5.3: Economics- A Different Justice for Rich and Poor

Findings on social class differences in crime are less clear than they are for gender or age differences. Arrests statistics and much research indicate that poor people are much more likely than wealthier people to commit street crime. However, some scholars attribute the greater arrests of poor people to social class bias against them. Despite this possibility, most criminologists would probably agree that social class differences in criminal offending are “unmistakable”. Reflecting on this conclusion, one sociologist has even noted, with tongue only partly in cheek, that social scientists know they should not “stroll the streets at night in certain parts of town or even to park there” and that areas of cities that frighten them are “not upper-income neighborhoods” Thus social class does seem to be associated with street crime, with poor individuals doing more than their fair share. Explanations of this relationship center on the effects of poverty, which is said to produce anger, frustration, and economic need and to be associated with a need for respect.