Low-income Communities and Crime

     The goal of this blog is to explore the issues that link low-income communities with abnormally high crime rates. This has always been a persistent problem in America; however, with the worse economic times since the great depression and soaring unemployment rates more people are being forced into low-income communities with no possibility of obtaining upward mobility. According to Yen and Sidoti (2010), in the article, US Poverty on Track to Post Record Gain in 2009, the projected poverty rate for 2009 are expected to jump from 13.2 percent to 15 percent. This means that more than 45 million Americans will be below the poverty rate of $22,025 for a family of four (Yen & Sidoti, 2010). This increased poverty rate places more emphasis on reducing the level of crime in low-income communities allowing families to have a better quality of life and more upward mobility.

     As more Americans fall below the poverty rate and low-income communities grow, the growing issue of crime needs to be addressed. Detroit Michigan has become one of America’s most dangerous cities with over 306 murders, 6,115 robberies, and 10,677 assaults per 100,000 citizens in 2008 (citydata.com, 2010). The city has an average household income of $28,730 which is just over the poverty rate and an unemployment rate of 13.8 percent (citydata.com, 2010). This average is probably not accurate because a large majority of the city’s population has an income far less than the poverty rate.

     To fix these problems, many different areas of the community need to be addressed. Addressing problems in education is critical to improving low-income communities and reducing crime. According to President Obama, “not long ago you could drop out of high school and reasonably expect to find a blue-collar job that would pay the bills and help support your family.  That's just not the case anymore (Miller, 2010).” For many of these dropouts crime is the only way to survive. Developing more community involvement, such as improving neighborhood watch programs and involving community members with the local government decision making process also needs to be improved. Additionally the quality and type of police services need to be improved in low-income communities.  Police need to be given more resources in order to build stronger connections with the people they serve. In crime ridden Oakland California, 80 police officers over ten percent of the city’s police force were laid off (Collins, 2010). There is no way the police can provide any sort of community policing services with cuts like that.  These and many other issues which are important to improving the crime problems in low-income communities will be explored in-depth with future posts.

References

Yen, H. & Sidoti, L. (2010, September 11). US Poverty on Track to Post Record Gain in 2009. Associated Press. Retrieved September 12, 2010, from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100911/ap_on_bi_ge/us_poverty_in_america

Detroit Michigan (2010). Review September 12, 2010, from http://www.city-data.com/city/Detroit-Michigan.html

Miller, S. (2010, March 1). Obama Tackles High Dropout Rates Targets ‘Chronically Troubled’ Schools. ABC News. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/obama-tackles-high-dropout-rates-targets-chronically-troubled-schools-.html

Collins, T. (2010, July 13). Oakland Cuts Police Force 10%. Daily Breeze. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://www.dailybreeze.com/latestnews/ci_15511236