Essay on Crime and Poverty: Examining the Link Between Geography and Incarceration

Introduction

Over the past years, crime has become an issue of significant concern which is making the people in the poor regions to find themselves into the jails. There is limited research which has been conducted to evaluate the causes and impacts of these regions becoming the source of inmates present in prisons. Thus it is vital to conduct this research since it focuses on how the particular geographic areas impacts the chances of people are going to jail. The research topic is essential due to the increase in the population of inmates who are from specific regions which are believed to have created an impact in life and get into crime. The questions which will guide this research are finding out the factors which make specific regions to have lots of people are going to jail, effects of prison life to the society and the inmates and the way to minimize the rate of people going to jail from particular regions. The research found out that most inmates in these prisons come from various areas due to drug abuse, alcohol, gun violence, sexual assault, and other crimes. The increase in the number of inmates in the jails has led to a reduction in the population of young adults in society. To mitigate the evils in these regions, the government, private organizations, and the community members are coming up with programs which help in the reduction of crimes in the society. The government is setting policies which govern against crimes in the society as it helps in reducing the community's crime rates.

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Literature Review

Poverty and the Unemployment rate

The prone areas which are primarily affected by crime are where the rate of unemployed individuals and poverty is high. The people who are at the lower case of the socioeconomic status tend to participate in crimes which lead them to the prisons. The unemployment rate among the individuals in particular regions of the society has led to people getting into crimes. Crime leads to imprisonment and crime which minimizes the prospects of a person are acquiring jobs in the nation. The individuals who are prone to crime tend to offend regularly when the rate of unemployment is high in the community. The unemployment and poverty levels motivate persons who get into crimes since they believe the offense will help them to overcome the challenges which they go through. The parents who are mostly exposed to the social and economic stress tend to have inadequate parenting methods such as the inconsistent and poor supervision of their children which lead them to be involved in the crimes. The poor parenting makes the children to be held in the juvenile prisons thus affecting the child psychologically (Gradin, 2012). Therefore, to minimize the crime in specific regions in the country, the government and other stakeholders should help in mitigating the unemployment rates that lead to poverty in the country.

Substance Abuse

The consumption of alcohol to some extent increases the risk of a person getting to criminal violence. Alcohol tends to affect the behavior of an individual through increasing their aggression, and they end up committing the alcohol-related crimes. The areas which have an increased rate of alcohol consumption tend to become associated with the violence which leads people to prison. The individuals who commit crime are related to the use of illicit drugs since the drugs affect their behavior. Drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana possess the pharmacological effects thus increasing the person propensity to be involved in crime. For example, people who had been engaged in crimes before tend to commit more violations once they are under the influence the drugs. The persons who use expensive drugs usually commit higher property crimes so that they can fund their addiction (Caetano, Schafer & Cunradi, 2017). Also, the competition which exist among the drug suppliers due to control of the market makes them get involved in violence among them.

Criminal Opportunity

The criminals tend to commit more crime whenever there are more opportunities for committing it. The propensity to criminal acts facilitated by the increased level of the alcohol consumption, the open drug markets, and the lax physical security. Also, the weak informal social security makes the neighborhood to be prone to crimes. A community which is willing to supervise the teenagers during the social activities and to confronts the juveniles who engage in crimes helps in minimizing crimes in the society thus reducing the number of persons who go to prison (Felson, 2017). The areas which have high populations tend to become concentrated thus rendering the area so prone to violence and crimes.

Implications of the Research

The prisoners who go to jail due to the increase in the crime rates tend to come from a specific region which is mostly affected by poverty and the unemployment rate. Poverty makes people engage in various crimes which lead them to the prisons. Due to these crimes, the population of people in the jails is continuing to increase leading to congestions in the prisons. Most of the prisons are located in the rural areas which excludes the inmates away from towns an urban areas. In the jails, policies and programs have been developed which lead to the minimization of the crimes. Counselling has helped many individuals to change their way of living and turn away from the violence and crimes (Caetano et al., 2017). In the literature review, there are many causes which lead to crimes in the society and to keep the affected regions away from evils, the government and private organizations have to set strategies on how to mitigate these causes.

Methods of Data Collection

The research questions were generated from the objectives which I wanted to achieve after conducting the research. The research questions will help in answering the how, when and who during the conduction of the study. Through the research question, an appropriate theoretical framework will be conducted hence allowing the researcher to link different ideas which impact going to prison. The method which will be used during data collection will be the use of interviews using the closed and open-ended questionnaires, observation and analyzing the previous articles which are related to the research. The data will be obtained from the sample of people in the affected regions and some of the inmates and juveniles. This will help in determining the take of the people towards going to prison and the causes which make them go to jail (Harrell & Bradley, 2009). The data collected will be analyzed to know the extent of the affected population and areas.

Results and Discussions

The research opts to find the principal causes which make people to get involved in the crime that leads them to prison. Most people get involved in selling illicit drugs, alcohol consumption which makes them become criminals. Poverty which is a significant issue in the affected areas has led to the growth of crimes in the various regions hence making people live in fear due to the high crime rates. The government can introduce multiple programs in the societies which will promote employment to the people thus minimizing the poverty levels. The results which will be obtained after conducting this research will help the government in improving security in the affected regions as they set policies which govern against breaking of the law (Caetano et al., 2017). Programs will be created to teach the people on the new skills which will help them to earn a living rather than being involved in crime.

Researcher Positionality

The research questions would help me in carrying out detailed research which will help in the acquisition of up-to-date and valid information. After conducting the study, the result will provide a clear guideline on how the geographic region makes the person go to prison. The result will help me to know the causes of crime in society and the areas which are most affected by criminal violence (Harrell & Bradley, 2009). Also, I will learn how to deal with people who are involved in the crime thus helping them to change their ways and get away from the criminal offense. After the finding, I will help in addressing some of the issues found to be alarming that would lead to crime among people in society. I will involve myself in advising the young individuals so that they cannot involve themselves in crime.

Conclusion

The paper focused on studying the geographic regions and the way they lead to people going to prison. The topic helps in determining the causes of crime in these regions and the measures to be taken to avoid crime in society. The researcher might encounter financial problems since they need to move from one place to another so that they can collect data. The funds required for printing and typing questionnaires may affect the budgeting of conducting the research. The time which is stipulated for the conduction of the study might be less hence making the researcher not to cover all the areas under their scope. Therefore, one can consider determining the effects which crime bring to society and how to improve security in the crime-prone regions.

References

Caetano, R., Schafer, J., & Cunradi, C. B. (2017). Alcohol-related intimate partner violence among white, black, and Hispanic couples in the United States. Domestic violence: The five big questions. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11496968

Felson, M. (2017). Linking criminal choices, routine activities, effortless control, and criminal outcomes. The reasoning criminal (pp. 119-128). Routledge. Retrieved from https://popcenter.asu.edu/library/reading/PDFs/ReasoningCriminal/08_felson.pdf

Gradin, C. (2012). Poverty among minorities in the United States: Explaining the racial poverty gap for Blacks and Latinos. Applied Economics, 44(29), 3793-3804. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036846.2011.581219

Harrell, M. C., & Bradley, M. A. (2009). Data collection methods. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Rand National Defense Research Inst Santa Monica Ca. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2009/RAND_TR718.pdf