My Thoughts On Crime, Poverty and Children

Yesterday, February 7, 2008, New Orleans had its 21st murder of the year. At this rate, New Orleans will have over 200 murders by the end of the year. This article and the comments found on the page, got me thinking about the causes of crime and long term poverty. In my criminal justice classes, we were taught (and statistics still show) that the vast majority of crime is committed by those located in the lowest socio-economic strata of our society (the poor). Another statistic is those born and/or raised in poverty are more likely to remain poor. Yet another statistic is, the more children a poor person has, the more likely they are to remain poor. Another statistic I remember seeing is the poorer you are, the more likely you are to have more kids. This becomes a vicious cycle. A factor that helps break this cycle is having two parents in the home. Poor children from two parent homes are more likely to become better off than their parents.

Here are some ideas I had:

1. Bring back orphanages – At one time, people who could not take care of their children would take them to an orphanage. If the child was not adopted, and they got to where they could take care of the child, the parents could get the child back. It was not the best environment, but it was a safe one. My mother was raised in an orphanage from the time she was 11 til she was 18. She was not abused and was well taken care of. She also learned the values to keep herself out of poverty.
2. Offer free sterilization – This would keep down the number of unwanted children. And, if the person later decides they want children, they can adopt. There are plenty of unwanted/neglected children in the world to adopt.
3. Offer to pay people to sterlize themselves – This would have an income cap (basically, if you could afford to pay for it yourself you don’t get paid). Offer $5,000-$10,000 for these people to have themselves sterilized. This would help break the cycle of poverty and they could adopt later, if they wanted to.
4. Pay kids for good grades – This could be done in conjunction with corporate sponsorships. This would help kids realize the quickest route to success in this world is a good education. The better you do in school, the better your income. Most urban youth who are stuck in the cycle of poverty do not see education as the way out. They see three ways of obtaining success:
   A. Sports – Let’s face it, the odds of a successful sports career are slim.
   B. Fame as a musician or actor – the odds of making it this way are even slimmer.
   C. Crime – This is the route to many take. They see those slightly older than themselves making money through dealing drugs and other activities and think they can do the same.

These are the solutions that take the easy route. Would they work? Most likely, no. The other route is much harder and takes longer, but it has a much better chance of long term success (if you can get people behind it). This solution requires changing the society and culture of the poor. You have to make it societally unacceptable to have a large amount of children, children when you are to young and children you can’t support. You have to raise the value of an education above that of sports or entertainment fame. You have to teach the people to value and respect themselves and their community. You have to make it where the children do not tolerate people who break the law. Those who do break the law must be ostracized by the community and their families.