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I'm no lawyer, but I doubt poverty has ever been an excuse for crime. Some wealthy people commit crimes, and crime exists in communist countries (where everyon

I'm no lawyer, but I doubt poverty has ever been an excuse for crime. Some wealthy people commit crimes, and crime exists in communist countries (where everyone gets "free housing and food"). You guys make it sound like criminals are victims, like we should feel sorry for them or something. Sometimes what I read on HN scares me and makes me sick.

pavel_lishin 9y ago
> I doubt poverty has ever been an excuse for crime. https://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09/08/man-allegedly-robs-bank-in-hopes-of-going-to-jail-getting-away/21468168/ https://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09/08/man-allegedly-ro... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/man-commits-crime-to-get-surgery_n_2783181.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/man-commits-crime-t... http://www.wsfa.com/story/17695143/2012/04/24/homeless-man-intentionally-commits-crime-to-go-back-to-prison http://www.wsfa.com/story/17695143/2012/04/24/homeless-man-i...
- grondilu 9y ago
  I did not make myself clear. OP was saying we should give people free housing and food so that they don't commit crime. IMHO that's basically yielding to extortion. By the same logic we should not put criminals in jail, instead we should give them lots of money so that they don't commit crime anymore.
  - sanswork 9y ago
    I don't think you understand what OP was saying. They aren't suggesting we try to bribe criminals to stop them from committing crimes. He is suggesting we stop people from getting into a situation where crime is seen as the only way out. It's cheaper to pay for housing, food and medicine than housing, food, medicine and guards. And the former has the possibility of those people finding employment meaning we don't have to pay for them at all and actually benefit from their labor.
  - d4mi3n 9y ago
    I read it as OP stating that money spent on prisons would have less of an impact on crime than money spent on housing. That said, crime isn't a silver-bullet-solution kind of problem. It's a systemic problem with a lot of causes, so any sort of broad stroke claim about what will and will not reduce crime is unlikely to be accurate.
  - skewart 9y ago
    I completely agree that the idea that giving people housing and food would magically stop crime is utterly absurd. However, reducing the number of children growing up in highly stressful poverty situations may well lead to a reduction in crime over years and decades. It's absurd on the scale of bribing individual criminals, but it's not absurd on a societal scale to reduce the conditions where crime is likely to grow. Also, obviously, not all crime is the same. Plenty of crime could never be prevented by any kind of policy. But there also is a lot of minor crime that probably could.

pavel_lishin 9y ago

> I doubt poverty has ever been an excuse for crime. https://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09/08/man-allegedly-robs-bank-in-hopes-of-going-to-jail-getting-away/21468168/ https://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/09/08/man-allegedly-ro... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/man-commits-crime-to-get-surgery_n_2783181.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/man-commits-crime-t... http://www.wsfa.com/story/17695143/2012/04/24/homeless-man-intentionally-commits-crime-to-go-back-to-prison http://www.wsfa.com/story/17695143/2012/04/24/homeless-man-i...

grondilu 9y ago
I did not make myself clear. OP was saying we should give people free housing and food so that they don't commit crime. IMHO that's basically yielding to extortion. By the same logic we should not put criminals in jail, instead we should give them lots of money so that they don't commit crime anymore.
- sanswork 9y ago
  I don't think you understand what OP was saying. They aren't suggesting we try to bribe criminals to stop them from committing crimes. He is suggesting we stop people from getting into a situation where crime is seen as the only way out. It's cheaper to pay for housing, food and medicine than housing, food, medicine and guards. And the former has the possibility of those people finding employment meaning we don't have to pay for them at all and actually benefit from their labor.
- d4mi3n 9y ago
  I read it as OP stating that money spent on prisons would have less of an impact on crime than money spent on housing. That said, crime isn't a silver-bullet-solution kind of problem. It's a systemic problem with a lot of causes, so any sort of broad stroke claim about what will and will not reduce crime is unlikely to be accurate.
- skewart 9y ago
  I completely agree that the idea that giving people housing and food would magically stop crime is utterly absurd. However, reducing the number of children growing up in highly stressful poverty situations may well lead to a reduction in crime over years and decades. It's absurd on the scale of bribing individual criminals, but it's not absurd on a societal scale to reduce the conditions where crime is likely to grow. Also, obviously, not all crime is the same. Plenty of crime could never be prevented by any kind of policy. But there also is a lot of minor crime that probably could.