Crime and Poverty

Scotland's criminal justice system punishes poorer people and makes it difficult for them to escape poverty, according to an academicstudy by University of Edinburgh researchers. Report author Prof Lesley McAra said: "Our findings highlight a very destructive dynamic - poverty increases the risks of violence. Contact with juvenile justice system increases the risks associated with poverty. As a result, contact with the very agencies meant to stop offending is inadvertently reproducing the conditions in which violence can flourish."

It found children from deprived backgrounds were twice as likely to face police action than better off children who commit the same crime. Living in poverty also increased the likelihood of violence among both boys and girls. Poorer young people were also about five times more likely to be placed on statutory supervision than their better-off counterparts. They found that a history of being in trouble with the police was the strongest predictor of whether a young person was not in education, employment or training by age 18.

Household poverty was identified as an exacerbating factor that increased the likelihood of young people offending. This was the case even when a range of other risk factors have been taken into account, the researchers said. They found that people who lived in extreme poverty were much more likely to be the victims - and perpetrators - of crime. Girls from poorer backgrounds were twice as likely as girls from more affluent households to be involved in violent crime, the authors said. This was the case even after other factors - such as truancy, substance abuse and poor parental supervision - were taken into account.

 Another study by Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) Research Centre - also based at the University of Edinburgh's Law School - suggested that victims experiencing the most crime continued to be within the most deprived communities. Half of the communities with the highest crime rates were found in the top 20% of areas with the highest levels of chronic health problems, the report showed. A third of the communities with the highest rates of crime were in the top 20% of areas with the highest levels of unemployment.

Lead researcher Prof Susan McVie said: "The findings are important as they suggest that crime tends to be highly concentrated amongst poor people and within poor neighbourhoods, and this has not changed despite crime being at its lowest level for decades.”