In a recent article from Watching The Watchers, Lee Russ concludes the following:
Poverty and violence are not, it seems, merely some abstract philosophical states that matter only in the context of some partisan discussion of economic and social policy (nor are poverty and violence unrelated to each other). There is considerable evidence indicating that both poverty and violence affect the physical and mental health of those who experience them. And if they do, is there any doubt that the rest of society is affected in various adverse ways by this impact on the poor and violence-exposed?
That conclusion interests me. He also gave some interesting evidence and cited some sources to reach it. Nonetheless, I think common-sense tells us that poverty correlates with violence. In other words, we know that poor people more often experience violence, which in turn leads to more violence and poverty.
For example, a child who leaves his poor home to try and walk to school hungry everyday only to get interrupted by gangbangers, well, that child has more of a chance of learning violence than math. He has more of a chance of turning into a drug-dealer than a college-student.
This shows not only that the prevalence of poverty causes a poverty cycle, but also that those effect even the so-called non-poor. Allowing innocent children to grow up in poverty and failing to give them adequate education leads to more violence in our society among other problems.