty influences crime rates because at its core, it highlights and reinforces the differences between the wealthy class and those who are poor. The greater the gap happens to be, then the greater the benefits are to a thief to use that wealth in some way to their own advantage.

This socioeconomic gap is seen in many different ways in our society today.

  • Children who come from homes in poverty are more likely to be expelled from school or to have a police record than a child who makes the same choices as the poor child, but has more overall wealth.
  • Societies that have age gaps are also prone to more crime when poverty is a factor in the community. This is because of the number of possessions that elderly households are perceived to have, along with the natural vulnerability which comes with age.
  • Communities which have a higher percentage of inhabitants that are under the age of 25 may also lead to higher crime rates, especially if there are large socioeconomic gaps between different households of that age group.

It is these differences which also encourage a higher overall crime rate in minority populations in the United States. Many minority households live in urban areas and may have built-in struggles with poverty for multiple generations. In a 1995 survey of US metropolitan areas with unemployed rates of 12% or more, the population was composed of at least 30% minority households.

Yet socioeconomic gaps also create the potential for crime within communities that are struggling with poverty. These gaps are just not always associated with money. If someone is bigger and stronger than someone else, then they may choose to take a weaker person’s resources. Business owners may take advantage of the desperation of poverty and offer jobs with wages well below legal limits.

There are even precedents of having local law enforcement officials extorting money from those who are in poverty, which then creates a lack of functional restraint on the crime that exists in these areas.

A World Where Not All Crimes Are Created or Treated Equally

During a 20-year period of economic difficulty which started in Europe in 1975, there was a rise in unemployment in uneducated youth and a rise of theft and violence that rose at the same time. This led to an effort to create more educational opportunities, as multiple studies have shown that higher educational levels lead to lower overall violent crime.

Yet this doesn’t eliminate all crime. In fact, other forms of crime, such as corruption, are more likely in the wealthier classes. This means our focus on poverty tends to be on the amount of violent crime that is produced by low-income communities.

So why is there more violence in low-income areas? It is because there is less of a safety net that is present for those with few or no resources to rely upon. The fight-or-flight mechanism is initiated and when it comes to self-preservation, most people are going to fight for themselves and their loved ones.

If that means violence is required to secure needed resources, then so be it.

This Means There Are Two Key Issues Which Must Be Addressed

In order to solve the problem of poverty as it relates to crime, there are two key issues which must be addressed at the same time.

  • Resources must be provided to those in poverty so that basic needs can be met, including any treatment that may be required for mental illness or addiction.
  • Those in poverty must receive some level of consistent protection to make sure they do not have what little resources they have become stolen from them by others.

And, for the most part, society agrees with these two points. Where disagreement begins is how to address these issues. You’ll see this often in poverty-stricken areas when someone is asking for help and another person comes by and says, “Just go get a job.”

Unfortunately, it just isn’t that easy. Someone struggling with a lack of resources and an untreated illness may not even know how to begin looking for a job. For that reason, many societies have implemented programs to ease the stress that poverty creates.

To meet basic needs, many governments have created aid and assistance programs which offer enough food benefits, living assistance, and limited cash to reduce the stress of poverty. But, because there may be a 1-5% fraud rate within these programs, there are consistent calls to reduce eligibility for them, create greater restrictions to join them, or to cut them out of society completely.

We’ve also created changes to the individual treatment process in order to protect personal rights. This has stopped many of the involuntary inpatient commitments to mental hospitals that occurred in the past, yet the less-restrictive alternative of outpatient therapy has been found to be far from effective – even if a judge orders compliance with medication and therapy.

So what do we do from a criminal justice standpoint? We have to enforce laws to create a society that is safe and orderly. Yet we cannot ignore households in poverty when they become victims of a crime, even if it is labeled as “poor-on-poor” crime. The answer, it seems, may come from the State of Texas – which ironically houses about 10% of the US prisoner population.

Instead of Incarceration, a Focus on Treatment Creates a Reduction in Crime

In 2006, Texas was facing a population crisis within their criminal justice system. Hundreds of thousands of prisoner beds were already full due to the enforcement of drug crime in the past 15 years. By 2010, the prisoner population increase had risen 346% from 1990 levels. At the same time, US prison populations only doubled.

Texas couldn’t build prisons fast enough. Yet, when looking at a cost of $526 million to expand the prison population even more, the investment didn’t seem to make sense. So Texas decided to “go soft on crime” as a way to reduce prison population levels.

Instead of creating new prisoner beds, Texas focused on expanding beds in treatment programs. Should a prisoner violate their probation or a first-time offender commit a non-violent crime, instead of locking the person up, the goal became to shift away the stress that is caused by a lack of overall resources.

There were even slots put into the Texas criminal justice system which allowed for outpatient treatment programs to allow for sentences of probation instead of incarceration. Diversion programs were also setup within the court system to be able to treat individuals suffering from a mental illness. Instead of just prison and parole being an option for sentencing, judges were given a third option: treatment.

In the first 7 years of these reforms being in place, the number of inmates that were incarcerated in Texas dropped by nearly 10,000. And, for the first time in over 160 years, Texas decided to actually shut down a prison. The state is even seeing improvements in their recidivism rates with treatment as an option.

What Does This Mean for Poverty and Crime?

There will always be crime. That much is clear. What our goal must be as a society is to eliminate crime that is due to the stresses of poverty. Through reforms, treatment, and a removal of the stress that comes with living in poverty, it is clear that a lower crime rate will be the result. Texas has already proven this.

In order to make this happen, we must be willing to set aside our own personal stereotypes about poverty. Instead of someone being a “poor person,” we must view them as a person. We must treat children equally, no matter what their socioeconomic class might be. Then we must be consistent in providing opportunities to everyone, no matter what their living situation might be.

When there are zero opportunities, an individual will make their own opportunities and that will usually be through crime. It will be through violent crime if necessary. We may never completely eliminate poverty within our lifetime, but we can set the stage for people to find a different way than in previous generations.

Through education, treatment, and consistency, people will be given more opportunities. That will help them be able to get that job they need to provide themselves with legitimate resources. If not, then our future might just be a world where people feel like they need to steal food from Taco Bell in order to survive.

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Essay on Poverty Causes Crime

Students are often asked to write an essay on Poverty Causes Crime in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Poverty Causes Crime

Understanding poverty and crime.

Poverty is when people do not have enough money for things like food and a home. Some believe that not having money can lead to crime. When people are poor, they might steal to survive. They might feel they have no choice but to break the law to feed their families.

The Link Between Need and Theft

Imagine you’re really hungry, but you have no money. What would you do? Some might steal food. This is a simple example of how needing something badly can push someone to commit a crime, like theft.

Desperation Leads to Bad Choices

A person who can’t find a job and is desperate might feel forced to sell illegal things or join gangs. They might think this is the only way to make money. This shows how not having options can lead to crime.

Crime as a Last Resort

Sometimes, people who are poor see crime as the only way out. They might not see any other way to change their lives. So, they take risks to try to escape poverty, which can include doing illegal things.

Breaking the Cycle

To stop this problem, everyone needs to help. If poor people get support, like education and jobs, they might not turn to crime. Helping them can make our communities safer for everyone.

250 Words Essay on Poverty Causes Crime

The link between poverty and crime.

Many people wonder if not having enough money can lead to crime. The answer is not simple, but often, when people are very poor, they might break the law to get what they need or want.

Struggle for Basic Needs

When families do not have enough money, they struggle to buy food, pay for a house, or get medicine. This can make someone feel desperate. In desperation, stealing or other illegal ways to get money can seem like the only choice.

Lack of Education and Jobs

Schools in poor areas might not be very good, making it hard for kids to learn and get good jobs later. Without a good job, it’s tough to earn money legally. This can lead some to choose crime as a way to make money.

Feeling Left Out

People who are poor often feel left out because they can’t have what others do. This feeling can turn into anger or jealousy, which might lead them to take things that aren’t theirs.

Not everyone who is poor will commit a crime. But when there’s no other way to survive, some might see crime as the last option. It’s like when you’re playing a game and you’re losing badly, you might break the rules just to keep playing.

In conclusion, being poor can sometimes lead to crime, but it’s not the only reason people do bad things. It’s important to help those in need and make sure everyone has a fair chance at a good life to prevent crime.

500 Words Essay on Poverty Causes Crime

Many people wonder if being poor can lead someone to act wrongly. It is a topic that has been talked about for a long time. This essay will explain why some believe that not having enough money can make people commit crimes.

Struggling to Survive

When people do not have enough money, they might find it hard to buy food, find a place to live, or get clothes. This situation is called poverty. Imagine you are very hungry and you have no money; you might think about taking food from a store without paying. This is an example of how poverty can push someone to steal, which is a crime. People who are very poor often feel they have no choice but to break the law to survive.

Education and Opportunities

Schools in richer areas usually have more resources, like books and computers, than schools in poorer areas. Children from poor families might not learn as much or might even stop going to school. Without a good education, it is hard to get a good job. This makes it tough for people to earn enough money legally. So, some might turn to crime as a way to make money because they feel they have no other options.

When people are poor, they might feel left out of society. They see others with nice things and feel they can never have those things. This can make them angry or jealous. Sometimes, to get what others have, they might decide to take things that are not theirs. This is not right, but it shows how feeling left out can lead to crime.

Drugs and Crime

In places where there is a lot of poverty, there might also be more drugs. Drugs can cause big problems. People who use drugs may need a lot of money to buy them, and this can lead to stealing or other crimes. Also, people who sell drugs are committing a crime, and they might do this because they think they can’t make money any other way.

What Can Be Done?

To stop crime, we need to help people get out of poverty. This means making sure everyone has enough food, a safe place to live, and clothes to wear. It also means giving children the chance to go to good schools and learn. When people have what they need and feel they are part of society, they are less likely to commit crimes.

In conclusion, not having enough money can lead to crime because people are trying to survive, they might not have good education or job opportunities, they feel left out, or they get involved with drugs. To solve this problem, it is important to help people live better lives. By understanding the reasons behind crime, we can work to make our communities safer for everyone.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

  • Essay on Poverty Begins In The Mind
  • Essay on Poverty And Homelessness
  • Essay on Possibility Of Life On Other Planets

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Issue Cover

Article Contents

1. introduction, 2. historical context, 4. empirical strategy, 5. main empirical results, 6. conclusion, supplementary material, statistical yearbooks and government reports, “hunger makes a thief of any man”: poverty and crime in british colonial asia.

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Kostadis J. Papaioannou, “Hunger makes a thief of any man”: Poverty and crime in British colonial Asia, European Review of Economic History , Volume 21, Issue 1, February 2017, Pages 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/hew019

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This study uses rainfall variation as an instrumental variable for rice production to estimate the impact of poverty on different types of crime across British colonies in South and South East Asia (1910-–1940). Using original primary sources retrieved from annual administrative and statistical reports, it provides some of the first evidence in a historical setting on the causal relationship between poverty and crime. Extreme rainfall, both droughts and floods, lead to a large increase in property crimes (such as robbery, petty theft, and cattle raiding), but not to an increase in interpersonal violent crimes (such as murder, homicides, and assault). In line with a growing body of literature on the climate-economy nexus, this study offers evidence that loss of agricultural income is one of the main causal channels leading to property crime. Additional historical information on food shortages, poverty, and crime is used to explore the connection in greater detail.

Climate change and its potential threatening impacts have spurred a growing body of literature examining how extreme weather conditions influence economic performance and human behaviour. This literature suggests that deviations from average rainfall and temperature levels increase the likelihood of intergroup conflict ( Fjelde and von Uexkull 2012 ; Hsiang et al . 2013 ), inter-communal conflict ( Bai and Kung 2011 ; Papaioannou 2016 ), onset of civil war ( Blattman and Miguel 2010 ; Miguel et al . 2004 ), property crime ( Blakeslee and Fishman 2014 ; Iyer and Topalova 2014 ; Mehlum et al . 2006 ), civil unrest and disobedience ( Christian and Fenske 2015 ) and even complete institutional breakdowns ( Brückner and Ciccone 2011 ). However, some of this evidence has been contested on both theoretical ( Buhaug et al . 2014 ) and methodological grounds ( Klomp and Bulte 2013 ; Sarsons 2015 ), leaving the debate far from settled.

The societal impact of weather variability seems to be stronger and less ambiguous in developing regions, where the majority of cultivated crops are rain-fed and an insignificant share of cultivated areas is equipped with irrigation and artificial water drainage systems. 1 Unfortunately, we still do not fully understand the underlying mechanisms driving the climate-to-economy relationship ( Burke et al . 2015 ). The most commonly hypothesized channel is that of falling incomes and, by extension, poverty ( Dell et al . 2014 ; Hsiang et al . 2013 ; Miguel et al . 2004 ). In a predominantly agrarian society—being primarily a rain-fed economy—economic prosperity is intimately tied to agricultural output. Extreme weather conditions—resulting in drought or flood—are associated with poor harvests and complete crop failures. Consequently, loss of a year's harvest, besides bringing about near-famine conditions, can easily push farmers into extreme poverty.

Poverty has long been a question of great interest within a wide range of fields. Multiple scholarly disciplines, including economics, political science, history, and anthropology, have observed and documented that poverty and crime go hand in hand. The literature distinguishes between absolute poverty (i.e., lack of minimal material necessities for survival) and relative poverty (i.e., extreme income inequality). A great deal of previous research has demonstrated that absolute poverty is associated with higher property crime rates ( Iyer and Topalova 2014 ; Mehlum et al . 2006 ; Patterson 1991 ), while relative poverty has been linked with the surge of aggression and violent crime ( Blau and Blau 1982 ; Fajnzylber et al . 2002 ; Kelly 2000 ). Throughout this study, the term “poverty” will be used in its broadest definition to encompass a wide range of conditions such as abrupt food shortages, starvation, hunger, subsistence crises, and near-famine conditions.

In simple economic theory of crime, originally introduced by Becker (1968) , individuals are more likely to become involved in criminal activity when they experience a negative income shock. This reasoning is framed in terms of an opportunity cost model ; as income levels decline as a result of unfavourable conditions, engaging in crime becomes more opportune relative to participating in more “peaceful” economic activities ( Grossman 1991 ; Seter 2016 ). While the theoretical foundations of poverty and crime have been well-established, the empirical basis for such an argumentation is considered speculative at best ( Burke et al . 2015 ; Dell et al . 2014 ). One plausible explanation for this omission is the endogenous relationship between poverty and crime: deteriorating economic conditions may favour criminal activity, since more people are likely to engage in crime as an alternative source of income, whilst higher levels of crime may undermine economic stability, investment, and productivity. In other words, does poverty generate crime—or does crime lead to more poverty? Or does some third factor, for example state's institutional capacity or certain food policy reform, affect both simultaneously?

Previous studies have been unable to resolve the key econometric identification issues and have been potentially subject to bias due to reverse causality and omitted variables, both of which distort simple ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates either downward or upward. For instance, OLS estimates of the effect may be biased downwards if colonial governments are more likely to invest in food relief programs in districts that experience high crime rates. These investments will underestimate the poverty effect. On the other hand, OLS estimates of poverty on crime would be biased upwards if, for example, high crime rates bring about higher poverty. Likewise, an upward bias may result from third factors, such as the occurrences of political and economic crises, that tend to increase both crime and poverty simultaneously. In our findings we show that simple OLS estimates are, indeed, biased downward and underestimate the impact of poverty on crime to a substantial degree. Although this article's aim is to apply this approach in economic history, it may also be extended to more present day developing countries.

British imperialism in South and South East Asia, c. 1914.

British imperialism in South and South East Asia, c. 1914.

Our key hypothesis is two-fold: 1.  If weather shocks lead to crime through subsistence crises, then these shocks should primarily affect the kinds of crime that alleviate loss of income. We argue that this may very well be the case in both rural and urban areas but for different reasons. In rural areas, farmers are directly affected by the deficient harvest and resort to illicit activities, whereas in urban areas, waged labourers have to cope with food-price spikes, since they are much more dependent on the market for their daily calories ( absolute poverty). 2. If weather-induced harvest failures are causing sharp increases in income inequality (relative poverty), for instance because some farmers or merchants benefit from exceptional market power during a period of food scarcity and food-price hikes, we would expect more violent uprisings and grievances against people who were making money by exploiting the needs and misery of others. In other words, on the one hand, income losses caused by weather shocks should primarily increase petty theft and cattle raiding, and, on the other hand, perceptions of “injustice”, “exploitation”, or “abuse” of miserable circumstances may induce a rise in violent crime such as homicides, murders, and assaults.

We investigate this possibility by distinguishing between these two broad crime categories; i.e., property and violent crimes. We find that a one standard deviation decrease in annual rice production increased property crime by 21.2 percent. This effect is considerably higher in magnitude to accumulated evidence from other studies reviewed by Hsiang et al . (2013) . There are three possible reasons why the effect is larger than that which the literature predicts. The first reason has to do with the institutional context in which this study is embedded and the limited attention the colonial governments paid to local food production. 4 Despite the fact that by the early twentieth century most colonial governments were taking a more activist approach to promoting widespread economic development in the territories they controlled ( Booth 2012 ), it remains highly refutable the extent to which they managed to convert growing national output into improved living standards for the vast majority of local population. Colonial government expenditures on transport infrastructure, food relief programs, and irrigation/drainage systems remained considerably low in per capita terms. 5 Conservative fiscal policies and the enduring food versus cash crop substitution dilemma among colonial officials impeded local padi-rice cultivation and substantially increased reliance on imported foodstuffs ( Elson 1997 ; Lim 1976 ).

A second reason why the effect was so large has to do with the substantially low living standards prevailing among rural communities at the time. While exports may have boomed and government revenues expanded, nutritional intakes for the mass of the population did not improve, and as a result mortality rates were high ( Booth 2012 ). That the effect between rainfall shocks and property crime rates declined considerably throughout the twentieth century, suggests that modern economic growth and its ensuing technological improvements in agriculture have enhanced the ability of vulnerable rural societies to withstand climate-induced calamities. Lastly, in seeking to explain the high magnitude of the effect, it should be reasoned that we are dealing with a non-industrial part of the world, where the vast majority of the total income was derived from agricultural practises, and where wage labour opportunities were limited, and wage rates low. ( Bray 1994 ; Drabble 1973 ; Elson 1997 ; Farmer 1977 ).

In line with our second hypothesis, it is found that the effect of poverty on violent crimes was insignificant and nearly zero, suggesting extreme income inequality was not (as) crucial in inciting crime. Additionally, it is shown that a standard deviation decrease in rice yields increased begging and vagrancy by 13.8 percent, suggesting that rice production was a key determinant of poverty during this period.

This study yields three contributions. First , we find strong evidence that both drought and excessive rainfall cause substantial increases in property crime. The results are robust to using alternative econometric specifications, to using lagged dependent and independent variables, to cross-sectional spillovers, and finally, to clustering standard errors at the country level, the year level as well as two-way clustered at both the country and the year level. These results are in accord with recent studies indicating that property crimes are more likely to increase in years of depressed incomes than violent crimes ( Blakeslee and Fishman 2014 ; Iyer and Topalova 2014 ; Mehlum et al . 2006 ; Miguel 2005 ), as well as with simple economic theory of crime ( Becker 1968 ; Grossman 1991 ; Bourguignon 2000 ).

Second , a causal relationship is established between poverty and property crime in an agrarian historical setting, and the channel of causality is identified by using rainfall as a source of exogenous variation in food production. While it is intuitively plausible that the rainfall instruments are exogenous, we have to evaluate whether they satisfy the exclusion restriction: rainfall shocks should affect property crime only through reduced agricultural production. One potential concern may be a direct causal link (without any changes to real income) between high temperatures and aggressive and/or violent behaviour, as several psychological and empirical studies have documented ( Anderson 1989 ; Anderson et al . 2000 ; Blakeslee and Fishman 2014 ; Iyer and Topalova 2014 ; Ranson 2014 ). Our results confirm this direct extra-economic channel, since high temperature shocks are associated with more violent crimes (coeff. = 0.043, s.e. = 0.018). However, temperature shocks yield no association with property crimes nor with adverse effects on food production. This serves as an important validation of the empirical strategy and highlights the importance of looking beyond aggregate crime measures in this climate-crime literature, since they may shadow heterogeneous patterns across crime categories.

Another potential violation of the exclusion restriction is the possibility that rainfall deviation may have a direct effect on crime; if heavy rains, due to flooded roads for instance, reduce criminals’ likelihood of being detained by the police or hamper police's capacity to report crimes. Therefore, if such channels are present, IV estimates could misattribute the direct effects of rainfall to crime. Note that such channels are not serious threats to our estimation strategy, since excessive rainfall is empirically associated with significantly more (not less) crime in the reduced form regressions. Thus to the extent that a bias exists, our estimates would be lower bounds on the true impact of poverty on property crime.

A critical assumption underlying the use of rainfall as an IV is that rainfall shocks affect property crime only through their impact on agricultural income . The most prominent critique put forward for such an assumption is that rainfall shocks could also potentially operate through non-agricultural urban channels (manufacturing and non-agricultural wages). However, these channels are unlikely to be important in the agrarian and largely non-industrial context we study, where rain-fed agriculture dominates aggregate production and a relatively small amount of urban labourers existed ( Bruton 1992 ; Drabble 1973 ; Parmer 1960 ; Tregonning 1965 ). We acknowledge that our identification strategy may be inappropriate for other more developed regions of the world, where rainfall shocks are not sufficiently related to depressing agricultural income, for instance, due to substantial investment in irrigation and drainage infrastructure ( Sarsons 2015 ). Nevertheless, this strategy is likely to be of interest to both economic historians and policy makers, since it is highly viable for poor agrarian societies, such as pre-industrial Europe or contemporary less developed countries.

Third , we make use of additional historical information on food shortages and crime as reported in the colonial sources. This is a substantial contribution since most studies in this field are solely based on econometric correlations and make no attempt to contextualize their findings using qualitative evidence. Using a systematic approach, we were not only able to confirm the empirical findings of this study but also to find support in favour of the theoretical foundations of the opportunity cost model. We observe that as foodstuffs become scarcer and distress levels rise, property crimes, and vagrancy inflate substantially—while violent crimes remain unaffected.

Our work also relates to the emerging literature on the effects of weather shocks on crime and conflict. Interestingly, the vast majority of the studies published on the climate-economy nexus has been mostly restricted to limited comparisons in the post-1960 period, mainly due to data availability (see Dell et al . 2014 ; Hsiang et al . 2013 ). Only very recently scholars have begun expanding the temporal scope in the pre-1960 period (for example, Bai and Kung (2011) and Jia (2014) for premodern China; Anderson et al . (2015) and Bignon et al . (2016) for premodern Europe; Papaioannou (2016) and Papaioannou and DeHaas (2017) for colonial Africa). This study thus expands both the geographical as well as temporal scope of studies on the climate-economy nexus.

The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 reviews the historical context and the colonial reports. Section 3 describes the data sources and the construction of variables used in the analysis, and Section 4 lays out the empirical strategy. Section 5 presents our empirical findings and Section 6 concludes.

In thinking about the possible mechanisms underpinning the relationship between food shortages, poverty, and crime in British colonial Asia, it is important to consider some of the underlying agricultural, economic, and political conditions. We begin by providing a brief historical background, including a discussion of the importance of rice production and various aspects of the British colonial rule. We then proceed by reviewing the colonial reports to offer further contextualization, to shed light on the underlying mechanisms, and to validate the theoretical foundations of the opportunity cost model .

2.1 Historical background

During their long history as agrarian societies, South and South East Asian states were very vulnerable to unfavourable climatological conditions ( Bray 1994 ; Hill 2012 ). Peasant agriculture failed to rise above subsistence level during the period of British rule ( Bruton 1992 ; Tregonning 1965 ). The crops continued to be adversely affected by natural enemies and there were limited agricultural advances to increase yields as the peasant's technology had changed only slightly over the years and the growth of agricultural production was further impeded by the rapid expansion of rubber cultivation in the early twentieth century ( Bray 1994 ; Drabble 1973 ; Elson 1997 ). Even though padi rice was the traditional staple crop in this part of the world, the quantities produced were sometimes described as being inadequate to meet the wants of the people who grow it and several states were, to various degrees, dependent on imported agricultural produce ( Butcher 1979 ; Farmer 1977 ). However, padi rice production formed the principal occupation of the peasant, and was the chief source of general prosperity ( Elson 1997 ; Lim 1976 ).

Many historians have observed that deep in the peasant's ethos was the understanding that padi rice was the foundation of life and its cultivation the proper and most honoured sphere of toil. To be a cultivator very nearly meant to be a padi cultivator ( Bray 1994 ; Farmer 1977 ). As Hill (2012 , p. 59) puts it “ the Malaya states were predominantly agricultural and rice-growing was so prevalent that had led to the virtual exclusion of any other food crop” . For most Malaya states the proportion of rice growers to total economically active persons was above 80 percent. Nevertheless, the Malays did not attempt double-cropping as wet land rice required so long a period to reach maturity, that there would have been a deficiency of water for a second crop. In cases where a second, light crop was attempted, “ it often scarcely repaid the trouble of cultivation; so poor was its yield ” ( Hill 2012 , p. 111). A similar story can be deduced from Mills (1964) and Bruton (1992) for Ceylon, and from Tregonning (1965) for North Borneo. Tregonning (1965 , p. 93) points out that “ although the area devoted to rice cultivation was greater than that given to any other crop and its culture was the chief industry of the native people, there was never enough rice produced for the territory to be self-sufficient, and large quantities were always imported ”.

The significance of padi-rice cultivation for the overall well-being of the native population was also documented in the colonial sources. As we will see in more detail in the next section, the agricultural commissioners were required to report whether food supply was sufficient and well maintained to cover local needs. If rice production was scarce, they were requested to provide plausible explanations. Time and again, they pointed to climatological conditions in explaining the deficiency or failure of the annual padi-rice harvest and its consequential distress among smallholders.

The basic function of British colonization in the Asian states covered by this study, whatever its form and origin, was to establish and maintain the conditions under which the dynamic forces of trade could flourish ( Butcher 1979 ; Lange 2004 ; Mills 1964 ; Parmer 1960 ; Wade 1998 ). Although the British rule was intended to be indirect, direct rule was the practice and it increased in scope and effectiveness as the years passed. The new structure was purely British in conception and operation. British interests dominated the vast majority of commercial activities as the British owned most of the plantations, the estate factories that processed the rubber, tea, and coconuts, the import-export trade, and other service activities. In areas with favourable soils and climates, cash crop export economies (such as coffee, tea, rubber etc.) were encouraged and promoted as they provided the colonial authorities with much needed revenue from customs duties and other forms of indirect taxation ( Booth 1999 ; Drabble 1973 ).

2.2 Qualitative evidence: climate, poverty, and crime

The sources used are the annual reports filed by the colonial administration. The British colonizers set up an extensive system of administration, where elaborate administrative accounts were kept. These accounts make regular notice of weather-induced agricultural failure resulting in higher levels of social distress, and in more extreme cases, subsistence crises, and near-famine conditions. In practice, each department filed reports to provide information on and explanations of various incidences along with what was considered to be their causes. The goal of this section is not to systematically record all incidences of food shortages, subsistence crises, and crime, but rather to give a detailed contextual overview of the reasons, mechanisms, and channels appearing to be most relevant.

2.2.1 Rainfall extremes: flood and drought

a drought at the wrong season or a flood will cause great loss to the country and to the padi planters. It was at one time roughly estimated that the present year's padi crop would, owing to drought, be some 25.000.000 gantangs of padi short of the previous year's gantang. As a result it would involve a prospective loss of $2.500.000 to padi planters. (Kedah Annual Report , 1925).

In 1934, the same commissioner reported a severe crop failure, owing this time to excessive rainfall: “ s erious flooding was experienced during November and early December, doing extensive damage in several districts, and it is believed that the harvest will be less abundant than that of the previous year ”. His speculation came true by the end of that year when “ the total yield was just about 33 million gantangs, showing a decrease of 17 million gantangs as compared with 1933 ” (Kedah, Annual Report , 1934).

Likewise, in 1924, the Kelantan colonial official recorded both types of unfavourable weather conditions within the State and remarked that “ the high variability of yields has been connected chiefly with droughts and floods. As one reads back through the annual reports, one constantly comes across reports of disastrous droughts. At other times it is an early flood which has drowned the padi before it has become sufficiently established ”. The rice returns reveal that “ the total production of rice has fluctuated rather more violently than the area planted, and sometimes in an opposite direction. Thus in the 1924 season the 148.000 acres yielded only 55,359 tons, whereas last year the 139,000 acres yielded 74,008 tons ” — a decrease in production of ca 25 percent. The reason for such a decrease was the “ serious flooding during the early part of the season made it impossible for peasants to cultivate their land ”. Thus, overall, our qualitative evidence supports a U-shaped parameterization of the link between weather and agricultural incomes.

2.2.2 Food scarcity and price spikes

The annual reports are very extensive and meticulous in the way they describe local agricultural conditions. These reports frequently mention the adverse consequences of weather conditions in inducing food shortages, food-price hikes, and resultant social distress. Shortages of rice and other foodstuffs and subsequent increases in their prices were greatly felt by the people. In years of food scarcity, local padi-rice was sold for high prices, which were beyond the means of the poor.

that there was a large increase in the number of offences against property. A number of causes are given for this increase…among them the most probable seem to be economic due to unfavourable weather conditions. The last reason applies more particularly to the surrounding plain, where thieves and house-breakers, when detected, are usually found to be young padi planters (Trengganu, Annual Report, 1914).

Similarly, the agricultural commissioner of Central province in Ceylon recounted in 1927 that “ the padi-planters are going through a year of almost unprecedented misfortune ” and that “ the abnormal rainfall in January did considerable damage. That was a truly phenomenal rainfall. Paddy cultivation has been a failure—one of the lowest crops on record, and it was followed by the usual food shortage. This is also shown by the fact that burglars take away foodstuffs, which formerly were left behind. Owing to the shortage of paddy crops the price of paddy has risen dramatically. Deaths from starvation are occasionally reported ”. Indeed, the rice crop was a poor one and totalled 300.000 gantangs as compared to 1.200.000 the year before—a decrease of ca 75 percent (Ceylon, Annual Report, 1927). The following two cases were selected to offer a comprehensive impression of the far-reaching impact of rice shortages on the vast majority of households, across numerous aspects of ordinary life, regardless of whether they were net rice importers or exporters. One could hypothesize that the effect might be stronger in rice-importing districts, as the available food supplies did not meet local demand. Thus, when the already insufficient padi-rice harvests fail, economic distress would be inflated. By contrast, one could argue that the effect might be stronger in rice exporting districts, as the annual rural income of households would be more exposed and sensitive to weather fluctuations. Thus, a failed rice harvest would have a relatively more acute impact on rice exporting districts than in rice-importing ones. While these dynamics are more systematically addressed in the econometric part of the paper, we illustrate the broad social impact of rice shortages in cases where rice was exported and imported.

For instance, in Selangor (a rice-importing state), when the rains failed and available incomes shrank, “ the health of the people deteriorated and fell considerably below the normal standard. This was to a large extent due to the acute scarcity of food. Enteric cases soared in almost all towns ” (F.M.S. Medical Report, 1919). Similarly, in 1936 Kedah (a rice exporting district), the adverse effects of food scarcity were felt on the general welfare of the people. Infant mortality rose by 11 percent and average daily attendance at government schools declined from 13.425 in 1935 to 9.912 in 1936 (approx. 27 percent decrease). “ The decrease was due to the scarcity of rice and the poverty of the people. Children were in many cases half starved, and their parents could not provide them with clothes ”. (Kedah, Education Report , 1936).

2.2.3 Poverty and property crime

there is a great temptation to them [padi-growers] to commit crime in order to live; and reports received indicate that there has been an increase of cattle-stealing and theft of foodstuffs. Thefts of foodstuffs have not been common in the past, and the increase in this type of crime and in cattle-stealing is due to real poverty and difficulty in obtaining food (Ceylon, Annual Report, 1931).
the year was probably the worst ever experienced in the State. The difficulties to be faced were great. Crop after crop was destroyed and by June the shortage of food was becoming very serious. Theft was rife and increased as food became short (North Borneo Native Affairs, 1919).
The number of offences against property—cattle lifting, burglary, and petty thefts—has shown a most unsatisfactory tendency. This is doubtless due to the scarcity of food. I have heard it said that the way in which private gardens are rifled is a real deterrent to enterprise in their cultivation. This may be an exaggeration, but the evil is rampant, and in some cases is caused by real starvation.
it was impossible to obtain padi in the villages…The harvest was late, the crops were entirely ruined…rice crops were everywhere poor and in many places destroyed by the phenomenal drought…The presence of property crime is undoubtedly due in no small measure to a shortage of rice (F.M.S., Judicial Report, 1932).

Few would dispute that livestock breeding broadens the opportunities to store wealth, mediate risks, and raise land productivity in pre-industrial societies. However, livestock was also seen as an object of looting, since by stealing few cattle in times of hardship the perpetrator gains either income by marketing the cattle and exchanging it for other goods, or gains calories by simply consuming it. This is exemplified best in the report undertaken by the colonial officer of Trengganu state in 1931, who related the unfavourable weather conditions of that year with a considerable rise in arrests, stressing that many parts of the central plain were “ so infested with thieves that poultry and cattle could not be kept and was stolen by night ”.

In many instances the colonial officials associated food shortages directly with cattle-raiding noting that “ there was an increase of cattle theft, perhaps due to the shortage of food. Most cattle stolen are slaughtered ” or that “ cattle stealing was rife in North Kedah during the first nine months of the year owing to the unfavourable weather conditions of the country in certain localities ” .

Simple theoretical considerations suggest that income shocks should have a larger impact on property crimes as compared to violent ones. Our qualitative material confirms that logic, as the colonial officials reported sizable differences between the amount of property and violent crimes within the same year. We observe many instances where increases in property crime did not yield concurrent increases in violent crimes. According to the 1919 Annual Report, Kedah had “ experienced in succession the two driest years since rainfalls were first recorded in 1906 and as is anticipated, the padi crop reaped at the beginning of 1919 was poor ”. Theft returns that year more than doubled; from 403 up to 812 cases—an increase of more than 100 percent, whereas the violent offences against the person declined substantially. The Commissioner reports that “ there is a large amount of petty thieving but there are remarkably few crimes of violence ” .

The evidence presented thus far supports the idea that scarcity of food and loss of income had led to substantially more property crime. However, unlike years of extreme weather fluctuations, there have also been seasons with exceptionally good yields. The impact of “feast” seasons on reducing crime levels was noted by the colonial administrators as well. In years where the precipitation patterns were smooth, the rice-harvest was bountiful, and as a result crime rates plummeted. According to the 1930 Agriculture report of Kelantan: “ the crop was harvested under ideal weather conditions and proved to be one of the best secured for a number of years. A surplus over the requirements of the indigenous population was obtained ”. According to the Police report of that same year “ There has been little serious crime, owing to prosperous favourable weather conditions. ”[…] “ as regards criminal litigation, increased prosperity has led to diminution of crime ” (Kelantan, Police Report , 1930).

Summary statistics: district by year

Notes : Author's calculations. See main text.

3.1 Crime data

Among the crimes included are theft, cattle-raiding, assault, and homicide. Of the crimes included in the data, we combine individual crime categories into two broad categories: theft and cattle raiding as property crimes , and assault and homicide as violent crimes . Results are presented for both individual and aggregate crimes. Additionally, data are obtained for vagrancy for each state they were available. All variables exhibit a high year-to-year variation. Table A1 presents the pairwise correlation matrix among the dependent variables. In thinking about issues of differential crime reporting over time, it is important to note that we have no evidence to believe that weather shocks would affect the incentive of crime victims to report crime or the incentive of colonial officials to record more or less criminal incidences. Even though it is not implausible that local authorities would in fact increase the level of under-reporting at precisely those times when crime is rife—i.e., after an adverse weather shock—we argue that this tendency would, if anything, downward our results. 6 The summary statistics for the types of crime are presented in panel ( a ) of table 1 .

3.2 Weather shocks

Rainfall shocks and property crime.

Rainfall shocks and property crime.

Since there are many ways to parameterize rainfall, we also transformed our main explanatory variable, and defined a “negative rainfall shock” as a dummy which takes the value of 1 when annual rainfall in a district i is one standard deviation below the long-run mean of panel i , and a “positive rainfall shock” as a dummy being one standard deviation above the panel's mean. We also use an alternative measure of rainfall taken from the Matsuura and Willmott (2009) database. The data have 0.5° latitude by 0.5° longitude grids. Values for standardized grid rainfall deviation have a mean of 0.00, a standard deviation of 1, and range from −2.87 to 3.38. Although this measure gives nearly identical results, it reduces  1. our sample size considerably (Singapore, Perlis and a few districts in North Borneo had to be dropped due to lack of observations) and 2. the accuracy of the observations as the data compiled in this dataset is mostly based on extrapolation. Lastly, we construct a variable of temperature deviation to account for the extra-economic direct impact of extreme heat on crime. The summary statistics of the weather conditions are presented in panel ( b ) of table 1 .

3.3 Rice production

Rainfall shocks and food production.

Rainfall shocks and food production.

3.4 Controls

While omitted variables should not be of great concern, a number of additional time-varying controls have been included to address potential bias stemming from unobserved factors. We control for differences in 1. state capacity by constructing a measure of road density following Herbst (2014) , 2. policing capacity by constructing a measure of police staff density ( Papaioannou 2016 ), and 3. demographic pressures by constructing a measure of population density. Lastly, we control for the interaction of a few spatial characteristics of districts with a linear time trend to take into account their heterogeneous impacts over time. We construct a battery of district-specific effects to control for the possibility that some districts would react differently over time. It should be reminded here, that we are dealing with a timespan of about three decades, and we, therefore, expect some unobservable characteristics at the district level to change over time. Thus, by including the interactions of district dummies and a linear time trend, we allow the estimates to take into account widening differences across regions and districts during the long-time horizon of this study. For instance, we expect that the colonial authorities in the early 1940s (as compared to the early 1910s) to have extended their capacity to broadcast power and to have become more effective in opposing crime.In addition, it could be that a spike in property crimes in district i , may have urged the colonial authorities to invest more in those crime-stricken places and, as a result, in the following years the capacity of police in inhibiting future crime would have been increased. In either case, not accounting for such systematic tendencies in the data might have yielded inconsistent estimates.

We first establish that rainfall shocks significantly affect crime rates (reduced form specifications) and then proceed by focusing on identifying the causal channel linking poverty and crime (first-stage and IV-2SLS results).

The impact of rainfall shocks on crime (reduced form)

Notes: *Significant at 10 percent, **5 percent, ***1 percent. Sample period: 1910–1939. OLS-FE. The dependent variables are the logarithm of each crime variable expressed as 100,000 of the population. Reported in parentheses are standard errors clustered at the district level. Controls include population density, road density, and police per capita. District-specific effects indicate the interaction of each District dummy × Trend.

In achieving our second goal and identifying the causal effect of poverty on crime, we present the OLS first-stage relationship results between rainfall and food production, and then perform a IV-2SLS estimation using rainfall as an instrumental variable for food production. While few scholars have put the use of rainfall variation as instrument for income under scrutiny ( Sarsons 2015 ), by pointing to alternative non-agricultural channels (e.g., urban wages or direct psychological effects) through which rainfall shocks may increase crime, a large body of literature argues that the use of this kind of instrumentation approach in rainfed agrarian settings is highly suitable ( Burke et al . 2015 ; Dell et al . 2014 ; Mehlum et al 2006 ; Miguel 2005 ; Miguel et al . 2004 ). In either case, we conduct several robustness checks to address potential violations of the exclusion restriction (Section 5.4 ).

The first part of this Section ( 5.1 ) presents the results on the impact of weather shocks on the various types of crime (reduced form specifications). Section 5.2 presents the results of the instrumental variable approach (first-stage and two-stage IV-2SLS). Section 5.3 presents a set of heterogeneous effects for different subsamples. Section 5.4 presents the results for a set of robustness checks and Section 5.5 refutes potential violations of the exclusion restriction.

5.1 The impact of weather shocks on crime (reduced form)

Magnitude of coefficients.

Magnitude of coefficients.

The impact of lagged and lead rainfall shocks on crime

Notes : *Significant at 10 percent, **5 percent, ***1 percent. Sample period: 1910–1939. OLS-FE. The dependent variables are the logarithm of each crime variable expressed as 100.000 of the population. Reported in parentheses are standard errors clustered at the district level. Controls include population density, road density, and police per capita. District-specific effects indicate the interaction of each District dummy × Trend.

Curvilinear impact of rainfall shocks on property crime

Notes : *Significant at 10%, ** 5%, ***1%. Sample period: 1910–1939. OLS-FE. Reported in parentheses are standard errors clustered at the district level. The dependent variable is the logarithm of the property crime variable expressed as 100.000 of the population. The estimated coefficients can be interpreted as percentage changes. District-specific effects indicate the interaction of each District dummy × Trend.

We also test for the symmetricity of the effect by including the “positive rainfall shock” and “negative rainfall shock” variables into the analysis. A standard deviation increase in rainfall increased property crimes by 17.7 percent and similarly, a standard deviation decrease in rainfall increased property crimes by 8.3 percent. This result is in line with previous findings by Papaioannou (2016) for Nigeria and Papaioannou and DeHaas (2017) for colonial British Africa. A possible explanation is that in years of excessive rainfall farmers would lose their entire harvest in a relatively shorter time, whereas in years of drought farmers could hope for late rains. In the former case, the certainty of a failed harvest more rapidly reduces the opportunity cost of crime. Another possible explanation is that in tropical regions with relatively abundant rainfall regimes, excessive precipitation causes flooding and acute surface run-offs which, in turn, hurt harvests considerably more.

5.2 Poverty and property crime: an instrumental variable approach

Rainfall shocks and food production (first stage)

Notes : *Significant at 10%, **5%, ***1%. Sample period: 1910–1939. OLS-FE. Reported in parentheses are standard errors clustered at the district level. The dependent variable is the standardized annual rice production (z-score). Controls include population density, road density and police per capita. District-specific effects indicate the interaction of each District dummy × Trend. The F-statistic of our preferred specification (column 3) is 18.3.

Baseline IV-2SLS results: poverty and crime

Notes : *Significant at 10%, **5%, ***1%. Sample period: 1910–1939. OLS-FE. Reported in parentheses are robust standard errors clustered at the district level. Controls include population density, road density and police per capita. District-specific effects indicate the interaction of each District dummy × Trend. The instrumental variable is rainfall deviation at year t . Vagrancy statistics were not available for the whole sample.

We next estimate the impact of loss of income on vagrancy arrests. Under the British colonial rule, begging was illegal and destitute people ended up in police reports. Even though vagrancy can hardly be characterized as crime, it could serve as a suitable proxy for dire poverty. We expect vagrancy to yield a similar robust correlation as property crime. Indeed, the results show that the relationship between food production and vagrancy is negative and highly significant, which suggests that depressed incomes were a major determinant of poverty. One standard deviation decrease in rice production increases the amount of arrested vagrants by 13.8 percent (regression 6). Table A6 reports the IV-2SLS results on violent crime. All the estimated coefficients are nearly zero.

5.3 Heterogeneous effects

Heterogeneous effects: compliers

Column 4 limits the sample to districts that showed a lower percentage of padi-rice cultivation than the median district, and Column 5 limits the sample to districts that showed a higher percentage of padi-rice than the median. Both coefficients are statistically different from zero, and they are not statistically distinguishable from each other (p-value = 0.183). Despite the slightly higher coefficient of districts with a lower percentage of padi-rice production than the median district (coeff. = −0.181, s.e. = 0.029), the results suggest that the vast majority of households suffer a loss in income when food production is low, regardless of the total volume of per capita rice produced in that particular district. 9 This finding is in line with Iyer and Topalova (2014) , who find that rainfall shocks in India decrease average consumption across the full range of the income distribution, impacting all segments and production classes of society.

Columns 6 and 7 divide the sample by whether the district was exporting considerable volumes of cash crops (mainly rubber, coconut, tea, and cocoa) than the median district. The correlation between food production and property crime is statistically significant in both samples, and it is substantially larger in the less commercial agricultural sample (coeff. = −0.312, s.e. = 0.096) than in the more commercialized sample (coeff. = −0.157, s.e. = 0.088). Moving from the more commercialized districts to the less commercialized ones, the relationship becomes more pronounced and property crime increases by almost half. We argue that the widening gap seen in the estimated coefficients is due to the lack of economic diversification. It seems likely that agricultural commercialization and crop diversification acted as an insurance mechanism to local households by generating an alternative source of income. This result is in line with that of Papaioannou and DeHaas (2017) for colonial British Africa and Burgess and Donaldson (2010) for colonial India; both effectively arguing that crop diversification and openness to trade mitigated the adverse effects of weather shocks.

Next, we hypothesize that districts possessing less infrastructural density experienced higher transportation barriers and costs and were more difficulty reached by potential food relief programs. Columns 8 and 9 divide the sample by whether the district had less barriers to market access than the median district. We proxy market access with infrastructural density. We expect districts with relatively more dense road network to be less susceptible to shocks, since high road density facilitates inter-regional and international trade. The correlation between food production and property crime is statistically significant in both samples but is substantially larger in the districts with higher infrastructural density. The two coefficients are statistically distinguishable from each other (p-value = 0.038). The greater responsiveness of property crimes to food shocks in more isolated districts is a reflection of the scarcity of alternative income opportunities from trade. Columns 10 and 11 divide the sample by whether a district had a higher level of public expenditure than the median district. The reasonable assumption is that districts with a relatively higher budget could intervene and invest in years of agricultural loss; hence, the poverty-crime effect would be attenuated. Nevertheless, we find this not to be the case. The difference between the two samples is insignificant (p-value = 0.311).

Lastly, Columns 12 and 13 tackle potential concerns related to the likelihood of some districts receiving more rainfall shocks than the median district. To achieve that, we have transformed our rainfall data following the coefficient of variation (CV) formula, also known as relative standard deviation. This is a standardized measure of rainfall dispersion which is expressed as a percentage. It is defined as the ratio of the standard deviation σ i to the mean μ of each district i . The values for CV rainfall range from 0.0919 to 0.2574. The sample is split by whether the district is more likely to face a rainfall shock than the median district. Our results show that while both are statistically different from zero, they are not statistically distinguishable from each other (p-value = 0.167).

5.4 Robustness checks

We now check the robustness of the preferred IV-2SLS estimates as reported in table 6 . First, Table A2 shows that replacing rainfall deviation obtained from meteorological stations with an alternative measure of rainfall, based on the Matsuura and Wilmott (2009) world rainfall database (0.5 × 0.5 grid), gives nearly identical results. Second, account is taken of widening differences across countries as well as heterogeneity during the 30-year horizon of this study and Table A3 , presents the IV-2SLS results of standard errors clustered at the country level, year level as well as two-way clustered at both the country and year level.

Third, we examine the sensitivity of the main estimates to the use of alternative instrumental specifications. Column 1 of Table A4 reports estimates using rainfall in the lagged year t − 1 and two years earlier t − 2 as instrumental variables. Similarly, as an identification check, we estimate a “false experiment” specification in which leads of rainfall deviation in year t + 1 and t + 2 are included as instrumental variables, and find that the coefficient estimate is indeed near zero (column 2). As an additional falsification test, we re-estimate our main IV-2SLS results by using temperature shocks as an instrumental variable (column 3). These checks provide additional validation to our empirical strategy.

Table A5 reports the IV-2SLS estimates for each individual category of crime, and table A6 for violent crimes. In results not reported, we obtain statistically identical results, if we use standardized beta coefficients ( z -scores) for transforming the main dependent variables. Thus, the IV-2SLS results are not specific to the choice of functional form. Lastly, to ensure that our results are not driven by spatial spillovers, since rainfall patterns could be spatially correlated, we control for spatial and serial correlation using methods suggested by Hoechle (2007) . The results remain largely unchanged.

5.5 Potential violations of the exclusion restriction

While it is intuitively plausible that the rainfall instruments are exogenous, we have to evaluate whether they satisfy the exclusion restriction—i.e., weather shocks should affect property crime only through falling agricultural income. We acknowledge the possibility that economic channels (either direct or indirect ones) other than annual rice production may affect crime in the aftermath of adverse rainfall shocks. One possible violation of the exclusion restriction may occur in the case when rainfall shocks directly impact on crime; in an extreme rainfall scenario, flooded roads for instance, may reduce criminals’ likelihood of stealing due to transportation difficulties or may hamper police capacity to report crimes. If such channels are present, IV estimates could misattribute the direct effects of rainfall to poverty. Note though that such alternative explanations do not pose a serious threat to the estimation, since excessive rainfall is associated with more (not less) crime in the reduced form regression (coeff. = +0.172 in table 4 column 7). Thus to the extent that a bias exists, our estimates would be lower bounds of the true impact of poverty on property crime.

Another possible concern is that the colonial states may have intervened by investing more in places with extreme poverty. If extreme poverty was declining, and property crimes were to a large extent driven by poverty, one might expect the impact of food production on crime to decrease over time. To test for such a concern, we include interaction terms between food production and a time trend, which we instrument with interactions between rainfall shocks and a time trend. However, we do not find support for the claim that the effect of poverty on property crime attenuated during the study period (results not reported).

Another possible channel is psychological, as rainfall may affect people's moods by making them more or less inclined to commit a crime. A clear candidate here is high temperature shocks which have been found to cause elevated aggression ( Anderson 2001 ) and violent crimes ( Ranson 2014 ). We find that temperature shocks are not positively or negatively associated with rice yields ( Table A7 , column 1) nor with property crimes (column 2). However, consistent with the relevant literature ( Anderson et al . 2000 ; Blakeslee and Fishman 2014 ; Iyer and Topalova 2014 ), we find that temperature shocks are associated with 4.3 percent more violent crimes (column 3).

This article suggests that income shocks, and by extension poverty, are a key underlying cause of property crime in British colonial Asia. We estimate the causal effect of reduced rice production on crime using rainfall variation as an instrumental variable for rice production, and find that the effect of abrupt income shocks on property crime is considerably large. A one standard deviation decrease in annual rice production increases property crime by 21.2 percent. This effect is considerably higher in magnitude to accumulated evidence from other studies reviewed by Hsiang et al . (2013) . One explanation for such a large effect may arise from the fact that we are dealing with a highly agrarian/non-industrial part of the world, where the vast majority of the total income is derived from agricultural practises such as livestock herding and (food and cash crop) farming, and where urban labour was limited. Another possible explanation has to do with the institutional context in which this study is embedded and the limited attention the colonial governments paid to local food production. Lastly, another explanation that has been put forward has to do with the substantially low living standards prevailing among rural communities at the time, where nutritional intakes for the mass of the population did not improve, and as a result mortality rates were high.

With the use of rainfall as an instrumental variable for padi-rice production, this article also addresses a methodological challenge; i.e., endogeneity and reverse causality, since the effect between poverty and crime is larger than simple OLS estimates would suggest (8.5 percent), highlighting the importance of using instrumental variable methods. Additionally, we show that a one standard deviation decrease in rice production increases begging and vagrancy by 14.1 percent. This finding suggests that rice production was a key determinant of poverty during this period.

Although we find no effect between income shocks and violent crime, our results confirm a direct extra-economic channel between high temperature and violent behaviour. A one standard deviation increase in temperature is associated with 4.3 percent increase in violent crime. This serves as an important validation of the empirical strategy and highlights the importance of looking beyond aggregate crime measures in this climate-crime literature, since they may obscure heterogeneous patterns across crime categories.

The Asian renaissance of the second half of the twentieth century has been primarily associated with substantial gains in agricultural output and productivity. However, that was not always the case as there were fears in the 1950s and the early 1960s that the tropical Asian rice-based economy would be experiencing massive famine and starvation because the region had already reached its cultivation frontier ( Otsuka and Larson 2013 ). Prior to the Green Revolution, food shortages and famines were considered a typical Asian phenomenon ( Gráda 2009 ). Nutritional intakes for the mass of the population did not improve, and mortality rates were considerably high in that part of the world ( Booth 2012 ). The results contained herein add supporting evidence to this idea, since it is found that falling agricultural incomes, and by extension rural poverty, primarily affected the categories of crime that alleviated economic distress. Beyond improving our understanding on local conditions of early twentieth century South and South-East Asian states, the implication of this study may be important from a public policy perspective in contemporary developing countries. Taken together, the results of this research support the idea of improved high-yield weather-resistant grains and investments in irrigation and drainage technology. The promise of a stable annual harvest would potentially eliminate much of the adverse crime-induced poverty traps, as well as the subsequent unfolding vicious cycle of crime and further disruptions to human welfare ( Bourguignon 2000 ). Unfortunately, climate change continues and it is going to bring about more erratic weather events, hitting the poorest smallholder farmers the most. A key policy priority should therefore be to aim at a long-term protection of the most vulnerable and precarious farmers of the global south.

Supplementary material are available at European Review of Economic History online .

Both types of water management systems are essential in tropical agriculture. After a flood, especially in areas that are flat and low-lying, water stagnates upon the soil rotting and eventually destroying the roots of the plants. Many scholars have pointed out that in this context “a system of controlled drainage is more important than irrigation, while a combination of both is the ideal” ( Lim 1976 , p. 43). Artificial drainage is, thus, necessary to circumvent surface run-offs, waterlogging, and other phytopathological diseases that impede root growth.

Twenty-seven states and districts were included in the analysis. The states include, the three Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Malacca; the four Malay states of Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, and Pahang which form the Federated Malay States (F.M.S.); Johore, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Trengganu which collectively are known as the Unfederated Malay States (U.M.S.); North Borneo with its five administrative districts; the protectorate of Brunei; and Ceylon with its nine administrative districts. Sarawak had to be dropped due to lack of consistent data.

India, for example, was not included since rice was largely competing with wheat as the main staple crop and almost half of its land lies outside the tropics.

For instance, in British Malaya around two-thirds of total rice availability was supplied by imports, mainly from Thailand and Burma.

See Booth (2012) for a detailed discussion on fiscal spending variation across colonial systems in South East Asia.

We are aware of potential inadequacies and biases in the colonial sources (e.g., the possibility that the district officials would consistently under-report issues to look great to their superiors). In Section 2.2 , we were able to match several unfavourable weather conditions with widespread distress and related property crime, while we were able to identify a null effect on violent crimes. If this bias of under-reporting exists in the case of British Asia, and negative income shocks cause households to under-report crime, our estimates would underestimate the true causal impact of poverty on crime. Moreover, the functional use of the archival sources enabled us to obtain a more thorough understanding of the important mechanisms driving the relationship of interest, and to add a new layer of robustness by backing up the regression results.

For comparison purposes, Table A8 in the Appendix presents the results for violent crime following an identical structure.

In addition, there can be classical measurement error, which would lead to attenuation bias.

In results not reported, we find that vagrancy rates exhibit a similar outcome for both high and low percentage of per capita padi-rice cultivation. The effect was statistically significant in both subsamples, but it was not statistically distinguishable from each other (p-value = 0.344).

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Ceylon Administration Report: Department code: CO 57, Series number: 176–258.

Ceylon Blue Book: Department code: CO 59, Series number: 120–152.

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383 Poverty Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

  • 📑 Aspects to Cover in a Poverty Essay

Students who learn economics, politics, and social sciences are often required to write a poverty essay as part of their course. While everyone understands the importance of this topic, it can be hard to decide what to write about. Read this post to find out the aspects that you should cover in your essay on poverty.

🏆 Best Poverty Topics & Free Essay Examples

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Topics related to poverty and inequality might seem too broad. There are so many facts, factors, and aspects you should take into consideration. However, we all know that narrowing down a topic is one of the crucial steps when working on an outline and thesis statement. You should be specific enough to select the right arguments for your argumentative essay or dissertation. Below, you will find some aspects to include in your poverty essay.

Poverty Statistics

First of all, it would be beneficial to include some background information on the issue. Statistics on poverty in your country or state can help you to paint a picture of the problem. Look for official reports on poverty and socioeconomic welfare, which can be found on government websites. While you are writing this section, consider the following:

  • What is the overall level of poverty in your country or state?
  • Has the prevalence of poverty changed over time? If yes, how and why?
  • Are there any groups or communities where poverty is more prevalent than in the general population? What are they?

Causes of Poverty

If you look at poverty essay titles, the causes of poverty are a popular theme among students. While some people may think that poverty occurs because people are lazy and don’t want to work hard, the problem is much more important than that. Research books and scholarly journal articles on the subject with these questions in mind:

  • Why do some groups of people experience poverty more often than others?
  • What are the historical causes of poverty in your country?
  • How is poverty related to other social issues, such as discrimination, immigration, and crime?
  • How do businesses promote or reduce poverty in the community?

Consequences of Poverty

Many poverty essay examples also consider the consequences of poverty for individuals and communities. This theme is particularly important if you study social sciences or politics. Here are some questions that may give you ideas for this section:

  • How is the psychological well-being of individuals affected by poverty?
  • How is poverty connected to crime and substance abuse?
  • How does poverty affect individuals’ access to high-quality medical care and education?
  • What is the relationship between poverty and world hunger?

Government Policies

Governments of most countries have policies in place to reduce poverty and help those in need. In your essay, you may address the policies used in your state or country or compare several different governments in terms of their approaches to poverty. Here is what you should think about:

  • What are some examples of legislation aimed at reducing poverty?
  • Do laws on minimum wage help to prevent and decrease poverty? Why or why not?
  • How do governments help people who are poor to achieve higher levels of social welfare?
  • Should governments provide financial assistance to those in need? Why or why not?

Solutions to Poverty

Solutions to poverty are among the most popular poverty essay topics, and you will surely find many sample papers and articles on this subject. This is because poverty is a global issue that must be solved to facilitate social development. Considering these questions in your poverty essay conclusion or main body will help you in getting an A:

  • What programs or policies proved to be effective in reducing poverty locally?
  • Is there a global solution to poverty that would be equally effective in all countries?
  • How can society facilitate the reduction of poverty?
  • What solutions would you recommend to decrease and prevent poverty?

Covering a few of these aspects in your essay will help you demonstrate the in-depth understanding and analysis required to earn a high mark. Before you start writing, have a look around our website for more essay titles, tips, and interesting topics!

  • UN Summit in New York: Ending Global Poverty He challenges the international community to enact laws that categorizes the misuse of power ‘which leads to poverty’ as a crime against humanity. The persistence of poverty can be attributed to poor governance and ignorance.
  • Poverty and the Environment The human population affects the environment negatively due to poverty resulting to environmental degradation and a cycle of poverty. Poverty and the environment are interlinked as poverty leads to degradation of the environment.
  • Concepts of Prenatal Drug Exposure vs Poverty on Infants In conclusion parents are of great influence to the development of their children character. Drugs use and poverty are all parents fault, and has nothing to do with the child but they are a major […]
  • Aspects of Global Poverty There are arguments that have been put forth in regard to the causes of poverty in various nations with some people saying that the governments in various nations are there to be blamed for their […]
  • Peter Singer on Resolving the World Poverty Everyone in this world has different perception about luxury for example many people consider Television as the basic need of life in order to get information and current situation of the world where as some […]
  • Poverty and Wealth in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara This theme contributes to the meaning of “The Lesson” because the narrator illustrates the differences that exist amid the prosperous and poor kids in the fictitious story.
  • Literature Study on the Modern Poverty Concerns Although the author does not expound on the various factor that enhance the growth and development of poverty, it is vivid that the world population in the modern society is facing a common economic threat.
  • Poverty Concerns in Today’s Society In the contemporary world, the definition of poverty is often made international by bodies such as the World Bank and the United Nations bodies with a hypothetical line being described for the various regions of […]
  • Poverty and Its Impact on Global Health: Research Methodologies Little progress has been shown to exist if one is to compare the late nineties and into the twenty first century but a lot still needs to be done to avert this catastrophe.
  • Poverty in Urban Areas The main reason for escalation of the problem of poverty is urban areas is because the intricate problems of urban poverty are considered too small to attract big policies.
  • Why Poverty Rates are Higher among Single Black Mothers Lack of assets, loan facilities and poor savings have played a role in contributing to the growth of poverty among single black women.
  • The Problem of Immigrants Poverty in the US Alternative Hypothesis The level of poverty is significantly higher among immigrants than in general population, or Immigrant’s poverty is the root cause of social factors within their families and in society as well.
  • Poverty in Brazil The primary aim of the exploration was to relate and construe the experimental findings arising from the application of the FGT poverty standards reformulation to Brazilian domestic examination data.
  • What Causes Poverty in the World One of the major factors that have contributed to poverty in given areas of the world is overpopulation. Environmental degradation in many parts of the world has led to the increase of poverty in the […]
  • Poverty in the Bronx: Negative Effects of Poverty South Bronx is strictly the southwestern part of the borough of Bronx and Bronx is the only borough in New York city in the mainland.
  • Effects of Poverty on Immigrant Children As research studies show, although there is a group of immigrants who belong to higher social classes, mostly because of their formal education levels, most of immigrants belong to the low socioeconomic class, as most […]
  • Immigrant Status and Poverty: How Are They Linked? It has been shown that native status of the immigrant family does affect the amount of income earned by a family by Chapman and Berstein.
  • Social Welfare Policy That Facilitates Reduction of Poverty and Inequality in the US In spite of the scale of the increase in the inequality, the political class in the US rarely discusses this subject in the public.
  • Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle against World Poverty: Advantages of Microcredit The main features of the Grameen project are the availability to the poor people who have no credit history and are not able to borrow a loan from a bank because of the lack of […]
  • Poverty in Russia during the Late Nineteenth Century Most importantly, Pytor Pertovich Semyonova role was instrumental in the life of the peasants living before the revolution since he championed the passing of rules that were intended to guarantee the Russian peasants of their […]
  • Poverty and its Effects on Childhood Education The foremost strength of Guo’s study is that in it, author succeeded with substantiating the full soundness of an idea that children’s exposure to poverty cannot possibly be thought of as only the factor that […]
  • What is the Relationship between Race, Poverty and Prison? The inherent problem with this is that it becomes a “self fulfilling prophecy” in that a higher predilection to suspect minorities for crimes does indeed result in minorities being arrested for crimes but this leaves […]
  • The Singer Solution to World Poverty: Arguments Against The article compares the lives of people in the developed world represented by America and that of developing world represented by Brazil; It is about a school teacher who sells a young boy for adoption […]
  • Poverty in America Rural and Urban Difference (Education) The understanding of the needs of the poverty American rural and urban schools is the first step on the way to reforming the system of elementary and secondary education.
  • Poverty and Inequality in Jacksonian America One of the reactions of the leaders and most especially the presidents under this period was to impose a policy of non-intervention by the federal government.
  • The Singer Solution to World Poverty In his work, “The Singer solution to the world poverty” he tried to sell his idea of how the world poverty could be eradicated through sacrifice.
  • On (Not) Getting by in America: Economic Order and Poverty in the U.S. In fact, according to her, these conditions are unlivable and can be referred to as another form of servant class. To this extent, it is possible to concur with Ehrenreich that these conditions are unlivable […]
  • Poverty among Women and Aboriginals The following are the factors that contribute to the poverty of women: First is the gender related roles; this is whereby women are only restricted to household roles.
  • The Problems of Poverty in the Modern World It is interesting to note that practically, all the problems that are linked to poverty, are either directly or indirectly caused by lack of or inadequacy of money, thus, it can confidently be said that […]
  • Capitalism and Poverty While the president’s statement after the release of the report agreed that 2009 was tough especially to the working class people, two of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, live […]
  • Poverty as a Peculiarity of the Economical Development I think that poverty is not only financial, economic problem, therefore, the economic model of “rich” developed countries cannot be appropriate for all societies in the worlds due to the different aspect such as mentality, […]
  • The End of Poverty Philippe Diaz’s documentary, The End of Poverty, is a piece that attempts to dissect the causes of the huge economic inequalities that exist between countries in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
  • Poverty in Africa These pictures have been published online to show the world the gravity of the poverty situation in the African continent. The pictures represent the suffering of majority of the African people as a result of […]
  • Poverty as Capability Deprivation In this paper, the importance of social justice manifests through the understanding of social deprivation, as opposed to the understanding of income levels in the achievement of social justice.
  • Poverty in Saudi Arabia It is expected that through the various facts and arguments presented in this paper.the reason behind the high poverty rate within Saudi Arabia despite its oil wealth as compared to its neighbors will become clear […]
  • The Causes of Poverty Concentration in the Modern World Even though the average income of people living in developed countries is above the poverty line, the nations still experience concentrations of poverty especially when it comes to income inequality.
  • The Myth of the Culture of Poverty Unfortunately, rather all of the stereotypes regarding poor people are widespread in many societies and this has served to further increase the problem of generational poverty. Poor people are regarded to be in the state […]
  • War on Poverty in US The term war on poverty officially came into being in 1964 and referred to concerted government efforts to eradicate assiduous poverty in the United States of America.
  • Consumerism: Affecting Families Living in Poverty in the United States Hence, leading to the arising of consumerism protection acts and policies designed to protect consumers from dishonest sellers and producers, which indicates the high degree of consumer’s ignorance, and hence failure to make decisions of […]
  • Freedom From Poverty as a Human Right and the Un Declaration of Human Rights This reveals the nature of the interrelatedness of the whole boy of human rights and the need to address human rights in that context.
  • Environmental Degradation and Poverty It is however important to understand the causes of the environmental degradation and the ways to reduce them, which will promote the improvement of the environmental quality.
  • War on Poverty: Poverty Problem in US Apart from the two initiatives discussed above, another important initiative that can be used in the war against poverty is to engage the poor in programs of fighting poverty.
  • Sweatshops and Third World Poverty When discussing about the role of multinationals in developing countries and the way they treat the economies, the writers are of the opinion that to avoid negative outcomes and promote the spirit of international corporation, […]
  • Effect of Poverty on Children Cognitive and Learning Ability The majority of the conducted researches have reveals a positive relationship between the achievement and SES in all ages of children. Poverty and low socioeconomic status are closely related to cognitive development of children.
  • The Mothers Who Are Not Single: Striving to Avoid Poverty in Single-Parent Families In the present-day world, single-parent families are under a considerable threat due to the lack of support and the feeling of uncertainty that arises once one of the spouses leaves, whether it is due to […]
  • Poverty in the United States Inadequate fundamental learning, a wide gap between the incomes of the o-level learners and the professionals, among others, are some of the cited causes of the poverty, but lack of employment is the root cause.
  • Reducing Poverty: Unilever and Oxfam From the case, it is clear that most MNC’s conduct their businesses in Least Developed Countries with no regard to the communities and environmental concerns of their areas of operations.
  • Impacts of global poverty resistance Though global economy has raised the world productivity and living standards of the humans due to increased income, it has led to greater inequality within countries as evidenced among the less developed economies in Africa […]
  • Microcredit: A Tool for Poverty Alleviation In recognition of the role that microfinance’s can play in the eradication of poverty and hence the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, The UN duped 2005 as the “year of microcredit”.
  • Third World Countries and the Barriers Stopping them to Escape Poverty The phrase Third World was initially used in the Cold War period to represent those countries that were neither on the West NATO nations referred to as the first world countries, nor on the East-Communist […]
  • Poverty in India and China India’s slow rate of poverty reduction compared to China is due to the differences in their approach to the economy. Improving the living conditions and general well being of the people is not only the […]
  • We Can Stop Poverty in Ghana Today One of the main disadvantages of the document is that the problem of poverty is not considered separately, but only as a part of other economic and social problems.
  • MDG Poverty Goals May be Achieved, but Child Mortality is not Improving The progress in achieving the first goal- to cut the number of people living in poverty by half- is evidenced by the high growth rates in China and India.
  • Social Issues; Crime and Poverty in Camden This has threatened the social security and peaceful coexistence of the people in the community. The larger the differences between the poor and the rich, the high are the chances of crime.
  • Susceptibility of women and Aboriginal people to poverty in Canada The prevalence of poverty among women and the Aboriginal people in Canada is an issue that requires urgent concern. This is a clear indication that eradication of poverty among the women and Aboriginal people in […]
  • Africa’s Poverty: The Influence of Western States These people are the ones who are in a better position to accelerate the development of Africa because they have the skills that are required to take African states to another level.
  • Social Business Scope in Alleviating Poverty Instead of charity work, social business aims at creating a mechanism in which the poor may be helped in a sustainable manner in that the social business makes profits just like conventional businesses, but the […]
  • Cause and Effect of Poverty For example, the disparities in income and wealth are considered as a sign of poverty since the state is related to issues of scarcity and allocation of resources and influence.
  • Poverty, Homelessness and Discrimination in Australia: The case of the Aboriginal He described the various aspects of the ownership of the means of production in the form of factories, machines and technology and emerging system of relations of production as an important determinants of classes.
  • Poverty Indicators in Developing Countries It was chosen by the World Bank for use in determining the poverty rates of poor countries. Poor countries are given first considerations in programming and implementing of the World Bank’s projects.
  • Analytical Research: Poverty in Thailand: Peculiarities and Perspectives Therefore, the government has enacted the various measures that have to improve the level of life and the image of the country.
  • The Problem of Poverty in Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” To see the situation from the perspective of its social significance, it is necessary to refer to Mills’ concept of sociological imagination and to the division of problems and issues into personal and social ones.
  • Civil War and Poverty: “The Bottom Billion” by Paul Collier He uses it when referring to the countries in the world, which make up the majority of the billion population of the world that unfortunately sits at the bottom of the world in terms of […]
  • Fight Poverty, Fight Illiteracy in Mississippi Initiative What is required is a commitment of the members to voice the concerns of the population to the US government to take actions that are aimed at ensuring that policies are put in place to […]
  • Correlation between Poverty and Obesity The present research seeks to achieve this through assessing the suggestion that today in the Western nations; the poor are now, for the first time in history, proportionately the most obese in the population groups.
  • Poverty and Gender Violence in Congo In the 1990s, the country witnessed a brutal civil conflict that was attributed to struggle for power and the interest of the foreign powers.
  • Is Poverty Of Poor Countries In Anyway Due To Wealth Of The Rich? There is the class of the rich elites and the class of the illiterate poor. This paper seeks to ascertain the argument that poverty of poor countries is due to the wealth of the rich.
  • Poverty Effects on Child Development and Schooling To help children from low-income families cope with poverty, interventions touching in the child’s development and educational outcomes are essential. Those programs campaign against the effects of poverty among children by providing basic nutritional, academic, […]
  • Rural Poverty in Indonesia As on one hand a larger number of people living in poverty are found in the rural areas, on the other hand, there exists “a division in which the pace of poverty reduction slows down […]
  • Property, Urban Poverty and Spatial marginalization Blomley observes that the working of the property market also makes a significant contribution to the urban poverty and consequently leads to spatial marginalization.
  • Social Dynamics: The Southern Poverty Law Centre To appreciate the need for equality and equity in any given society, the author will rely on the activities of an organization championing the same in compiling the report.
  • Poverty and Development into the 21st Century The choices of citizens in the west influence the consumer, as well as political behaviors of the consumers and voters in the developing regions.
  • Technological development in trade and its impacts on poverty On the same note, Cypher and Dietz claim that due to the expenses incurred in updating the technology to international standards, many business organizations have over the years been increasing the prices of their commodities […]
  • Poverty fighting in Saudi Arabia and in USA This report discuses some of the poverty prevention programs that have been adopted by Saudi Arabia and the United States in dealing with a global problem, threatening the lives of billions of people around the […]
  • African Poverty: To Aid, or Not to Aid In my opinion, granting educational aid to Africa is one of the best strategies required by African economies and eradicates poverty.
  • Does Parental Involvement and Poverty Affect Children’s Education and Their Overall Performance? The discussion will look at the various ways in which parents are involved in the academic performance of children and also whether poverty affects the involvement of parents in the academic performance of their children.
  • The Connection Between Poverty and Mental Health Problems The daily struggle to earn a daily bread takes a toll on an individual mental health and contributes to mental health problem.
  • Poverty Reduction in Africa, Central America and Asia In spite of the growing attention into the subject, poverty threatens majority of the communities and societies in the developing countries, particularly in Africa.
  • Global Poverty, Social Policy, and Education Defining, compare and contrasting modernization and dependency theories in relation to development and global poverty stating suggestions and causes of poverty globally Modernization theory as the name suggests, refers to modernizing or venturing to new […]
  • Global Poverty, Social Poverty and Education It is therefore quite important that new forms of education systems and development theories are introduced based on situations in developing countries.
  • How World Vision International Contributes to Poverty Reduction It is with the understanding of the root causes of poverty that World Vision International, it enacts programs that address the root causes so that they remain sustainable in the future even after the withdraw […]
  • Critical Analyses of the Climate of Fear Report from Southern Poverty Law Center Following the murder of Marcelo Lucero in the Suffolk County, the federal government initiated an investigation to establish the foundations of the practice and pattern of hate crimes against the undocumented immigrants.
  • Global poverty and education This paper will discuss the criticisms of the development theories, the historical context of development efforts, the role of international and non-governmental organizations in multilateral education and solutions offered by contemporary scholars to enhance the […]
  • Terrorism, poverty and financial instability Terrorist activities are perpetrated to compel the affected parties to comply with the demands of the terrorists. Some of the conflicts in the developing countries caused by the instability and poverty in the third world […]
  • Poverty Prevalence in the United States In order to meet the American Dream, the issue of poverty needs to be addressed in the US in order to pave the way for the realization of these goals. The higher is the gap […]
  • Films Comparison: “The Fields” by Roland Joffe and “Hotel Rwanda” by Terry George In the killing fields, three journalists Schanberg, Swain and Pran who witnessed the Cambodian genocide under the regimes of Pol Pot and Rouge recount the stories and events of the genocide.
  • Issues Underlying Global Poverty and Provision of Aid The argument Barrientos, Hulme and Hanlon holds is indeed strong, but it is very important to note that even with the massive achievements that aid programs have achieved in the setting up of individuals and […]
  • Development is No Longer the Solution to poverty Thus, the so-called development throughout the world has led to the creation of additional dependence of the poor nations to the rich nations.
  • Millennium Development Goals in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and Chad Relationship between poverty and education As has been observed above, low income countries that experience extreme famine tend to have the lowest rates of education.
  • Why is poverty important in contemporary security studies? In addition, the essay will explore the evolution of global security studies and evaluate the significance of poverty in the modern security studies.
  • How Poverty Affects Children Development? The fact is that as much as it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to ensure that children get their needs, the inability of the parents and guardians to provide these basic needs to […]
  • Social Entrepreneurship and Successful Entrepreneur To access it easily, one has to design the program in a way that compels the legions of imitators and replicators.
  • Hispanic Childhood Poverty in the United States Importance of the Problem The problem of childhood poverty in Hispanic groups in America is important to this study and to the social studies in America.
  • Wordsworth’s Vision of Childhood in His Poems “We Are Seven” and “Alice Fell or Poverty” Specifically, the joint publication he released in 1798 known as “Lyrical Ballads” are considered the most important publications in the rise of the Romantic literature in the UK and Europe.
  • Importance of Foreign Aid in Poverty Reducing Foreign aid is one of the methods used by wealthy nations to help reduce poverty in the least developed countries. Such countries as the US and Canada have provided financial aid to a number of […]
  • “Urban and Rural Estimates of Poverty: Recent Advances in Spatial Microsimulation in Australia” by Tanton, R, Harding, A, and McNamara, J The purpose of this article was to use “a spatial microsimulation model to calculate the rates of poverty for small areas in Australia”.
  • Does Poverty Lead to Terrorism? While there are conflicting arguments regarding the factors that influence terrorism, scholars agree on the need to evaluate evidence on the causes of terrorism and develop concrete strategies and approaches to tackle a vice that […]
  • Concept of Poverty The main difference between this definition and other definitions of poverty highlighted in this paper is the broad understanding of the concept.
  • Measuring Poverty and Social Exclusion in Australia The topic, measuring poverty and social exclusion was chosen to broaden the understanding of poverty and elements of social exclusion. Therefore, it is imperative for policymakers to recognise the role of diverse indicators that measure […]
  • The Rise of Extremist Groups, Disparity and Poverty Despite the negative consequences that terrorists have posed to the society, the fight against the vice has become more difficult with time, especially in the light of the increasing support for the violent actions against […]
  • Poverty and Domestic Violence It is based on this that in the next section, I have utilized my educational experience in order to create a method to address the issue of domestic violence from the perspective of a social […]
  • How do Migration and Urbanization Bring About Urban Poverty in Developing Countries? When there is a high rate of rural to urban migration, there is pressure on the limited resources in the urban centers.
  • Energy and Poverty Solutions – World Bank Ultimately, bank team confirms eligibility of all aspects of the project and their consistency with World Bank requirements and at the same time the potential of intended government to efficiently implement the projects.
  • Energy and Poverty Solutions – Non-traditional Cookstoves The assessment paper which is based on a survey of women in rural Bangladesh explores the most valued attribute of a non-traditional stove, the significance of downward sloping curve, factors that influence household decisions to […]
  • Sociological Indicators of Energy Poverty Access to energy has been viewed as one of the ways of uplifting the living standards of people. The lack of enough energy supplies is perceived to be a major contributor to poverty in this […]
  • Millennium Development Goals – Energy and Poverty Solutions It is in the family of access to assert. It is in the family of inequity.
  • Tourism Contribution to Poverty Reduction Managers usually make targeting errors such as poor delivery of tourism benefits to the poor and accruing tourism benefit to the rich in the society.
  • Causes of Poverty Traps in an Economy, its Results and Ways of Avoiding them Unemployment in an economy results to low incomes to the workers since their services are readily available in the market which in turn leads to reduction in the disposable income of the workers.
  • What Should You Do? Poverty Issue The only way to stop that would be to sacrifice his car, to stop the train by pushing it on the track but he does not.
  • “Facing Poverty With a Rich Girl’s Habits” by Suki Kim Finally, revealing the problems of adapting to a new social status, the story turns remarkably complex, which also lends it a certain charm.
  • Business and Pollution Inequality in Poor States Pollution in the third world countries leads to the degradation of the environment reducing the quality of life for the people.
  • The Economic Effect of Issuing Food Stamps to Those in Poverty This method would be the most suitable because of the large number of participants to be involved in collection of data. The interviewer will have to be highly responsive to individual differences of participants and […]
  • Globalization and the Issue of Poverty: Making the World a Better Place The aforementioned definitions of globalization and poverty can help define the potential changes that the globalization will have on the rates of the former in the nearest future.
  • Challenges of Social Integration: Poverty The government of Romania uses two measures of poverty to estimate the level of poverty in the country: absolute and relative poverty measures.
  • The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform However, with the various leadership scandals that have been observed in the bank, experts now doubt whether the World Bank has the capacity to address the various development challenges that are facing the developing nations.
  • Poverty Research Proposal To justify this, the recent and most current statistics from the Census Bureau shows that the level and rate of poverty in USA is increasing, with minority ethnic groups being the most disadvantaged.
  • Global Poverty Studies and their Importance The most difficult thing in discussing and scientifically explaining the phenomenon of poverty is that there is no macroeconomic approach to it.
  • Human Capital and Poverty in Scottsdale According to Lang and LeFurgy, over 52% of the residents of this city have a degree or higher education attainments, because of the education policies and the attractiveness of the city to foreigners.
  • “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by Peter Singer The article “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by author Peter Singer attempts to provide a workable solution to the world poverty problem.
  • Catholic Dealing with Poverty and Homelessness The idea of “common good” will support many people in the world. The practice will support many people in the world.
  • How Racial Segregation Contributes to Minority’s Poverty? In the conclusion section, the paper argues that racial segregation though a contributor to concentrated poverty in minority communities, is a social issue that arguably cannot be legislated.
  • The Poverty Across the US Culture This paper argues that the prevalence of poverty in most parts of the US is a result of poor strategizing, the lack of education, mistakes in choosing courses, the disappearance of low-skill jobs and a […]
  • The Solution to World Poverty by Peter Singer Therefore, in the worst case scenario, the implementation of the plan proposed by Singer will lead to the financial instability for not only the beneficiaries, but also for the people donating for the wellbeing of […]
  • Suburbanisation of Poverty in the USA In particular, it is necessary to focus on the transformation of American economy and changing attitudes of people who previously wanted to settle in suburban areas.
  • Max Weber’s Thoughts on Poverty Weber has contributed to the exploration of the origins of poverty and the impact of religions on the attitude to it.
  • Poverty as the Deprivation of Capabilities Nussbaum supports Sen’s argument that efforts in poverty eradication should be focused on capability deprivation, which is the taking away of the abilities bestowed on someone, rather than raising the income of the poor.
  • Poverty Controversy in the USA The essay provides a consistent discussion of poverty in the USA as well as verifies the standards of socioeconomic life in America against those, which exist in the developing countries.
  • Detroit Poverty and “Focus Hope” Organization There is a great number of factors and issues that lead to a certain part of the population to live in poverty.”Focus Hope” is an organization that tries to alleviate the suffering of those in […]
  • Poverty: $2.00 a Day in America When conversations about the poor occur in the city of Washington, they usually discuss the struggles of the working poor, forgetting about the issues that the non-working poor face day by day.
  • Social Issues of Families in Poverty With the tightened budget, parents of the families living in poverty struggle to make ends meet, and in the course of their struggles, they experience many stresses and depressions.
  • Profit from Organizing Tours to Poverty Areas The tour operators are in the business of selling services that are beneficial to both the tourist and the people in the destination country.
  • The Rise of Poverty in the US The main issue that is portrayed in the article is the presence of the invisible poor and the homeless poor in the US.
  • Poverty in the Novel “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk All through, the author creatively captures the attention of the reader without watering down the content and flow of the storyline. The reality of poverty is undeniable in this book.
  • Global Conflict and Poverty Crisis The contemporary issue of global conflict and poverty crisis requires the attention of international communities and governments. The study of international conflicts and poverty crisis is important for individuals, communities, and nations across the world.
  • Global Poverty Reduction: Economic Policy Recommendation Relative poverty is the unforgivable level of poverty ranging between average and absolute poverty. In accordance with the capabilities approach, poverty and dispossession are as a result of lack of individual capacity and competencies.
  • Global Poverty and the Endeavors of Addressing It Despite the attempts of modern economists to reconsider the financial options for the poor, the latter will always exist unless the very structure of economy is replaced with an entirely new principle of distributive justice.
  • Poverty and Education: School Funding Reinforces Inequality The government supplied the highest amount of funds in New York City Schools, but the inadequacy made them to achieve the poorest results.
  • Poverty Effect on Children 1 million children, aged between 5 to 17 years old, were noted to be from low income families which, as explained by George Stokes, & Wilkinson, can result in a lack of access to a […]
  • African Poverty at the Millennium: Causes and Challenges The book “African Poverty at the Millennium: Causes, Complexities, and Challenges” explores the issue of poverty in Africa. In the second part of the book, the authors discuss the social, political, and economic causes of […]
  • Divorce Outcomes: Poverty and Instability Divorce is not the solution to challenges in marriage since it results in poverty, instability and unstable environment for children. Personal analysis shows that due to this situation, some children are usually left to the […]
  • The Relationship between Poverty and Education My research paper tends to provide investigation towards the amount of characteristics that alter the degree of registration into institutions of higher education of scholars from inferior social groups; to define the relative importance of […]
  • Poverty Reduction Among American Single Mothers The typical causes of the single-mothers’ unemployment and poverty are the lack of education to receive the well-paid job and the absence of the social support to provide the adequate care for children.
  • Poverty in “A Theology of Liberation” by Gutierrez The most critical aspect in which this state deviates from the former two is that a poor person perfectly understands the necessity to abide with God and, simultaneously, the debilitating effect of poverty.
  • Poverty and Social Welfare in the United States Nevertheless, unemployment is not the only source of poverty, and the New World was hardly the land of wealth and prosperity.
  • Poverty in Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London” The fact that the structure of society is discussed is especially interesting, and it is suggested that opinions of people that live in poverty are not acknowledged most of the time.
  • Children and Poverty in “Born into Brothels” Documentary The desire to cognize the meaning of life involves the quest for the internal integrity and constancy of the personality. The fact of belonging to a particular cultural group, in which there are standards and […]
  • Poverty and Challenges in Finding Solutions It is obvious, that an ideal solution to the issue of poverty is distribution of these funds between people in need and improvement of current situation.
  • American War on Poverty Throughout US History It was the beginning of the issue of poverty. However, there is an opinion that it was the question of policy and his way to increase the level of popularity.
  • Poverty Reasons in Ancient Times and Nowadays It is possible to suggest that there are some main reasons for poverty, which are the ineffective political system, discrimination, and mistakes of the rulers of different states.
  • Do Poverty Traps Exist? Assessing the Evidence They believe unless there is a proper policy in place that can change the fundamentals of the economy, simple investment with the assistance of foreign aid will not help the country to come out of […]
  • “Halving Global Poverty” by Besley and Burges Tim Besley and Robin Burges note in their paper “Halving Global Poverty” that, depending on the average real per capita income of a country, high inequality of income is positively correlated to the high degree […]
  • Poverty as a Cause of the Sudanese Civil War The connection between poverty and conflict has been analyzed in the West African region where “11 of the world’s 25 poorest countries are contained and is currently one of the most unstable regions of the […]
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  • Phenomena of Poverty Review
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  • The Philippines’ Unemployment, Inequality, Poverty
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  • The Cultural Construction of Poverty
  • Theories of Fertility. Economics Aspect and Poverty.
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  • Global Poverty Dimensions and Alleviating Approaches
  • Feminization of Poverty – A Grave Social Concern
  • Poverty As A General Problem
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  • The Underclass Poverty and Associated Social Problems
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  • Poverty as a Great Social Problem and Its Causes
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  • Poverty by Anarchism and Marxism Approaches
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  • Is Poverty From Developing Countries Imagined?
  • Social and Economic Policy Program: Globalization, Growth, and Poverty
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  • The End of Poverty Possibility
  • Urban Relationship Between Poverty and Crime
  • Poverty in the World
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  • Cultures and Prejudice: Poverty Factors
  • Poverty in United States. Facts and Causes
  • War and Poverty Connection in Developing Countries
  • Values and Ethics: Poverty in Canada
  • Poverty in America: A Paradox
  • The Poverty Rates in the USA
  • The Effects of Poverty Within Criminal Justice
  • Poverty, Government and Unequal Distribution of Wealth in Philippines
  • “The End of Poverty” by Phillipe Diaz
  • Poverty Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Countries: The Role of NGOs
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  • Connection of Poverty and Education
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  • The Caribbean Culture: Energy Security and Poverty Issues
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  • Poverty: Aspects of Needs Assessment
  • Poverty and Homelessness as a Global Social Problem
  • Global Poverty: Ways of Combating
  • Rural Development, Economic Inequality and Poverty
  • Anti-Poverty Programs From the Federal Government
  • Saving the Planet by Solving Poverty
  • Why Has Poverty Increased in Zimbabwe?
  • Should Private Donations Help Eliminate Child Poverty?
  • Why Was Poverty Re-discovered in Britain in the late 1950s and Early 1960?
  • Why Does Child Labour Persist With Declining Poverty?
  • Why Are Child Poverty Rates Higher in Britain Than in Germany?
  • What Are the Principles and Practices for Measuring Child Poverty in Rich Countries?
  • Why Did Poverty Drop for the Elderly?
  • What Is the Relationship Between Income Distribution and Poverty Reduction in the UK?
  • What Are the Pros and Cons of Poverty in Latin America?
  • Should Poverty Researchers Worry About Inequality?
  • What Helps Households With Children in Leaving Poverty?
  • What Is the Connection Between Poverty and Crime?
  • Why Have Some Indian States Done Better Than Others at Reducing Rural Poverty?
  • What Is the Relationship Between Lack of Education and Poverty?
  • Why Are Child Poverty Rates So Persistently High in Spain?
  • Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: What Are the Links?
  • What Are Academic Programs Available for Youth in Poverty?
  • What Are the Main Factors Contributing to the Rise in Poverty in Canada?
  • Single-mother Poverty: How Much Do Educational Differences in Single Motherhood Matter?
  • What Are the Causes and Effects of Poverty in the United?
  • Why Are Some Countries Poor?
  • What Is the Link Between Globalization and Poverty?
  • What Are the Factors That Influence Poverty Sociology?
  • What Causes Poverty Within the United States Economy?
  • What Is the Relationship Between Poverty and Obesity?
  • Why Were Poverty Rates So High in the 1980s?
  • With Exhaustible Resources, Can a Developing Country Escape From the Poverty Trap?
  • Why Does Poverty Persist in Rural Ethiopia?
  • Who Became Poor, Who Escaped Poverty, and Why?
  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

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IvyPanda . "383 Poverty Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." October 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/poverty-essay-examples/.

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Poverty and Crime Argumentative Essay by Top Papers

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Home / Essay Samples / Social Issues / Poverty in America / The Poverty Paradox: An Argument for Addressing Poverty in the USA

The Poverty Paradox: An Argument for Addressing Poverty in the USA

  • Category: Social Issues
  • Topic: Homelessness , Poverty in America , Racial Discrimination

Pages: 3 (1484 words)

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