[lbo-talk] Low Life (was "Come friendly bombers" )

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Fri Jul 15 09:29:16 PDT 2005


----- Original Message ----- From: "Wojtek Sokolowski" <sokol at jhu.edu>


>I think your point is well taken (that also pertains to your comments about
>the unrepresentativeness of the sample). The connection between poverty
>and
>delinquency (of which terrorism is an extreme form) is a ruse devised by
>social reformers to provide ammunition for their anti-poverty programs.
>The main problem with this argument is its universalistic fallacy - or
>causally linking properties of groups (poverty) to actions of individuals
>(delinquent / violent behavior). If the claimed connection between poverty
>and delinquency were true, it would need to be demonstrated that, ceteris
>paribus, poor individuals are more likely to engage in delinquent or
>violent
>acts than non-poor individuals. Looking for explanatory factors in the
>background of individuals who committed delinquent or terrorist acts is
>based on a logical fallacy of the following form: X died, but before his
>death he was admitted to a hospital; therefore, hospital must have killed
>him.

Wojtek-- while the terrorism/poverty connection is weak in regards to who performs terrorist acts, it's pretty damn strong on who SUPPORTS it around the world.

And I think jumping this to the poverty-crime connection is also strained. Does deprivation per se cause crime-- of course not, since there is not necessarily more crime in poorer countries. But relative poverty does lead to disproportionate crime in populations, and while you can argue that it is the complicated set of social breakdowns associated with poverty, not poverty per se, that causes that disproportionate amount of crime, decreasing the poverty does ease crime since it eases those associated breakdowns.

If poverty had no causal link to those social breakdowns, it might be a spurious correlation and thus addressing poverty would have no effect on crime. But since there is an interactive link between poverty, social breakdown, and crime, addressing poverty is a useful program for fighting crime as well, not just a camoflague for general anti-poverty sentiments. Those in favor of fighting poverty may be happy to use the arguments to gain new allies who might not otherwise care about poverty, but it's a legitimate argument to make.

-- Nathan Newman



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