Debunking common misconceptions: Poverty alone does not drive crime - Criminologist
SHAH ALAM - The relationship between poverty and crime which has been a topic of extensive discussion is often misconceived.
Some may argue that poverty was a driving force behind criminal behaviour, especially in cases of theft and property crimes.
However, the connection was not as straightforward as it might seem.
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) criminologist and psychologist Associate Professor Dr Geshina Ayu Mat Saat said the view that poverty leads to criminal behaviour was fraught with misconceptions and bias as well as oversimplifying a complex issue.
This, she said was because not everyone who is poor commits crime and not all crimes are committed by poor people.
She said when individuals stood in the dock, citing financial struggles as the reason for their criminal acts, it was often a tale of desperation.
“In deliberating conviction (in a legal proceeding), several issues are considered including mens rea (the intention or knowledge of wrongdoing that constitutes part of a crime), actus reus (action or conduct that is a constituent element of a crime), corpus delicti (the body of the crime) and causation.
“A person’s employment status and income are not considered. These two only apply in consideration to mitigate the penalty for law violation.
"Even motive is not considered in determining whether a crime has been committed, only questions that need to be answered are has a crime has been committed? who committed the crime? and what are the evidences?,” she told Sinar Daily.
Geshina said the narrow focus on poverty as the main driver of crime overlooked a multitude of other factors as there were various types of crime, including narcotics, violence, white-collar crime and many more which were not linked to an individual’s economic status.
“There are currently several court cases in which the suspects are managers, chief executive officers and even an ex-PM (prime minister).
“These individuals are not poor and were likely never poor to begin with when they first got involved in white-collar crimes of criminal breach of trust, abuse of power, corruption and the like.
“One way or another, the amount of money that these individuals allegedly took is far more than what many petty thieves cumulatively have stolen over time.
“For example, snatch thieves probably have to steal from many victims to even get a fraction of what corrupted officers get at one time (unless the snatch thieves were lucky enough to snatch from someone carrying a huge amount of cash at that time),” she said.
She said violent crimes like assault and murder were often fueled by emotions, mental health issues or provocation rather than financial needs.
Sexual crimes, especially those against children, stemmed from personal and disturbing motivations and not economic struggles, she added.
She said the assertion that poor parents could be desperate to feed their children to the extent that they chose to commit crimes like stealing was a problematic statement as not all poor parents did so.
"The government and non-governmental organisations (NGO) did give out welfare to deserving families from time to time provided they were registered.
“There are two other factors to consider which were that some parents do not manage their finances well and some parents apply and get financial assistance from multiple sources in such a way that they take the rights of other families in need or reduce their own efforts to obtain gainful employment as they solely depend on such financial aid (those with genuine incapabilities are excluded from this),” she said.
While poverty played a role in some criminal cases, Geshina said it was just one piece of the puzzle and oversimplifying the issue to a poverty-crime link has done a disservice to those working to address and prevent criminal behaviour.
