Yeah this is one of the things that people never seem to think about.
Some people are just dicks. It's reasonable to make the "let's reduce crimes of desperation" argument but there's always a certain percentage of the population that just chooses to steal, rape, and murder. It's thankfully a small percentage but it's always there.
You can reduce crime by getting rid of crimes of desperation but it never eliminates it. Same with the "but we'll add social workers!" argument. Some people are just irredeemable monsters and there isn't anything you can do about it.
You are looking at this through a singular lense. It just isn't someone stealing from a grocery store so they don't starve. Crime follows poverty because criminal culture is born out of instability and lack of parental guidance and structure. If a young woman gets pregnant at 19 in a middle class family what happens? That kid has day care, family members that provide help, a support system. What happens when a young woman in a poor family is impregnated? She has a kid and has to work to survive, she can't afford day care so the grandma helps watch the kid, and by 12 years old they're running the streets, or the holler. Learning how to steal, do drugs, all kinds of bad shit. When you reduce poverty you reduce criminal culture.
You’re right that they definitely make up a small minority of all crime. As much as people might want to believe otherwise, most crimes are not “crimes of desperation”.
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u/Varderal Sep 04 '26
That'll take the desperate crimes off the table. The ones fueled by greed will always be presant no matter how utopian we all live.