Deductive Logic and Theory Building Theory

Poverty is often a significant element influencing individuals to take on a life of crime, taking into account that organized crime leaders tend to recruit their subordinates from underprivileged environments. Poor persons have lesser options in comparison to others and gradually come to consider that committing criminal acts is the only solution they have in order to survive. From the perspective of organized crime leaders poor areas are thus perfect recruitment spots. There is a complex relationship between poverty and organized crime and by analyzing a series of organized crime communities from around the world one is likely to observe that many tend to focus on recruiting underprivileged individuals.

What the theory will address

When considering the idea of organized crime, one needs to gain a better understanding of why people resort to joining such groups in order to understand their dynamics. Many organized crime communities in the U.S. comprise large numbers of individuals who were poor (some still are) and who reached the conclusion that it is important for them to get actively involved in criminal activities in order to improve their condition. This theory is meant to focus on whether or not poverty actually plays an important role in getting people to join organized crime groups.

3. Phenomena the theory applies to The U.S. is a place where poverty and wealth interact directly and thus influences some to acknowledge that the legal actions they need to perform in order to become wealthy are too much for them and that they thus need to search for alternatives. "For African-American and Hispanic ghetto dwellers, one of their most important problems, one that confronted white ethnic immigrants decades earlier, was how to escape poverty through socially approved means when these means were virtually closed." (Kelly, Chin, & Schatzberg, 1994, p. 199) To a certain degree, these people solved their financial problems by committing criminal acts.

Poor individuals tend to have a different perspective with regard to a person who becomes a criminal because he has no other method to earn a living. Some of these people...

"Poverty provides the moral climate for organized crime in the ghetto." (Kelly, Chin, & Schatzberg, 1994, p. 199)
Mexico is a good environment for one to observe the relationship between poverty and organized crime. The country's organized crime groups are rapidly expanding as a consequence of poverty levels increasing. What is even more disturbing is that the authorities fail to acknowledge the gravity of the issue and direct most of their funds to fighting crime directly rather than to address reasons why people resort to becoming criminals. The case of sixteen-year-old Maria Celeste Mendoza is especially intriguing, considering that the young girl came to consider living a criminal life because she was pressured by the financial condition she was in. Celeste was recruited by the Zetas organized crime group, one of the most dangerous groups in Mexico and in the world, and spent two months training with the purpose of becoming a hit woman. "Celeste and the five other adolescents who attended the camp (four of whom are women) were paid 12,000 pesos a month, an amount which is more than three times as much as most Mexicans make in the same period." (Ramsey, 2011)

Mexico's organized crime groups take advantage of the wide range of individuals they can recruit and are unhesitant about targeting some of the most vulnerable. The fact that these groups observe young girls and that they are exposed to the criminal environment in the country makes it possible for them to concentrate on influencing them to accept living criminal lives. Organized crime groups practically provide underprivileged young people with the chance to understand how joining their ranks is going to significantly upgrade their position in society.

4. Proposition -- Individuals join criminal organizations because they want to be famous

Hypothesis - Poverty is the primary reason why people engage in criminal activities on behalf of criminal organizations

5. The dependent variable represents the number of individuals belonging to organized crime groups who…