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Crime driven by inequality? It's very plausibly driven by poverty, poor educational system and extreme social marginalisation (i.e. lack of good social capital)

Crime driven by inequality? It's very plausibly driven by poverty, poor educational system and extreme social marginalisation (i.e. lack of good social capital), but these are not the same thing as "inequality".

sprafa 8y ago
I don’t see a huge difference. Social marginalisation is indeed huge here in Britain.
tux1968 8y ago
I couldn't find a paper with a quick google, but i did hear in a recent podcast that it is exactly income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) rather than absolute poverty that is the biggest predictor in criminality. Here is a clip that mentions it; if I can find a paper to reference i'll edit this comment when I get home: https://podverse.fm/clips/BJE2hv7gZ https://podverse.fm/clips/BJE2hv7gZ Edit: The connection was made specifically with violent crimes. Here is an article about it that has links to some research papers: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/does-inequality-cause-crime/381748/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/does-in...
- ldng 8y ago
  Yes, please, I'd be interested by a reference
- WillPostForFood 8y ago
  Yet violent crime has been dramatically decreasing while inequality has been increasing over the last 25 years in the US?
  - tux1968 8y ago
    I don't have a good answer for that observation, I was just repeating what I had recently heard. It's not clear how localized the measured effect is, ie. how proximate the inequality must be. It's possible that since the top 1% is getting so much more disproportionately wealthy, it might in fact be making the rest of America more equal to each other. Maybe (wild guess on my part) there is less average difference between the poor in a neighborhood, and the middle class in the same area. The wealth inequality is hidden in statistics and is not so much in our faces.
barrkel 8y ago
I work in Farringdon and live in Enfield. I commute through Tottenham. I've been attacked in Tottenham twice in the past couple of years. This is a pattern through a lot of London. Central London has a lot of well-paid workers, but even then almost nobody can afford to live there, unless they're happy with tiny flats or sharing. So they commute to nicer homes outside the city center. And the slums - and Tottenham is essentially a slum - see these well-off people travel through their area, and try to take what they can, because they can't see a route out.
- amica17 8y ago
  No, I think they saw a weedy bloke on a moped and took their chance. And Tottenham a slum? You live on a soil cap!...With a girlfriend who was having sex with someone else for the best part of a year (another woman for those interested).
esotericn 8y ago
The issue is that in a place like London inequality rapidly leads to poverty because the income/wealth differentials are so high. On the ground, at the moment, housing is monopolised by those with decent careers or established wealth. From scratch? Someone a few years into a career in a well paid field may be able to afford a flat or house quite far out. A bog standard middle class worker may be able to afford to rent a small flat. Someone working in the supermarket full time will be sharing a flat or house; someone worse than that (e.g. children of the above, part-time or unemployed) will likely be more than one to a room unless they managed to acquire social housing when it was still available. Overcrowded housing leads to high stress levels, arguments, kids spending their time on the street, all sorts of nonsense.

sprafa 8y ago

I don’t see a huge difference. Social marginalisation is indeed huge here in Britain.

tux1968 8y ago

I couldn't find a paper with a quick google, but i did hear in a recent podcast that it is exactly income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient) rather than absolute poverty that is the biggest predictor in criminality. Here is a clip that mentions it; if I can find a paper to reference i'll edit this comment when I get home: https://podverse.fm/clips/BJE2hv7gZ https://podverse.fm/clips/BJE2hv7gZ Edit: The connection was made specifically with violent crimes. Here is an article about it that has links to some research papers: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/does-inequality-cause-crime/381748/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/does-in...

ldng 8y ago
Yes, please, I'd be interested by a reference
WillPostForFood 8y ago
Yet violent crime has been dramatically decreasing while inequality has been increasing over the last 25 years in the US?
- tux1968 8y ago
  I don't have a good answer for that observation, I was just repeating what I had recently heard. It's not clear how localized the measured effect is, ie. how proximate the inequality must be. It's possible that since the top 1% is getting so much more disproportionately wealthy, it might in fact be making the rest of America more equal to each other. Maybe (wild guess on my part) there is less average difference between the poor in a neighborhood, and the middle class in the same area. The wealth inequality is hidden in statistics and is not so much in our faces.

barrkel 8y ago

I work in Farringdon and live in Enfield. I commute through Tottenham. I've been attacked in Tottenham twice in the past couple of years. This is a pattern through a lot of London. Central London has a lot of well-paid workers, but even then almost nobody can afford to live there, unless they're happy with tiny flats or sharing. So they commute to nicer homes outside the city center. And the slums - and Tottenham is essentially a slum - see these well-off people travel through their area, and try to take what they can, because they can't see a route out.

amica17 8y ago
No, I think they saw a weedy bloke on a moped and took their chance. And Tottenham a slum? You live on a soil cap!...With a girlfriend who was having sex with someone else for the best part of a year (another woman for those interested).

esotericn 8y ago

The issue is that in a place like London inequality rapidly leads to poverty because the income/wealth differentials are so high. On the ground, at the moment, housing is monopolised by those with decent careers or established wealth. From scratch? Someone a few years into a career in a well paid field may be able to afford a flat or house quite far out. A bog standard middle class worker may be able to afford to rent a small flat. Someone working in the supermarket full time will be sharing a flat or house; someone worse than that (e.g. children of the above, part-time or unemployed) will likely be more than one to a room unless they managed to acquire social housing when it was still available. Overcrowded housing leads to high stress levels, arguments, kids spending their time on the street, all sorts of nonsense.