How Poverty Causes Crimes - Essay Example

Both theories are of great significance for designing social strategies and policies to combat crime. According to the research conducted by the United States Government Accountability Office (2007), individuals living in poverty face an increased risk of adverse outcomes such as poor health and criminal activity. American healthcare system itself can be a factor that makes people vulnerable to poverty. Among the industrial nations, U.S. is the only country that does not have a universal healthcare policy for its citizens.

Although American healthcare service is believed to be the best, the dramatic increase in cost, high drug prices, fraudulent activities, healthcare abuse, and unfair coalitions have left the system extremely fragmented. For the majority of the population hospital bills have become unaffordable. According to Marilyn Elias (2009), for some families, just one added stressor is enough to push them over the edge into violence. Although hospitals are highly equipped with the advanced technology and modern facilities, majority of people do not have the access to adequate healthcare service due the escalating cost of drugs and services.

To illustrate, the study proves that "as many as 195,000 people may well be dying in American hospitals each year because of avoidable medical errors, and as many as 1.5 million may well be misdiagnosed" (Coates 61-62). The recent economic recession has made the situation more complex. It has contributed to more frequent violence, more violent abuse, and more deadly abuse when the domestic violence already exists. For instance, there has recently been a 25 percent increase in felony-level domestic violence crimes in Rhode Island, and a three-fold increase in domestic violence related homicides in Massachusetts during the same period (Lauby and Else, 2008).

Another argument suggests that crime is being promoted by certain social