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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
This doesn't address Sheena's points, about corporate employers routinely violating labor laws en masse, hiring illegal workers, etc. Those are crimes, too. It doesn't address the case of banks cheating their customers, as Wells Fargo did. There are many more examples. Economic theory is one thing. Reality is quite another. The "opportunity cost" theory seems to address only a certain class of crime, but not others.
The opportunity cost concept works in those situations as well. The reality is, those "white collar" crimes have very low punishment and very low odds of being caught/persecuted, and the punishments are almost always financial (which can often be charged against) and not about personal liberty, so the cost benefit decision is skewed toward doing the crime.
1. The point is rich people are less likely to commit crime regardless of race, and poor people are more likely to commit crime regardless of race.
2. It is a much easier case to make that the advent of antibiotics or vaccines were the greatest good ever invented in the history of humans but you are of course welcome to your opinion. But make no mistake, it is an opinion (vs. the factual nature of some of your other points) and other opinions about the evils of corporations are equally valid.
Hsieh, Ching-Chi, and Meredith D. Pugh. "Poverty, income inequality, and violent crime: a meta-analysis of recent aggregate data studies." Criminal justice review 18, no. 2 (1993): 182-202.
Nivette, Amy E. "Cross-national predictors of crime: A meta-analysis." Homicide Studies 15, no. 2 (2011): 103-131.
Pratt, Travis C., and Francis T. Cullen. "Assessing macro-level predictors and theories of crime: A meta-analysis." Crime and justice 32 (2005): 373-450.
Hsieh, Ching-Chi, and Meredith D. Pugh. "Poverty, income inequality, and violent crime: a meta-analysis of recent aggregate data studies." Criminal justice review 18, no. 2 (1993): 182-202.
Nivette, Amy E. "Cross-national predictors of crime: A meta-analysis." Homicide Studies 15, no. 2 (2011): 103-131.
Pratt, Travis C., and Francis T. Cullen. "Assessing macro-level predictors and theories of crime: A meta-analysis." Crime and justice 32 (2005): 373-450.
Oh, so your statement was about violent crime, only? This entire digression was in response to this post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12;
Poor people are more likely to commit crimes involving relatively small amounts of cash and property. Rich people are more likely to commit white collar crimes such as extortion, embezzlement, and other corporate crimes.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 09-05-2018 at 03:10 AM..
The opportunity cost concept works in those situations as well. The reality is, those "white collar" crimes have very low punishment and very low odds of being caught/persecuted, and the punishments are almost always financial (which can often be charged against) and not about personal liberty, so the cost benefit decision is skewed toward doing the crime.
Then this does refute the statement that rich people are less likely to commit crime due to the opportunity cost.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SportyandMisty;
Economics teaches us that rich people are more likely NOT to commit crime in part because the marginal value of their time is quite high.
"The point is rich people are less likely to commit crime regardless of race, and poor people are more likely to commit crime regardless of race."
And it was not in relation to Sheena, but Sporty Misty something or other.
Yes, I quoted her (him?), too. But that post was broadly about crime in general, while yours was specific to violent crime. So yours didn't refute or support her statement, as it was too narrowly focussed. And her statement didn't refute Sheena's contention that all socio-economic levels commit crimes.
Yes, I quoted her (him?), too. But that post was broadly about crime in general, while yours was specific to violent crime. So yours didn't refute or support her statement, as it was too narrowly focussed. And her statement didn't refute Sheena's contention that all socio-economic levels commit crimes.
I was talking about crime in general. I am not sure where you think I mentioned violent crime only.
WRT the studies I posted, the first meta focused on homicide, the second included burglary and other nonviolent crimes.
I am not sure why you think I am only allowed to either agree with one poster or another. Sporty whatever is not technically wrong that there is a correlation between socioeconomic status and crime (both participation and victimization but that is for another threat I suppose) but I disagree with her supposition that it is somehow causal to opportunity cost. In fact opportunity cost often makes crime for economic reasons less likely in poorer neighborhoods, but that would also be for another thread.
After first asserting that the wealthy refrain from crime merely because they do not deem it a worthy endeavor from a cost-benefits point of view, you then assert that Madoff committed crimes because he lacks empathy.
No, I never asserted that Madoff committed crimes because he lacks empathy.
According to some psychologists, quite a few rich people, i.e. industry CEO's, are sociopaths. They observe that successfully climbing the corporate ladder rewards the sociopathic types.
Sadly, that's a far too common misperception among people who have never achieved corporate success; it is based on a caricature of someone lighting their cigars with $100 bills.
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