I strongly suspect you need more than poverty or racial ghettos to get a crime epidemic. You need a culture of criminality combined with one or more criminal industries to make it a viable "career choice."
I really wish crime statistics would be broken down by apparent motive (if known). That might actually tell us something.
Why would you want to have strong suspicions on such a complex topic?
One of the reasons racial ghettos have such an effect on crime is that violence can be driven by young people who can see opportunity near them, and who believe they don’t have access to those opportunities.
Understandable don’t you think? And it doesn’t require a culture of criminality. Just visibility into a differential of access.
As a side note, I hear this “culture of criminality” idea a lot, but I haven’t seen any science around it. Can you point me in the right direction?
I really wish crime statistics would be broken down by apparent motive (if known). That might actually tell us something.