12.5.1 Summarize the effects of social class on crime.
Social class has a widespread impact on our lives. Not surprisingly, it affects crime in multiple ways. One notable way is on the types of crimes people commit.
Working-class people tend to commit crimes such as robbery, theft, and assault.
Middle-class people tend to commit crimes such as fraud and tax evasion.
Upper-class people tend to commit crimes such as insider trading and high-level tax evasion and fraud.
In general, people victimize people like themselves: Working-class people rob other working people because they are the most convenient targets, whereas upper-class people embezzle from other rich people because rich people have the money (Collins 1992). Thus, victimization rates also suggest who is committing what type of crime (Figure 12.4).
The less education people have, the more likely they are to be victimized by violent crimes.
The following interactive is not accessible to keyboard and screen reader users. What follows is an explanation of what appears on the screen. A bar graph shows the victimization rate of people by violent crimes according to their education level in 2014.
In the graph, the x axis shows different levels of education and the y axis shows victimization rate (per 1,000 persons) from 0 to 25 in increments of 2.5.
The victimization rates for people of different levels of education as depicted in the graph are as follows:
•Less than high school: 24
•High school through associate degree: 21
•Bachelor’s degree: 15
•Graduate degree: 11.
In general, people with lower social standing bear a greater burden of crime victimization than people with higher social standing, especially when it comes to crimes involving force, physical threats, and threats of force, such as brandishing a gun or knife.
Despite the statistical evidence, we must use caution about interpreting the intersections of crime and social class. Even if working-class and upper-class people committed the same number of the crimes, the type of crime they commit affects the reported crime rates. Working-class crimes involving physical force, such as robbing a convenience store, are committed in the open and are usually reported to the police. More reporting then produces higher crime rates. In contrast, crimes not involving force, such as fraudulent sales practices, garner less attention and produce lower rates of victimization.