LITERATURE REVIEW

In an effort to understand the link between blue-collar crime and poverty in Felicity, a number of
sources were examined. In order for one to examine the link between crime and poverty, one
needs to analyze the various perspectives on the link between these two factors. As such, four
pieces of literature were reviewed on articles which pertained to the link between poverty and
crime.
According to Dr. Deosaran in the newspaper article No Strong Ties Between Crime and
Poverty (1995), he explains that poverty is not a direct source of crime. He also adds that there
was urgent need for an appropriate family planning policy to manage the numbers entering the
society annually. He asserts that criminal activity results from various factors. In his discussion,
he includes an impoverished social background as being one of these conditions in which the
need to survive may lead to acts of delinquency. However, he does not think that poverty in itself
induces crime. He says that poverty may be related to crime but proposes the concept of relative
deprivation as being the most likely to lead to indiscipline. Therefore, according to Dr. Deosaran,
it is not sufficiently accurate to regard poverty as the major cause of crime. As a result, this
disproves my hypothesis that poverty is the main cause of blue-collar crime in Felicity.
In the research paper, In Trinidad the rich get richer and the poor get prison. (2010) University
of the West Indies, gives a detailed analysis of crime and deviance from various professional
perspectives, including its possible causes and established effects. The authors cite a theory
called Marxist and the Conflict which is based upon the view that the fundamental causes of
crime are the social and economic forces operating within society. The Criminal Justice
establishment aims at imposing standard of morality and good behaviour created by the powerful
from have-nots who would steal from others and protecting themselves from physical attacks.
Thus, their theory is in full accordance with my hypothesis as the poor people tend to employ
themselves in crime.
In the book, Caribbean Issues Volume II No. 2. A Journal of Caribbean Affairs (1976), points
out some crimes that were committed due to lower class origins. Crimes which the authors
mentioned are the unlawful possession and praedial larceny. What surfaces from the utterances
of the courts in relation to their conception of the philosophy underlying the crime of unlawful
possession is that the police, on arresting persons on that charge, are certainly entitled to have
regard to the apparent class background of such persons. Thus approving my hypothesis in that
the courts and the police prosecuted people who come from the lower classes.
In his contribution to Contemporary Issues in Social Science: A Caribbean Perspective, Volume
2 (1995) in the essay Poverty, Crime and Public Policy, Dr. Ramesh Deosaran reinforces the
point that poverty is not a direct cause of crime. The type of crime perpetrated needs to be
specified since according to him, crime is committed by both the wealthy and the poor. Certain
crimes are likely to be committed by members of one social group than by others of another
social group. For instance, the more highly publicized crimes in society, sensational crimes
such as robberies and larceny are more likely to be committed by poverty stricken social groups.
Silent crimes such as tax evasion and financial conspiracy are more likely to be committed by
members of the upper class. Therefore, he establishes that poverty is related to a certain genre of

crimes. Even so, he says when considering the causes of crime, other factors, both social and
psychological, should also be considered. He concludes that poverty does not in itself lead to
crime, since many poor people do not commit crime and enough evidence does not exist to
postulate that the crimes committed by the poor is influenced by poverty. Hence, according to Dr.
Deosaran, poverty cannot be regarded as the main cause of crime and disproves my hypothesis.
The literature reviewed, it concludes that poverty alone is not the major cause of crime. Crime is
a result of various social, psychological and environmental factors. Nevertheless, poverty plays a
relatively insignificant role but it is not directly responsible for criminal acts.